"Self recommendations should apply to far more things in life. I'd like to recommend the cup of tea I just made and I'd give the bacon sandwich 2 if I could. I'd report my hangover for abuse and I'd like to see my job get a lifetime ban".
"I must make the effort and try to find my phone which I haven't seen since boxing day(ish) - I may be gone some time... Well that was much easier than expected - it was beside a decaying pineapple... I really ought to have been able to smell a decaying pineapple under my bed - I put it down to a combination of 50 years of indulgent smoking and over exuberance on boxing day".
" .. numberthree only started posting a few days ago, and his first post was nicked from these threads. He's now posted 11 times, and 7 of those were deleted!"
Yes, that's not so much a thought for the day as a random collection of words to make up the count with a "Will this do?" slapped on the end, which the sub had the grace to delete.
However:
A survey by Brigham Young University in Utah has shown that couples who abstain from sex before marriage rate their marriages as more rewarding than those who don't.
Isn't that a bit like someone eating their first plate of fish and chips and declaring: "These are the best fish and chips anywhere!"
But you've never eaten fish and chips before.
"These are still the best. You cannot get better than these. I am completely and totally happy with these. They are the best. Yum yum. Mmm-mmmm."
Isn't this just the happiness of the unimaginative, inept, incapable and socially detached when presented with something they never thought they would be able to achieve?
Actually, isn't Brigham Young University the mind-control arm of some cult?
BYU is the Mormon's University, Atomboy. So, you say tomato...
Have fulfilled first of resolutions by managing a blogpost (next up, finish book, give up smoking - the first may need to be done before the second can be attempted) - here (based on the TAM Commandments thingy I've put up on Waddya...)
BYU is the Mormon's University, Atomboy. So, you say tomato...
Oh, yes, quite so.
I was making the observation in a very general, secular and inclusive sense.
Whenever people gather together in numbers beyond about two, with something in the way of a common purpose, [Is that an oblique reference to the political cult? - Ed] they are basically on a course which will include propaganda, attempts at brainwashing and mind-control, manipulative inclusion and scapegoating techniques, suppression of inconvenient truths and an overweening desire to protect the group above everything else.
It could be reduced to the purest form in The Global Cult of Me or operate on a slightly larger scale in the form of UT or Dribbly or the Neo Nasties or the MG Car Club or the Lady Gaga Fan Club or Great Britain (Temporarily Out of Order) or Americatastrophe.
The world is pretty much a collection of cults.
[Sorry, that is not meant to cause offence to cunts].
Will the condems still be in power in a year's time do you think?
About two years before the election, I predicted - though obviously not in the same league as Mystic Bruhaha - that the government following New Labour (which we all assumed would be a pukka, true-blue Tory affair, without the yellow streak of the LibDems smeared up its back) would be the most hated in living memory - obviously, after New Labour, so basically in second place - and would not serve a full term in office.
Obviously, they could scrape through five years.
They would just have to kill everyone to achieve it.
Thanks to Montana for keeping this place going - it is a really wonderful place to hang out and I have made some true friends among these pages.
And thanks to you all for making my life a pleasure - I look forward to catching up on everyone's news, discussing the important things in life as well as the silly, trivial and hilarious things. Without everyone here, this would not be possible.
BB - slightly off the point (as ever) but - were you a lawyer in france? or was that only after you went back blighty-side? know that the french code is v different from E&W, just wondering if you were familiar...
Thanks Phil, now you've mentioned Biddy's latest Atrocity For The Day, I felt duty-bound to check it out. And errr...wow that's cack. About 10 words long and saying nothing much in particular.
If nothing else, the Biddy-Penny CiF generation have this thing down to a fine art. Biddy's article shows two things. First, for £85 you serve up whatever comes off the top of your head or drops out of a bodily orifice. One hour or less. No point in being a fool about it. Second, you stick unfailingly to the formula - antagonistic comment-bait.
Biddy doesn't know about marriage (careful, that's the kind of talk that got m'Lud Summerisle banned) and patently from the article doesn't care about it either. She seems to have started the year with an absolute speculative punt as to just how woeful, sloppy and trite she can be - within formulaic limits - and still get her £85. This doesn't bode well.
I also detect generally that Hanman is beginning to twig that her readership isn't drawn in by the scented candlelight of her cosy middle-class feminist rolfing group, as she once thought, but by the sounds of ludicrousness (Campbell, Harker, Gold etc) and baiting (Bindel, Biddy, Brown, Monbiot etc). People prefer something that they can give a good kicking to.
Toynbee meanwhile seems intent on xeroxing the same article twice weekly for the next 4 years. It really is time to put her out to grass.
Happy new year to everyone, and especially Montana and Joe.
2010 was a shitter from a work point of view, but pretty good from a personal perspective, and that includes this place and the excellent meet-ups. Thanks to all for letting me moan.
The only issue I would take with any of that is the idea that the CiF stars are on the same pay-scale as the scum. [Surely, you mean those shrewd and enterprising go-getters wanting to gain a foothold in the old writing game? - Ed].
I would not imagine BiBuBiBu or The Bad Penny - now that she has dropped on her feet and into the money - would get out of bed for 85 nicker.
I would guess that anyone with BA Oxon/Cam to their name is not going to write articles for £85. I would reckon Polly gets somewhere between £500-1000 per article. Even young arrivistes like Laurie Penny probably earn a couple of hundred.
Looks like others have already said this, but oh well.
prediction for the match, in case james is around - city currently 1-0 up, with tevez havingg just missed a penalty, 5 mins to play in first half:
blackpool will score on the stroke of half-time to equalise, city will boss the game but fail to finish anything, mancini will bring on viera who will have at least one 'senior moment' leading to goal 2 for the visitors, and one or more of our backline will need hospitalisation after tripping over a colleague.
Haven't had a look at cif since before I went away - think it might be my solitary resolution never to set foot in the place again - especially if they're inviting La Bid to conjure a few words about marriage hung on a hook supplied by Mormons. Jesus wept! What a combination and actually paid £85 for it...!! Pass me a bucket...
I have had not so much a hair of the dog now as the whole bloody pelt. Hic!
Just having a really bizarre moment atm. My lad, in his true geek style, wants to watch national geographic air crash investigations - fair enough.
One of my husband's friends, and a very clever and lovely woman called Helen Muir, died this year of cancer. And out of all the shows that could be on, it is one about evacuating burning aircraft, which is what she was involved in. And there she is on the telly.
Raising a glass to the wonderful Helen who nobody has probably ever heard of, but who has possibly saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people now and in the future...
Thaum, I wouldn't put Monbiot in with the others on the basis of quality, but of effect. He's there to rattle cages and does a sterling job. They could have just left him to one side in Guardian Environment - where he would have avoided much of the bile and (as he believes) astroturfing - but they didn't. That's why Seaton co-opted him.
As for Biddy and Penny, they're contributors. The Graun is still hemorrhaging money, so they're not going to pay over the odds to any freelancers just to fill cyberspace. If an article appears in the deadwood Graun - perhaps someone could tell me if Penny or Biddy ever make to there - then they'll be paid the standard rate for that (a guesstimate would be 300-400). But the online stuff? That's two bob and a bag of chips if you're lucky. Unfortunately, pay peanuts and eventually you get monkeys. You pay two bob and you get two bob's worth of thought. Though For The Day etc, really is beer and fag money on a slow day.
CiF works for various people. The young tyros coming in to make a name for themselves, full of literary vim and spunk. The lifelong Graun readers who get themselves 'published in the Guardian' as they tell their mates (the shiny 'C' means validation for the contributor and that the poor bastard will post his heart out for a whole year and contribute countless page hits for the Guardian). Single issue zealots, who are just looking for a platform (Peta etc.).
