Today sees the national public service strike over pension rights, a strike that is proving highly divisive and will probably end in the public service workers losing a lot of the goodwill they accumulated during and after the anti cuts march in London earlier this year.
There's an awful lot of willful ignorance being bandied about by the public service unions over the pensions issue, probably deliberately so, as they could not tell their members the truth when it comes to public sector pensions for fear of losing their positions of power.
First, here's some simple maths. Let's assume that two workers, one public one private sector who end their careers today on identical salaries having had identical average salaries over their working lives. Joe Public will have a pension four or five times the size of Fred Private, or, to put it another way, Fred Private would have had to contribute at least five times the amount of Joe Public over his working life to his private pension to arrive at a pot large enough to achieve a similar future monthly pension payout to Joe Public. This is because public sector pensions are based on final or average salaries, a luxury afforded to only about 10% (and falling) of private sector workers, most of whom have to put up with the much less attractive defined contribution schemes. The reason for the continued decline in private sector final/average salary schemes is simple - they are unaffordable as there is no investment plan available that gives the returns required to finance them.
It used to be the case that public sector workers earned far less than their private sector counterparts, and the generous pension scheme was a compensation, but this earnings anomaly simply no longer applies. According to Paul Lewis of The Money Programme the annual cost of public sector pensions is some £30bn, of which £26bn is paid for through exisiting low level employees' contributions and Employers' NI contributions. The shortfall of £4bn per year (or up to £6bn depending who you listen to) is being paid for by the tax payer. By the way, £4bn is two thirds of the value of the Coalition cuts programme currently chopping away. Yes, of course "the tax payer" includes Joe Public, but why should Fred Private contribute to Joe's pension via his taxes when his own pension is paltry in comparison? Also, as the population lives for longer these costs will only go one way, at least for the short term. It is simply unsustainable, even Ed Millibrand acknowledges this. Another example of the over generous public sector pension scheme is Joe's ability to take his retirement pension at 60. I can think of six people I know personally who have done this, and who are all doing very nicely thank you. This is being kicked into touch under the planned changes, and is there honestly any argument to be made against it?
The main reason for this strike appears to be the planned increase in Joe Public's contribution to his pension. It is calculated that a teacher will face a 50% increase in contributions to 9.6%. They should count themselves lucky that even after the proposed changes their pensions will still be way in excess of what Fred Private could ever afford.
The Tories, as ever, have shot themselves in foot in the way they have mis-handled this, or rather the way in which they have not handled it at all, simply hoping they can impose all the changes in one fell swoop and without negotiation. Cameron would have done well not to mention pension changes and deficit cuts in the same speech as it gives the unions the excuse they're looking for, linking the two when there is no link. No, the public sector did not cause the current crisis, but I'm afraid that's entirely irrelevant where this dispute is concerned. Public sector pensions are unaffordable in their current guise, regardless of whether or not the country is up to its neck in debt.
The unions for their part would have been far better advised to make the stike against the too hasty and excessive cuts and the philosophy behind them. I marched with you in London on that theme, but you can take a hike on this one I'm afraid!
30 Jun 2011
10 Jun 2011
Strange Weather
Before I start can I just say that the best bit is definitely at the end!
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I had to laugh this morning. On turning on BBC Breakfast we heard that Northamptonshire is one of three counties in Eastern England to be declared part of an official drought region. This was follwed soon after by the weather forecast which promised showers today and tomorrow followed by an all day deluge on Sunday. Talk about tempting fate, and don't these people know that we're now in the monsoon season which will last until the end of August?
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This is a copy of the text from a real letter sent to Leicester City Council by a concerned nutter...sorry, citizen sent under The Freedom Of Information Act as a request for information:
Dear Leicester City Council,
Can you please let us know what provisions you have in place in the event of a zombie invasion? Having watched several films it is clear that preparation for such an event is poor and one that councils throughout the kingdom must prepare for.
Please provide any information you may have.
Yours faithfully,
Concerned Citizen
I really really hope that it was written with tongue firmly in cheek, but I kind of suspect given the poor grammar that it was sent in all seriousness! There is no hope.
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Last night was our usual Thursday night down the best pub in town but with an added twist or should I say contortion. Phill and I spend most Thursday nights talking bollocks with the estimable young bar staff, and last night was no different, but the "bollocks" in question were swapped for labia. No really!
Whilst on holiday in Benidorm recently, one of our pint pullers sampled the questionable delights of an "entertainment" on offer wherein a middle aged woman pulls all manner of objects from her nether regions including rubber chickens, fairy lights, and dishwashers. I made that last one up, but only the last one!