Charles, Polly's on staff, so she's not paid on a per article basis. I seem to remember that she coughed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago.
But for the Biddies and Pennys, it's a lowly first step, that gives them the visibility to move onto better paying gigs - the New Statesman, Sky News, Radio 4 etc. That's its value to them. But the Graun ain't going to pay them shit for stuff that appears solely online. They haven't got the money.
Thaum, I wouldn't put Monbiot in with the others on the basis of quality, but of effect. He's there to rattle cages and does a sterling job. They could have just left him to one side in Guardian Environment - where he would have avoided much of the bile and (as he believes) astroturfing - but they didn't. That's why Seaton co-opted him.
As for Biddy and Penny, they're contributors. The Graun is still hemorrhaging money, so they're not going to pay over the odds to any freelancers just to fill cyberspace. If an article appears in the deadwood Graun - perhaps someone could tell me if Penny or Biddy ever make to there - then they'll be paid the standard rate for that (300-400 a shot as a guesstimate). But the online stuff? That's two bob and a bag of chips if you're lucky. Unfortunately, pay peanuts and eventually you get monkeys. You pay two bob and you get two bob's worth of thought. Thought For The Day etc, really is beer and fag money on a slow day.
Charles, Polly is on staff, so she doesn't get paid by the article. I seem to remember that she fessed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago.
CiF works for various people. The young tyros coming in to make a name for themselves, full of literary vim and spunk. The lifelong Graun readers who get themselves 'published in the Guardian' as they tell their mates (the shiny 'C' means validation for the contributor and that the poor bastard will post his heart out for a whole year and contribute countless page hits for the Guardian). Single issue zealots, who are just looking for a platform (Peta etc.).
But for the Biddies and Pennys, a couple of years at the game, it's a lowly first step, one that gives them the visibility to move onto better paying gigs - the New Statesman, Sky News, Radio 4 etc. The visibility and currency that it gives them is its value to them. But the Graun ain't going to pay them shit. They haven't got the money.
Happy New Year Everyone. A bit foggy in the heed this morning but brekky and a walk should help.
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy this place and also thank Montana for her efforts.
Philippa--Not sure about your pessimism re City. Years of conditioning maybe? They look a pretty solid side despite the squabbles and backroom bickering. Oh and United were rather fortunate today after a poor performance. Neville should have seen red and he is long past it. Suppose they need numbers in the squad at the moment though.
Hope you are right about shit money for shit work.
Meanwhile, The Archbishop of Cadbury, Rowan Andmartinslaughin says that Dave 1 was right all along and the Big Society is just the Bible (Broekn British kitemark approved) prophesies for the internet and austerity age.
"When we try to make sense of our lives and of who we really are, it helps to have a strongly defined story, a big picture of some kind in the background. As the King James Bible took hold of the imaginations of millions of people in the English-speaking world, it gave them just that - a big picture, a story in which their lives made sense.
"Whether you're a Christian or belong to another religion, or whether you have nothing you'd want to call a religion at all, some sort of big picture matters.
"If we are going to talk about a 'Big Society' that will need a big picture, a picture of what human beings are really like and why they're so unique and precious."
Maybe he's been nobbled over some dodgy pics.
Still, it seems Polly was almost right (6/10 tick vg) with her big story/collective narrative hogwash from the NewLab years.
Does the precious bit mean cutesy and contrived or hissy and evil, though?
Are we supposed to aim for being Guardianistas or Gollums?
"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false! "
boudican - think 'hubris' is a better word. at least, if i expect the worst, then saving a point looks like a victory - hehehehehe. they are all over 'em, i just fear...at least have got stats dashboard up and working again.
Spurs won which is a good start to the year.Not so good was a fight outside our flats which ended up with a stabbing which thankfully wasn't fatal.Big police presence here all day.
On a cheerier note here's a track i heard earlier from Bryan Ferry
Good tune Paul. Must say too, well done to Spurs. Battling hard with 10 men in recent games shows good resilience. They also play a very entertaining and attacking style. Good to watch.
Spurs are playing well at the moment.Still prone to certain inconsistancies and weaknesses which we need to address if we want to remain a permanent fixture in the top 4 of the Premier League.Fans also a bit uneasy about what'll happen if Harry moves on.But all in all i give us 7 out of 10 for our overall performance in the season so far.
Eddie "Charles, Polly is on staff, so she doesn't get paid by the article. I seem to remember that she fessed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago."
Which divided by 3 articles a week (at max)or 150 a year is £800 an article.
Very good portrayal of the young arrivistes who write for the Guardian :)
As for myself, well obviously no it is not something I intened to get money out of, and I've never even written a full article, only on the people's panels (and now they don't give out C's to PP contributors). But if I got a few articles, even if I didn't get paid, at least it would look good on my CV and I might be able to start applying for jobs more advanced than at Mcdonalds and office cleaners. Yes, I may well be an arriviste, I may well want a better situation for myself, and writing for teh Graun is one of the means to that end.
To be fair I've not been writing anything, keeping up to date with current affairs or maintaining my blog, far too busy these days, doing my OU work, practising my teaching in preparation for going to Russia.
Anyway, watching the neujahrskonzert on BBC4. (cue time for a snide remark about ambassadors and well heeled opera lovers) Ah Vienna! When I was there last year (well 2009 actually) I stayed in a youth hostel in the grounds of a palace on a hill overlooking hte city. herehttp://www.hostel.at/en/?id=shb Fabulous city. Beautiful art. My last two profile images on cif have come from the kunsthistoriches museum.
"on a cheerier note here's a track I heard earlier from Bryan Ferry..."
The only note from Bryan Ferry that would cheer me up would be his suicide note. One that included the line that he was driven to it by guilt about betraying his coalmining father who hadn't worked his bollocks off just so that Bry could strike it lucky at art school, marry an heiress and spawn a fox-hunting floppy-haired right-wing twat called, of all things, Otis.
Happy new year to all plus Montana for maintaining this site.
Annetan42, you ask about the Condems, I read a forecast that suggested that they would not survive in their current form but would re-convene as Orange Book Libs plus others. I read it here {suffering from lazyitis}
The Coalition will fall. Not because of protest, not because of unpopularity but because everytime it tries to do something serious a bit falls off the machine. If they don't get AV and Vince Cable does not get radical banking reform, then by the time the public sector job losses are eating into their popularity, around party conference time, the Libdems will call it a day. Even more audaciously I will predict the outcome: no election but a Second Coalition to be formed between the Conservatives, an inner core of Orange Book Libdem leaders and various Unionists, with a slim majority. One or two Labour rightwingers, disgruntled by Ed Miliband, may also be tempted to join. Cameron will face down the Conservative right and embrace Coalition government as a modus operandi until 2015. Labour, locked in a policy review process and possibly still reeling from (8) above, will avoid an election.
Paul Mason knows shit. He's a BBC hack who swaps ideas with Rawnsley and Glover.
Like them, he's got no insight and no vision.
The AV vote will mean fuck all.
Constitutionally speaking, it's of less importance than the idea of 5 year fixed parliamentary terms, which have just been accepted without comment by the Graun and the rest of the political writers.
So you can have a five year fixed term, regardless of the fact that you can't muster a majority for anything that was, or more to the point wasn't, in your manifesto?
How does that work? And why aren't people angry about it?
A government that has a five year term despite the lack of a mandate, or a parliamentary majority, and which blatantly lied about its intentions prior to being elected.
Why not go the whole fucking hog and bring in an Enabling Act?
It's a fucking helluva shame that these questions aren't being debated properly on Cif, which did once have the scope for intelligent debate, before it got hijacked by liberal lightweights with pleasant personae and empty heads.
Is that the same Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music who Bracken thought should be awarded Knights of the Baby's Bathwater and Orders of the Broekn British Empire Stores for services to music?
Didn't he want Mr Ferry to be made Viceroy of some heathen sand country, with full rights to mineral deposits and full dominion over all the creatures which crept over the land or swam in the sea or flapped and twirled through the firmament?
Good to see you popping by, mate.
Actually, this now springs to mind for some reason....
ARTIST: Gilbert and Sullivan TITLE: I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General Lyrics
[Pirates of Penzance]
I am the very model of a modern Major-General I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus I know the scientific names of beings animalculous In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral He is the very model of a modern Major-General
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral He is the very model of a modern Major-General
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin" When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral I am the very model of a modern Major-General
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral He is the very model of a modern Major-General
@IanG - the AV vote is already lost. Who cares anyway, one way or the other, whether we elect our MPs proportionally or not.
There's a bigger question to be asked about constitutional politics, which is, where did this idea come from that we will have 5 year fixed term parliaments?
Why the fuck should we have 5 years of a government in power that rules by shoddy coalition? Why should we have 5 years of a government that couldn't obtain a majority, and lied so blatantly in its manifestos?
Bring in five year fixed terms for coalition governments and you might as well bring in an Enabling Act at the same time.
It's amazing, but not surprising, that this crucial issue has passed without comment on Cif, with its collection of airhead liberals who know nothing of politics or history.
*LONDON SPENDING CUTS RALLY MARCH 26TH March for the Alternative: 26 March 2011
For those who didn't already know, the TUC is organising a national march against the cuts on March 26th 2011.
Arrive 11AM Victoria Embankment for March to Hyde Park.
If anyone's planning coming down from North England to the demo in London on March 26th, welcome to crash at our gaf the night before. Will be getting the train down on the Saturday morning
Info here http://www.tuc.org.uk/alltogetherfor/march.cfm?theme=alltogether
Posters here http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/MARCH_A4_POSTER_low_res.pdf
I don't know what Bracken had to say about Bryan Ferry, or the honours system. I'm really not interested in Bracken, or Ferry, or the honours system.
Other than to say that it's so fucking typical of the New Labourites to think that the honours system matters, and that Bracken should have perfected the art of walking backwards while kissing arse.
Hello everyone and best wishes for a happy new year to all.
I was trying to come up with some highlights from last year but apart from the meets with some of you guys in Sheffield and Northampton and London I couldn't think of many.
I'd love to be optimistic about 2011 but the signs ain't good are they?
Anyway here's a choon which I think sums up a lot of people's despair:
just watching Pilger's programm "The War you don't see"
for those interested being podcast on itv until 14th jan
really worth seeing especially chief editors of news for BBC and ITV squirming when pilger confronts them about complicity with government propoganda machine........
@Liam I've met quite a few posters on here in person, and I have to say, certainly in at least in a couple of instances, it would be harder to find people more down to earth, committed to social change, and who still occasionally involve themslves in activism. People utterly free of the platitude or condescension that acompanies middle class liberal guilt , much less weighed down with any trendy but bone-headed dogma.
I'm as much, if not more, of an armchair revolutionary as most people who got their arses slung off CiF, but am happy to put people if it helps make the demo in London. I think this demo is important.
We'll probably have a right bloody good pissup afterwards too. Back of the net.
"assymetric threat" is the new buzz word from asst secretary of state whitman......to describe collectively WMD's, terrorists, internet "terrorism" (aka wikileaks)and most probably anyone that doesn't agree with us/ western foreign policy anywhere in the world.......
I'm really not interested in the post-demo piss up.
It matters a little bit more to me than that.
I care. If it didn't come across that I don't fucking care much at all about the likes of BB and hermione and the other fucking bourgeois guardianistas who have a lot to say but don't really care...
my sis who works in local education told me about a school that requested to close down during the cold weather not because there was no power, no heating, no cooking facilities, kids not being able to get to school.........but because the kids were arriving by foot to school wearing flip flops and t-shirts because their families couldn't afford clothes......
guess where the school is.......... yep in tory guardianista territory SURREY......
Hank, I didn't realise you were Liam, else I might have spelt it out a bit clearer that you are one of the people I've met through this place I thoroughly respect.
But don't ring me at home at near midnight just to call me a fucking liar. Out of order mate.
My only experience of Surrey was a couple of days in Dorking in 1980 (long story). It didn't strike me as particularly posh.
Our school district collects donations of clothing all the time. Kids who need coats, boots, whatever, know what room the stuff is kept in and they're free to get whatever they need, whenever.
The head teacher of this school, ofsteded and under special measures has made great progress particularly with parents, who, when she arrived didn't even go into the school, most are/were illiterate, she runs community based projects for parents and their children well outside her remit as headteacher. All the 80 kids at the school live on one of the worse estates in the county. I doubt anyone on the estate has old clothes to hand down and the families in the area that do no doubt don't go within a ten mile radius of the place.....
But I have to say that it's all of a fucking piece...
Cif and the UT is chock full of big-mouthed cowards, and bleeding heart fucking liberals...
I've spoken to loads of you and met some and the more I speak to you and the more I meet the more I realise how many fucking hypocrites there are amongst you.
I'll spare the blushes of most of you.
I have enjoyed meeting some of you, especially MF, Thauma and MsChin. PCC and Speedkermit too.
So many people here genuinely like and respect you Hank and yet in return you treat them like cunts.Don't undertand you at all but Happy New Year anyway!
I'll check out the new Wallander as soon as I can, Gandolfo. (The boy needs feeding soon, have to figure out what it's going to be.)
Shame that people who could help that school won't do it. Which is precisely why state intervention is needed.
It was one thing I could never understand in Seattle -- schools received funding that was proportional to the tax base in their immediate neighbourhood, so schools in wealthy neighbourhoods got more money per pupil than schools in poor neighbourhoods. Always seemed to me that it should have been the exact opposite -- more funding should have gone to the schools where the need was greatest.
surely the fact that kids going to school in flip flops and t-shirts in freezing conditions in one of the richest countries in the world is an abomination....that they should have to rely on the charity of others is fucking disgraceful......all of us should be fucking outraged rather than "accepting" it as part of our societies.....jeeze as a minimum kids should have money for clothes to go to school in and not having to accept hand me downs as the only option .....next there'll be the friggin poor houses........big society my arse
Agreed re. children. Whatever the causeeir poverty and deprivation this is wrong and totally unnacceptable. Things are going to get worse - are the teachers' unions in this ? they should be shouting this from the rooftops and demanding action. Union members should be insisting that they do so.
Single cause cudgel bearing is not going to solve our problems -we have to get to the roots of the systems which are causing this and to the people who are ignoring their basic responsibilities to the people of this country.
"You're just pissed up and angry about your life."
And you're not, Habib?
You and others piss your lives away and somehow get to feel superior just because you do what? You get to exercise your democratic rights and speak whatever passes for your brainz on the interwebz.
You, Paul and BB will get to huddle together and blow raspberries at me. And I'll survive. Somehow.
indeed...... i don't remember what part...imagine it's around esher, dorking.......i'll ask her the next time i speak to her...nor have i any idea what the unions are doing.....
A demonstration of this size will need a large number of good confident stewards.
Our plan is to have three types of steward: • 200-300 senior stewards: we would expect these to attend one of two training events in advance. We are asking TUC unions at a national level to nominate these, and will shortly be writing to unions about this. • 500+ stewards: we would expect these to attend a regional briefing event. We will be recruiting these through TUC regional offices. • Transport stewards we will ask each coach or group of people travelling to London to nominate a steward in advance, via the TUC website. We will provide written briefing in advance and ask them to provide a mobile number so we can keep them in touch by text with any developments.
----------------
The info needs to go out to the general public - including the unemployed who have lost union membership - a very bad move by the unions.
Dunno if you like Anita Baker but she's teamed up with Fourplay and released a CD which has had some good reviews.Here's a track from it.Nice chilled late night music.See what you think.
Ha, yeh right. The same hermione who supported the coalition govt until she realised that te tide was turning against the coalition govt, at which point she jumped on every thread with meaningless one-liners "attacking" the coalition govt.
How the fuck is your mate hermione worth ten of me?
Oh, I certainly didn't mean to imply that anyone should accept things the way they are. I'd much prefer that the charity not be necessary and, yes, it is obscene that in a couple of the wealthiest nations in the world there are children going to school in inadequate clothing in the dead of winter because their parents can't afford to buy them what they need.
I guess I should have made clearer the fact that, while it's a fucking shame that our district needs to make clothes available for kids that don't have them, I'm proud that our district makes the effort and, moreover, tries to do it in a way that doesn't humiliate the kids.
So many good intentions only to end up with so much dross.
Not your fault at all but a very revealing example of how the internet is the lowest common denominator of democracy.
We used to have some good times here. We used to have some interesting posters and some interesting debates.
Unfortunately, just like Cif, we got democratised, and the lunatics took over the asylum.
I scrolled through seven days of the UT earlier and it pretty much amounted to BB's every waking thought, none of which was worth saying out loud, let alone sending into cyberspace.
The "hermione" issue, likewise, is a touchstone for me.
Those who support her or defend her cannot see that she represents all that is wrong about online debate, given that she has no principles or values but is only interested in popularity.
Those who support her on here or over there are, by definition, shallow. They are playing the same game as she is.
I despise them all.
Politics is far more important than a popularity contest.
For the same reason, I have never understood those who have a foot in both the waddya camp and this one.
I can only assume that it's just a game to those who do so.
Politics matters, and economics is about to matter a lot to a lot of people. Those who treat it as just a game are beneath contempt.
Habib's right you are a wanker.A wanker who's so far up his own backside that he's incapable of even considering the possibility that he may be wrong.
In my experience people-both Black and White-who are quick to use the term 'coconut' are those who have a fascist intolerance of anyone who disagrees with them.And yet as i pointed out upthread your use of the word 'coconut' does raise a substantive point which you failed to address.Namely where would Black people stand if there were no identity politics to at least give them some semblance of promoting their interests.
You and some of your fans here on the UT have consistantly dismissed identity politics which you claim get in the way of the real isssue which is classs.And in theory i agree with you .But i also live in the real world and whilst i recognize the many flaws in identity politics i still think they are needed in principle.Because i for one am not prepared to accept a White-dominated society of whatever political hue where i am accused of being a 'coconut' when i'm being friendly with White people and an 'angry Black man' when i'm not.I want something better than that.
Identity politics in its current form has certainly caused some problems.One of which is that in some ways White working class people have been driven to the bottom of the pile in British society.However if we were to drop identity politics altogether and do things your way there would still be enormous potential for Black people to feel both marginalised and excluded.Something you demonstrated upthread.
Still about an hour before it's actually 2011 here.
ReplyDeleteMay you all have a happy, healthy year. Thank you all for making this such a fun and special part of my days.
Happy New Year to Montana and Joe Wildhack.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Montana. Thanks for keeping this thing going into its second year.
ReplyDeleteTune for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnrYkqXi21o
Two more...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmBpH5ibo0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6N1VRV1PQo
One more. Chas and Dave. If you don't like it I'm so sorry ;-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkt8E2Ul-Xw
More for Montana
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vK7jitvJXI
PS Thanks to various other people for rocking these links up in the first place. Great year on the UT for music, that was... %-)
ReplyDeleteA very Happy New Year to Montana & Joe Wildhack!
ReplyDeleteReflections on CiF from February 2009:
ReplyDelete"Self recommendations should apply to far more things in life. I'd like to recommend the cup of tea I just made and I'd give the bacon sandwich 2 if I could. I'd report my hangover for abuse and I'd like to see my job get a lifetime ban".
From my mate Mark
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV-wQzDOtIk
And from 31 December 2009:
ReplyDelete"I must make the effort and try to find my phone which I haven't seen since boxing day(ish) - I may be gone some time... Well that was much easier than expected - it was beside a decaying pineapple...
I really ought to have been able to smell a decaying pineapple under my bed - I put it down to a combination of 50 years of indulgent smoking and over exuberance on boxing day".
March 2009:
ReplyDelete" .. numberthree only started posting a few days ago, and his first post was nicked from these threads. He's now posted 11 times, and 7 of those were deleted!"
Extra special Happy New Year to Montana and Joe Wildhack.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting a no-hoper misfit like me soil your pages almost daily.
Standard issue New Year to almost everyone else.
Factory reject, shop-soiled, flood-damaged and insurance write-off New Year to CiF and its menagerie of arselickers and shit-dribblers.
Sorry - I forgot to resolve to be good.
Woohoo!
Here we go again.
I can't wait!
The musical element of the greeting.
ReplyDeleteHello World!
ReplyDeleteAB
ReplyDeleteThat's far too funny !!
Right
ReplyDeleteTime for bed...
MsChin
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates...
Morning all! Bonne Annee a tous!
ReplyDeleteThe G is clearly starting as it means to go on - Bid's 'Thought for Today' today is on...
ReplyDelete[drumroll]
...marriage.
Which she seems to have written while pissed.
Philippa
ReplyDeleteYes, that's not so much a thought for the day as a random collection of words to make up the count with a "Will this do?" slapped on the end, which the sub had the grace to delete.
However:
A survey by Brigham Young University in Utah has shown that couples who abstain from sex before marriage rate their marriages as more rewarding than those who don't.
Isn't that a bit like someone eating their first plate of fish and chips and declaring: "These are the best fish and chips anywhere!"
But you've never eaten fish and chips before.
"These are still the best. You cannot get better than these. I am completely and totally happy with these. They are the best. Yum yum. Mmm-mmmm."
Isn't this just the happiness of the unimaginative, inept, incapable and socially detached when presented with something they never thought they would be able to achieve?
Actually, isn't Brigham Young University the mind-control arm of some cult?
BYU is the Mormon's University, Atomboy. So, you say tomato...
ReplyDeleteHave fulfilled first of resolutions by managing a blogpost (next up, finish book, give up smoking - the first may need to be done before the second can be attempted) - here (based on the TAM Commandments thingy I've put up on Waddya...)
Happy New Year Montana & Joe! Thanks for all your hard work Montana and Happy New Year to everybody!
ReplyDeleteHard to believe we've been here for nearly 2 years! Loads of fun, fights, politics and good music!
Long may we continue, if this site does nothing else it gives me the strength to carry on the fight.
Will the condems still be in power in a year's time do you think?
Philippa
ReplyDeleteBYU is the Mormon's University, Atomboy. So, you say tomato...
Oh, yes, quite so.
I was making the observation in a very general, secular and inclusive sense.
Whenever people gather together in numbers beyond about two, with something in the way of a common purpose, [Is that an oblique reference to the political cult? - Ed] they are basically on a course which will include propaganda, attempts at brainwashing and mind-control, manipulative inclusion and scapegoating techniques, suppression of inconvenient truths and an overweening desire to protect the group above everything else.
It could be reduced to the purest form in The Global Cult of Me or operate on a slightly larger scale in the form of UT or Dribbly or the Neo Nasties or the MG Car Club or the Lady Gaga Fan Club or Great Britain (Temporarily Out of Order) or Americatastrophe.
The world is pretty much a collection of cults.
[Sorry, that is not meant to cause offence to cunts].
annetan42
ReplyDeleteWill the condems still be in power in a year's time do you think?
About two years before the election, I predicted - though obviously not in the same league as Mystic Bruhaha - that the government following New Labour (which we all assumed would be a pukka, true-blue Tory affair, without the yellow streak of the LibDems smeared up its back) would be the most hated in living memory - obviously, after New Labour, so basically in second place - and would not serve a full term in office.
Obviously, they could scrape through five years.
They would just have to kill everyone to achieve it.
Afternoon all, and a very Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Montana for keeping this place going - it is a really wonderful place to hang out and I have made some true friends among these pages.
And thanks to you all for making my life a pleasure - I look forward to catching up on everyone's news, discussing the important things in life as well as the silly, trivial and hilarious things. Without everyone here, this would not be possible.
Much love to you all xx
Happy New Year Montana and Joe - thanks for the ride. xx
ReplyDeleteBB - slightly off the point (as ever) but - were you a lawyer in france? or was that only after you went back blighty-side? know that the french code is v different from E&W, just wondering if you were familiar...
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, now you've mentioned Biddy's latest Atrocity For The Day, I felt duty-bound to check it out. And errr...wow that's cack. About 10 words long and saying nothing much in particular.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, the Biddy-Penny CiF generation have this thing down to a fine art. Biddy's article shows two things. First, for £85 you serve up whatever comes off the top of your head or drops out of a bodily orifice. One hour or less. No point in being a fool about it. Second, you stick unfailingly to the formula - antagonistic comment-bait.
Biddy doesn't know about marriage (careful, that's the kind of talk that got m'Lud Summerisle banned) and patently from the article doesn't care about it either. She seems to have started the year with an absolute speculative punt as to just how woeful, sloppy and trite she can be - within formulaic limits - and still get her £85. This doesn't bode well.
I also detect generally that Hanman is beginning to twig that her readership isn't drawn in by the scented candlelight of her cosy middle-class feminist rolfing group, as she once thought, but by the sounds of ludicrousness (Campbell, Harker, Gold etc) and baiting (Bindel, Biddy, Brown, Monbiot etc). People prefer something that they can give a good kicking to.
Toynbee meanwhile seems intent on xeroxing the same article twice weekly for the next 4 years. It really is time to put her out to grass.
Happy new year to everyone, and especially Montana and Joe.
ReplyDelete2010 was a shitter from a work point of view, but pretty good from a personal perspective, and that includes this place and the excellent meet-ups. Thanks to all for letting me moan.
Eddie - bit unfair to put Monbiot in such low company. He can actually write, and also knows what research is.
ReplyDeleteRapidEddie
ReplyDeleteThe only issue I would take with any of that is the idea that the CiF stars are on the same pay-scale as the scum. [Surely, you mean those shrewd and enterprising go-getters wanting to gain a foothold in the old writing game? - Ed].
I would not imagine BiBuBiBu or The Bad Penny - now that she has dropped on her feet and into the money - would get out of bed for 85 nicker.
eddie - am right with atomboy there - doubt iddlebid is scraping together verbs for a mere £85...
ReplyDeletepenny, on the other hand...i suspect she is.
RapidEddie.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that anyone with BA Oxon/Cam to their name is not going to write articles for £85. I would reckon Polly gets somewhere between £500-1000 per article. Even young arrivistes like Laurie Penny probably earn a couple of hundred.
Looks like others have already said this, but oh well.
prediction for the match, in case james is around - city currently 1-0 up, with tevez havingg just missed a penalty, 5 mins to play in first half:
ReplyDeleteblackpool will score on the stroke of half-time to equalise, city will boss the game but fail to finish anything, mancini will bring on viera who will have at least one 'senior moment' leading to goal 2 for the visitors, and one or more of our backline will need hospitalisation after tripping over a colleague.
blackpool to saunter off with the points.
Afternoon and happy new year to all!!
ReplyDeleteHaven't had a look at cif since before I went away - think it might be my solitary resolution never to set foot in the place again - especially if they're inviting La Bid to conjure a few words about marriage hung on a hook supplied by Mormons. Jesus wept! What a combination and actually paid £85 for it...!! Pass me a bucket...
Hey Leni, Charles and Eddie
ReplyDeleteA guid new year tae yin an' a' !
xx
I have had not so much a hair of the dog now as the whole bloody pelt. Hic!
Just having a really bizarre moment atm. My lad, in his true geek style, wants to watch national geographic air crash investigations - fair enough.
One of my husband's friends, and a very clever and lovely woman called Helen Muir, died this year of cancer. And out of all the shows that could be on, it is one about evacuating burning aircraft, which is what she was involved in. And there she is on the telly.
Raising a glass to the wonderful Helen who nobody has probably ever heard of, but who has possibly saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people now and in the future...
Helen Muir RIP
ReplyDeleteThaum, I wouldn't put Monbiot in with the others on the basis of quality, but of effect. He's there to rattle cages and does a sterling job. They could have just left him to one side in Guardian Environment - where he would have avoided much of the bile and (as he believes) astroturfing - but they didn't. That's why Seaton co-opted him.
ReplyDeleteAs for Biddy and Penny, they're contributors. The Graun is still hemorrhaging money, so they're not going to pay over the odds to any freelancers just to fill cyberspace. If an article appears in the deadwood Graun - perhaps someone could tell me if Penny or Biddy ever make to there - then they'll be paid the standard rate for that (a guesstimate would be 300-400). But the online stuff? That's two bob and a bag of chips if you're lucky. Unfortunately, pay peanuts and eventually you get monkeys. You pay two bob and you get two bob's worth of thought. Though For The Day etc, really is beer and fag money on a slow day.
CiF works for various people. The young tyros coming in to make a name for themselves, full of literary vim and spunk. The lifelong Graun readers who get themselves 'published in the Guardian' as they tell their mates (the shiny 'C' means validation for the contributor and that the poor bastard will post his heart out for a whole year and contribute countless page hits for the Guardian). Single issue zealots, who are just looking for a platform (Peta etc.).
Charles, Polly's on staff, so she's not paid on a per article basis. I seem to remember that she coughed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago.
But for the Biddies and Pennys, it's a lowly first step, that gives them the visibility to move onto better paying gigs - the New Statesman, Sky News, Radio 4 etc. That's its value to them. But the Graun ain't going to pay them shit for stuff that appears solely online. They haven't got the money.
Thaum, I wouldn't put Monbiot in with the others on the basis of quality, but of effect. He's there to rattle cages and does a sterling job. They could have just left him to one side in Guardian Environment - where he would have avoided much of the bile and (as he believes) astroturfing - but they didn't. That's why Seaton co-opted him.
ReplyDeleteAs for Biddy and Penny, they're contributors. The Graun is still hemorrhaging money, so they're not going to pay over the odds to any freelancers just to fill cyberspace. If an article appears in the deadwood Graun - perhaps someone could tell me if Penny or Biddy ever make to there - then they'll be paid the standard rate for that (300-400 a shot as a guesstimate). But the online stuff? That's two bob and a bag of chips if you're lucky. Unfortunately, pay peanuts and eventually you get monkeys. You pay two bob and you get two bob's worth of thought. Thought For The Day etc, really is beer and fag money on a slow day.
Charles, Polly is on staff, so she doesn't get paid by the article. I seem to remember that she fessed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago.
CiF works for various people. The young tyros coming in to make a name for themselves, full of literary vim and spunk. The lifelong Graun readers who get themselves 'published in the Guardian' as they tell their mates (the shiny 'C' means validation for the contributor and that the poor bastard will post his heart out for a whole year and contribute countless page hits for the Guardian). Single issue zealots, who are just looking for a platform (Peta etc.).
But for the Biddies and Pennys, a couple of years at the game, it's a lowly first step, one that gives them the visibility to move onto better paying gigs - the New Statesman, Sky News, Radio 4 etc. The visibility and currency that it gives them is its value to them. But the Graun ain't going to pay them shit. They haven't got the money.
Happy New Year Everyone. A bit foggy in the heed this morning but brekky and a walk should help.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say how much I enjoy this place and also thank Montana for her efforts.
Philippa--Not sure about your pessimism re City. Years of conditioning maybe? They look a pretty solid side despite the squabbles and backroom bickering. Oh and United were rather fortunate today after a poor performance. Neville should have seen red and he is long past it. Suppose they need numbers in the squad at the moment though.
Woohoo!
ReplyDeleteFair points, RapidEddie.
Hope you are right about shit money for shit work.
Meanwhile, The Archbishop of Cadbury, Rowan Andmartinslaughin says that Dave 1 was right all along and the Big Society is just the Bible (Broekn British kitemark approved) prophesies for the internet and austerity age.
Or sumfink.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8234268/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-read-the-Bible-to-understand-Camerons-Big-Society.html
"When we try to make sense of our lives and of who we really are, it helps to have a strongly defined story, a big picture of some kind in the background. As the King James Bible took hold of the imaginations of millions of people in the English-speaking world, it gave them just that - a big picture, a story in which their lives made sense.
"Whether you're a Christian or belong to another religion, or whether you have nothing you'd want to call a religion at all, some sort of big picture matters.
"If we are going to talk about a 'Big Society' that will need a big picture, a picture of what human beings are really like and why they're so unique and precious."
Maybe he's been nobbled over some dodgy pics.
Still, it seems Polly was almost right (6/10 tick vg) with her big story/collective narrative hogwash from the NewLab years.
Does the precious bit mean cutesy and contrived or hissy and evil, though?
Are we supposed to aim for being Guardianistas or Gollums?
"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false! "
boudican - think 'hubris' is a better word. at least, if i expect the worst, then saving a point looks like a victory - hehehehehe. they are all over 'em, i just fear...at least have got stats dashboard up and working again.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Everyone
ReplyDeleteSpurs won which is a good start to the year.Not so good was a fight outside our flats which ended up with a stabbing which thankfully wasn't fatal.Big police presence here all day.
On a cheerier note here's a track i heard earlier from Bryan Ferry
Nice one, Paul - a bit of Bryan never goes amiss!
ReplyDeleteHere's another on the dancing theme.
Good tune Paul. Must say too, well done to Spurs. Battling hard with 10 men in recent games shows good resilience. They also play a very entertaining and attacking style. Good to watch.
ReplyDeleteLiking the music.
ReplyDeleteThauma, a woman broke my heart to the sound of that song. Funny how you think you can never get over things at the time, but manage to.
Erm...
ReplyDeletePah! Women!
ReplyDeleteHi Boudican,Habib and Thauma
ReplyDeleteHEATWAVE
hi all.....again happy new year and thanks also to montana for keeping everything going......
ReplyDeletegod feel like going back to bed........
@Boudican
ReplyDeleteSpurs are playing well at the moment.Still prone to certain inconsistancies and weaknesses which we need to address if we want to remain a permanent fixture in the top 4 of the Premier League.Fans also a bit uneasy about what'll happen if Harry moves on.But all in all i give us 7 out of 10 for our overall performance in the season so far.
Hope all's well with you.
Eddie
ReplyDelete"Charles, Polly is on staff, so she doesn't get paid by the article. I seem to remember that she fessed up to being on £120,000 per annum about 3 or 4 years ago."
Which divided by 3 articles a week (at max)or 150 a year is £800 an article.
Very good portrayal of the young arrivistes who write for the Guardian :)
As for myself, well obviously no it is not something I intened to get money out of, and I've never even written a full article, only on the people's panels (and now they don't give out C's to PP contributors). But if I got a few articles, even if I didn't get paid, at least it would look good on my CV and I might be able to start applying for jobs more advanced than at Mcdonalds and office cleaners. Yes, I may well be an arriviste, I may well want a better situation for myself, and writing for teh Graun is one of the means to that end.
To be fair I've not been writing anything, keeping up to date with current affairs or maintaining my blog, far too busy these days, doing my OU work, practising my teaching in preparation for going to Russia.
Anyway, watching the neujahrskonzert on BBC4. (cue time for a snide remark about ambassadors and well heeled opera lovers) Ah Vienna! When I was there last year (well 2009 actually) I stayed in a youth hostel in the grounds of a palace on a hill overlooking hte city. herehttp://www.hostel.at/en/?id=shb Fabulous city. Beautiful art. My last two profile images on cif have come from the kunsthistoriches museum.
Pah! Women!
ReplyDeleteYes, Habib?
@Habib
ReplyDeleteMissed your Eddy Grant link when i was on earlier.TBH i'm not too keen on that track but i do like THIS ONE :-)
Have you ever met a man of good character where women are concerned?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Montana x
ReplyDeleteTry again, remembering that Hank Jr needs to restore my blogger connection next time he's round....
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Montana
Hank
x
Oh really, Habib?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you & Hank Jr., Hank.
ReplyDelete"on a cheerier note here's a track I heard earlier from Bryan Ferry..."
ReplyDeleteThe only note from Bryan Ferry that would cheer me up would be his suicide note. One that included the line that he was driven to it by guilt about betraying his coalmining father who hadn't worked his bollocks off just so that Bry could strike it lucky at art school, marry an heiress and spawn a fox-hunting floppy-haired right-wing twat called, of all things, Otis.
Roxy fucking music. Wankers.
Happy new year to all plus Montana for maintaining this site.
ReplyDeleteAnnetan42, you ask about the Condems, I read a forecast that suggested that they would not survive in their current form but would re-convene as Orange Book Libs plus others. I read it here {suffering from lazyitis}
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2010/12/ten_things_that_are_probably_g.html
and here is the text:
The Coalition will fall. Not because of protest, not because of unpopularity but because everytime it tries to do something serious a bit falls off the machine. If they don't get AV and Vince Cable does not get radical banking reform, then by the time the public sector job losses are eating into their popularity, around party conference time, the Libdems will call it a day. Even more audaciously I will predict the outcome: no election but a Second Coalition to be formed between the Conservatives, an inner core of Orange Book Libdem leaders and various Unionists, with a slim majority. One or two Labour rightwingers, disgruntled by Ed Miliband, may also be tempted to join. Cameron will face down the Conservative right and embrace Coalition government as a modus operandi until 2015. Labour, locked in a policy review process and possibly still reeling from (8) above, will avoid an election.
For Paul. It popped into my head a couple of days ago. No clue why -- haven't heard it for years.
ReplyDeletePaul Mason knows shit. He's a BBC hack who swaps ideas with Rawnsley and Glover.
ReplyDeleteLike them, he's got no insight and no vision.
The AV vote will mean fuck all.
Constitutionally speaking, it's of less importance than the idea of 5 year fixed parliamentary terms, which have just been accepted without comment by the Graun and the rest of the political writers.
So you can have a five year fixed term, regardless of the fact that you can't muster a majority for anything that was, or more to the point wasn't, in your manifesto?
How does that work? And why aren't people angry about it?
A government that has a five year term despite the lack of a mandate, or a parliamentary majority, and which blatantly lied about its intentions prior to being elected.
Why not go the whole fucking hog and bring in an Enabling Act?
It's a fucking helluva shame that these questions aren't being debated properly on Cif, which did once have the scope for intelligent debate, before it got hijacked by liberal lightweights with pleasant personae and empty heads.
Hank
ReplyDeleteIs that the same Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music who Bracken thought should be awarded Knights of the Baby's Bathwater and Orders of the Broekn British Empire Stores for services to music?
Didn't he want Mr Ferry to be made Viceroy of some heathen sand country, with full rights to mineral deposits and full dominion over all the creatures which crept over the land or swam in the sea or flapped and twirled through the firmament?
Good to see you popping by, mate.
Actually, this now springs to mind for some reason....
ARTIST: Gilbert and Sullivan
ReplyDeleteTITLE: I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General
Lyrics
[Pirates of Penzance]
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin"
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
@IanG - the AV vote is already lost. Who cares anyway, one way or the other, whether we elect our MPs proportionally or not.
ReplyDeleteThere's a bigger question to be asked about constitutional politics, which is, where did this idea come from that we will have 5 year fixed term parliaments?
Why the fuck should we have 5 years of a government in power that rules by shoddy coalition? Why should we have 5 years of a government that couldn't obtain a majority, and lied so blatantly in its manifestos?
Bring in five year fixed terms for coalition governments and you might as well bring in an Enabling Act at the same time.
It's amazing, but not surprising, that this crucial issue has passed without comment on Cif, with its collection of airhead liberals who know nothing of politics or history.
***GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT***
ReplyDelete*LONDON SPENDING CUTS RALLY MARCH 26TH
March for the Alternative: 26 March 2011
For those who didn't already know, the TUC is organising a national march against the cuts on March 26th 2011.
Arrive 11AM Victoria Embankment for March to Hyde Park.
If anyone's planning coming down from North England to the demo in London on March 26th, welcome to crash at our gaf the night before. Will be getting the train down on the Saturday morning
Info here
http://www.tuc.org.uk/alltogetherfor/march.cfm?theme=alltogether
Posters here
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/MARCH_A4_POSTER_low_res.pdf
Hi Atomboy
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Bracken had to say about Bryan Ferry, or the honours system. I'm really not interested in Bracken, or Ferry, or the honours system.
Other than to say that it's so fucking typical of the New Labourites to think that the honours system matters, and that Bracken should have perfected the art of walking backwards while kissing arse.
Hello everyone and best wishes for a happy new year to all.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to come up with some highlights from last year but apart from the meets with some of you guys in Sheffield and Northampton and London I couldn't think of many.
I'd love to be optimistic about 2011 but the signs ain't good are they?
Anyway here's a choon which I think sums up a lot of people's despair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XYFJUP84lE
Grimsby 7 Mansfield 2. I'd think I was still pissed if it hadn't been independently confirmed by son... :o)
ReplyDeleteJust copied and pasted this from the "Calling Time on Capitalism" thread on CIF by "Steeply"
ReplyDeleteSocialist ,Capitalist , communist ,sexist, lubrigationist
Just labels
Labels to polarise
PLEASE Stop
ITs about developing an efficient , compassionate world for all
Unless i'm greatly mistaken
Most of us take more responsibility in our daily lives and with our families than
The people in control of our countries
"
Don't know what a "lubrigationist" is but I'll try anything once!
just watching Pilger's programm "The War you don't see"
ReplyDeletefor those interested being podcast on itv until 14th jan
really worth seeing especially chief editors of news for BBC and ITV squirming when pilger confronts them about complicity with government propoganda machine........
@Atomboy and Bitterweed -
ReplyDeleteYou're wasting your time on here calling for a revolution.
You've only got to look at Beautiful Burnout's activity on here over the last few weeks.
She's been very vocal and very active. And oh so fucking bland.
I'm not sure what it is that BB stands for, but it sure as hell isn't anything that's gonna upset the horses. Or the neighbours.
BB, I guess, likes to think that she cares and that she's making a difference.
Just as long as it doesn't cost her anything in real terms. Hell, she's probably advising the Graun on tax avoidance.
Just like all the 1968-ers, she abhors racism and sexism and homophobia and the working class.
Like all good Guardianistas, she doesn't hate anything but the white working class or economic equality.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Liam
ReplyDeleteI've met quite a few posters on here in person, and I have to say, certainly in at least in a couple of instances, it would be harder to find people more down to earth, committed to social change, and who still occasionally involve themslves in activism. People utterly free of the platitude or condescension that acompanies middle class liberal guilt , much less weighed down with any trendy but bone-headed dogma.
I'm as much, if not more, of an armchair revolutionary as most people who got their arses slung off CiF, but am happy to put people if it helps make the demo in London. I think this demo is important.
We'll probably have a right bloody good pissup afterwards too. Back of the net.
"assymetric threat" is the new buzz word from asst secretary of state whitman......to describe collectively WMD's, terrorists, internet "terrorism" (aka wikileaks)and most probably anyone that doesn't agree with us/ western foreign policy anywhere in the world.......
ReplyDeleteWTF......i friggin despair........
@Bitterweed
ReplyDelete"I think this demo is important."
And...?
I'm really not interested in the post-demo piss up.
It matters a little bit more to me than that.
I care. If it didn't come across that I don't fucking care much at all about the likes of BB and hermione and the other fucking bourgeois guardianistas who have a lot to say but don't really care...
my sis who works in local education told me about a school that requested to close down during the cold weather not because there was no power, no heating, no cooking facilities, kids not being able to get to school.........but because the kids were arriving by foot to school wearing flip flops and t-shirts because their families couldn't afford clothes......
ReplyDeleteguess where the school is.......... yep in tory guardianista territory SURREY......
preconceptions are dangerous........
Hank, I didn't realise you were Liam, else I might have spelt it out a bit clearer that you are one of the people I've met through this place I thoroughly respect.
ReplyDeleteBut don't ring me at home at near midnight just to call me a fucking liar. Out of order mate.
I called you on your mobile, BW.
ReplyDeleteYou done the same to me at 3 in the fucking morning when it suited you.
Don't play the injured princess when it suits you.
My only experience of Surrey was a couple of days in Dorking in 1980 (long story). It didn't strike me as particularly posh.
ReplyDeleteOur school district collects donations of clothing all the time. Kids who need coats, boots, whatever, know what room the stuff is kept in and they're free to get whatever they need, whenever.
The head teacher of this school, ofsteded and under special measures has made great progress particularly with parents, who, when she arrived didn't even go into the school, most are/were illiterate, she runs community based projects for parents and their children well outside her remit as headteacher. All the 80 kids at the school live on one of the worse estates in the county. I doubt anyone on the estate has old clothes to hand down and the families in the area that do no doubt don't go within a ten mile radius of the place.....
ReplyDeletemontana
ReplyDeletenew wallender!!! the "young wallender" (flashback stuff) looks like Assange........creepy.....!!
But I have to say that it's all of a fucking piece...
ReplyDeleteCif and the UT is chock full of big-mouthed cowards, and bleeding heart fucking liberals...
I've spoken to loads of you and met some and the more I speak to you and the more I meet the more I realise how many fucking hypocrites there are amongst you.
I'll spare the blushes of most of you.
I have enjoyed meeting some of you, especially MF, Thauma and MsChin. PCC and Speedkermit too.
But some of you...jeez
So many people here genuinely like and respect you Hank and yet in return you treat them like cunts.Don't undertand you at all but Happy New Year anyway!
ReplyDeleteAin't none of us here matter shit to the way the world turns. It turns anyway. My respect goes to the people who fight to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the vast majority of us can't.
Just to clarify. Hank, do I qualify for the "but some of you..jeeze" category?
ReplyDeleteI'll check out the new Wallander as soon as I can, Gandolfo. (The boy needs feeding soon, have to figure out what it's going to be.)
ReplyDeleteShame that people who could help that school won't do it. Which is precisely why state intervention is needed.
It was one thing I could never understand in Seattle -- schools received funding that was proportional to the tax base in their immediate neighbourhood, so schools in wealthy neighbourhoods got more money per pupil than schools in poor neighbourhoods. Always seemed to me that it should have been the exact opposite -- more funding should have gone to the schools where the need was greatest.
montana
ReplyDeletesurely the fact that kids going to school in flip flops and t-shirts in freezing conditions in one of the richest countries in the world is an abomination....that they should have to rely on the charity of others is fucking disgraceful......all of us should be fucking outraged rather than "accepting" it as part of our societies.....jeeze as a minimum kids should have money for clothes to go to school in and not having to accept hand me downs as the only option .....next there'll be the friggin poor houses........big society my arse
FFS Hank just chill and enjoy this track from RUMER
ReplyDelete"FFS Hank just chill..."
ReplyDeleteStick it up your coconut arse, Paul.
Ain't none of us here matter shit to the way the world turns. It turns anyway. My respect goes to the people who fight to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the vast majority of us can't.
Don't underestimate your influence "Heyhabib" who knows who might take notice. I certainly do!
gandolfo
ReplyDeleteAgreed re. children. Whatever the causeeir poverty and deprivation this is wrong and totally unnacceptable. Things are going to get worse - are the teachers' unions in this ? they should be shouting this from the rooftops and demanding action. Union members should be insisting that they do so.
Single cause cudgel bearing is not going to solve our problems -we have to get to the roots of the systems which are causing this and to the people who are ignoring their basic responsibilities to the people of this country.
gandolfo
ReplyDeleteWhere is this school - whch bit of Surrey?
Hank
ReplyDeleteStick it up your coconut arse, Paul.
Thanks for giving us all a prime example of why class can never supersede everything else.You're nowhere near as smart as you think you are!
For vulnerable children, the current formula assesses Surrey's spending needs at £95 a head.
ReplyDeleteNearby Croydon's is put at £235
----
Above from 2002 - Surrey has highest living costs outside London. The picture is distorted by high earners. Poverty there is long standing problem.
"You're just pissed up and angry about your life."
ReplyDeleteAnd you're not, Habib?
You and others piss your lives away and somehow get to feel superior just because you do what? You get to exercise your democratic rights and speak whatever passes for your brainz on the interwebz.
You, Paul and BB will get to huddle together and blow raspberries at me. And I'll survive. Somehow.
leni
ReplyDeleteindeed......
i don't remember what part...imagine it's around esher, dorking.......i'll ask her the next time i speak to her...nor have i any idea what the unions are doing.....
"And I'll survive. Somehow."
ReplyDeleteCockroaches generally do.
For anybody who is interested
ReplyDeleteStewarding
A demonstration of this size will need a large number of good confident stewards.
Our plan is to have three types of steward:
• 200-300 senior stewards: we would expect these to attend one of two training events in advance. We are asking TUC unions at a national level to nominate these, and will shortly be writing to unions about this.
• 500+ stewards: we would expect these to attend a regional briefing event. We will be recruiting these through TUC regional offices.
• Transport stewards we will ask each coach or group of people travelling to London to nominate a steward in advance, via the TUC website. We will provide written briefing in advance and ask them to provide a mobile number so we can keep them in touch by text with any developments.
----------------
The info needs to go out to the general public - including the unemployed who have lost union membership - a very bad move by the unions.
"Cockroaches generally do."
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha.
Habib
ReplyDeleteDunno if you like Anita Baker but she's teamed up with Fourplay and released a CD which has had some good reviews.Here's a track from it.Nice chilled late night music.See what you think.
Actually i think it's a Fourplay CD with Miss Baker featured on just a couple of the tracks.
ReplyDeletePaul, that's spot on. "More than you know" is one of my favourite songs, can't find it to play.
ReplyDeletePaul, Habib + Hank
ReplyDeleteNight night guys - suffering from the lurgy - all flimmy flammy and headachey.
Enjoyed the music. Thanks.
xx
Laters, Leni!
ReplyDelete@Habib-if i find it i'll post it for you.You have to be in an introspective mood to enjoy Anita Baker-imo.Another track of hers i like is ANGEL
ReplyDeleteNite Leni!
ReplyDeleteHope you start feeling better soon x
Does kind of make you introspective :-)
ReplyDeleteWould you like a bit of BB King?
ReplyDeleteIt's all falling into place. The thin skins. The vendettas. The fondness for musicals etc...
ReplyDeletePaul + Habib are a pair of queens.
It's just dawned on me!!
Ha! I'm out of here...
Habib
ReplyDeleteMore than you know
t's all falling into place. The thin skins. The vendettas. The fondness for musicals etc...
ReplyDeletePaul + Habib are a pair of queens.
It's just dawned on me!!
Ha! I'm out of here...
I think you're talking about yourself Hank. About time you came out of the closet mate!
Hank
ReplyDeleteHermione is worth ten of you sweetheart!BTW do you suck'n'swallow ?
"Hermione is worth ten of you sweetheart..."
ReplyDeleteHa, yeh right. The same hermione who supported the coalition govt until she realised that te tide was turning against the coalition govt, at which point she jumped on every thread with meaningless one-liners "attacking" the coalition govt.
How the fuck is your mate hermione worth ten of me?
@Gandolfo:
ReplyDeleteOh, I certainly didn't mean to imply that anyone should accept things the way they are. I'd much prefer that the charity not be necessary and, yes, it is obscene that in a couple of the wealthiest nations in the world there are children going to school in inadequate clothing in the dead of winter because their parents can't afford to buy them what they need.
I guess I should have made clearer the fact that, while it's a fucking shame that our district needs to make clothes available for kids that don't have them, I'm proud that our district makes the effort and, moreover, tries to do it in a way that doesn't humiliate the kids.
Habib
ReplyDeleteDunno if you're still up but here's a track from John Coltrane.Hope you managed to figure out how to play the Anita Baker track.
Hi Montana
Hope you and your family had a great New Years Day.And thanks once again for the UT x
Nite all
Happy New Year, Montana x
ReplyDeleteSo many good intentions only to end up with so much dross.
Not your fault at all but a very revealing example of how the internet is the lowest common denominator of democracy.
We used to have some good times here. We used to have some interesting posters and some interesting debates.
Unfortunately, just like Cif, we got democratised, and the lunatics took over the asylum.
I scrolled through seven days of the UT earlier and it pretty much amounted to BB's every waking thought, none of which was worth saying out loud, let alone sending into cyberspace.
The "hermione" issue, likewise, is a touchstone for me.
Those who support her or defend her cannot see that she represents all that is wrong about online debate, given that she has no principles or values but is only interested in popularity.
Those who support her on here or over there are, by definition, shallow. They are playing the same game as she is.
I despise them all.
Politics is far more important than a popularity contest.
For the same reason, I have never understood those who have a foot in both the waddya camp and this one.
I can only assume that it's just a game to those who do so.
Politics matters, and economics is about to matter a lot to a lot of people. Those who treat it as just a game are beneath contempt.
I hope that you get through things ok.
x
And that's me out of here.
ReplyDeleteBig kisses to MF, Atomboy, MW and PCC xxxx
Hank
ReplyDeleteHabib's right you are a wanker.A wanker who's so far up his own backside that he's incapable of even considering the possibility that he may be wrong.
In my experience people-both Black and White-who are quick to use the term 'coconut' are those who have a fascist intolerance of anyone who disagrees with them.And yet as i pointed out upthread your use of the word 'coconut' does raise a substantive point which you failed to address.Namely where would Black people stand if there were no identity politics to at least give them some semblance of promoting their interests.
You and some of your fans here on the UT have consistantly dismissed identity politics which you claim get in the way of the real isssue which is classs.And in theory i agree with you .But i also live in the real world and whilst i recognize the many flaws in identity politics i still think they are needed in principle.Because i for one am not prepared to accept a White-dominated society of whatever political hue where i am accused of being a 'coconut' when i'm being friendly with White people and an 'angry Black man' when i'm not.I want something better than that.
Identity politics in its current form has certainly caused some problems.One of which is that in some ways White working class people have been driven to the bottom of the pile in British society.However if we were to drop identity politics altogether and do things your way there would still be enormous potential for Black people to feel both marginalised and excluded.Something you demonstrated upthread.