Firstly she must have innards the size of a garage and secondly how does electrically lit fairy lights and, how shall I put this...the erm damp conditions not result in electric shocks to her tender bits? We should be told....actually I don't want to know.
The mad bint also fires canonballs across the room using only pelvic thrust. Gobsmacked I was! The holiday snaps should make for interesting viewing I should think.
If all that is too much information imagine Phill's and my reaction when told all this by a young woman who imparted her holiday tale in an almost completely blasé fashion. I didn't know where to look. Actually I couldn't see for laughing! Oh, and nether region depilation is all the rage amongst women under 25 so we're told. I dare anyone to deny it!...;)
The name of the pub and it's mad but highly entertaining bar staff are witheld to protect the lewd.
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I had to laugh this morning. On turning on BBC Breakfast we heard that Northamptonshire is one of three counties in Eastern England to be declared part of an official drought region. This was follwed soon after by the weather forecast which promised showers today and tomorrow followed by an all day deluge on Sunday. Talk about tempting fate, and don't these people know that we're now in the monsoon season which will last until the end of August?
...........................................................................................................
This is a copy of the text from a real letter sent to Leicester City Council by a concerned nutter...sorry, citizen sent under The Freedom Of Information Act as a request for information:
Dear Leicester City Council,
Can you please let us know what provisions you have in place in the event of a zombie invasion? Having watched several films it is clear that preparation for such an event is poor and one that councils throughout the kingdom must prepare for.
Please provide any information you may have.
Yours faithfully,
Concerned Citizen
I really really hope that it was written with tongue firmly in cheek, but I kind of suspect given the poor grammar that it was sent in all seriousness! There is no hope.
............................................................................................
Last night was our usual Thursday night down the best pub in town but with an added twist or should I say contortion. Phill and I spend most Thursday nights talking bollocks with the estimable young bar staff, and last night was no different, but the "bollocks" in question were swapped for labia. No really!
Whilst on holiday in Benidorm recently, one of our pint pullers sampled the questionable delights of an "entertainment" on offer wherein a middle aged woman pulls all manner of objects from her nether regions including rubber chickens, fairy lights, and dishwashers. I made that last one up, but only the last one!
Firstly she must have innards the size of a garage and secondly how does electrically lit fairy lights and, how shall I put this...the erm damp conditions not result in electric shocks to her tender bits? We should be told....actually I don't want to know.
The mad bint also fires canonballs across the room using only pelvic thrust. Gobsmacked I was! The holiday snaps should make for interesting viewing I should think.
If all that is too much information imagine Phill's and my reaction when told all this by a young woman who imparted her holiday tale in an almost completely blasé fashion. I didn't know where to look. Actually I couldn't see for laughing! Oh, and nether region depilation is all the rage amongst women under 25 so we're told. I dare anyone to deny it!...;)
The name of the pub and it's mad but highly entertaining bar staff are witheld to protect the lewd.
8 Jun 2011
What's New, Pussycat?
Our Molly, The World's Loudest Small Ginger Cat ©, turns 15 years old in a couple of months, and B and I had thought that she had retired from the hunting game, as 2011 has so far been free of small rodents caught and killed, or worse, caught and let loose in the house.
Not on your nelly! On Sunday night at nearly midnight, Moll renewed her Professional Pussycat Licence, and brought home a still live mouse, which, after I had taken her and her captive outside I made her drop using the long practiced method pulling her head back so that her jaws opened. That done, Moll is then locked in the house while the mouse makes its escape.
This afternoon she caught another, this time killing it as well. I disposed of the corpse when I got home. It just goes to show that the old girl still has what it takes in the world of feline butchery!
Moll's only ailment thus far in her old age is an ongoing hyperactive thyroid problem, held at bay by one and a half pills a day (15mg) of Vidalta that costs roughly £1 per tablet. Having checked online they can be obtained for less than half that price, not that our vet has let us know. I reckon along with dentists, running a domestic veterinary practice is a licence to print money.
Update - In order to get Molly's meds online a vet's perscription is required. The vets charge £12 + VAT for the privilege. Am I surprised? No, not really! Anyway, the cost per mg of the drug at the vets is 9.74p, and even including the perscription fee the cost online is 4.35p! No contest.
Being a pair of wusses we currently give Moll the tablets hidden in such things as cat treats, cooked chicken, tuna, corned beef, fish paste, cheese, but the wily old girl gets wise to all of these eventually, and so the cycle starts again. She is getting her medication but it is probably not the full dosage or regularly enough, although she seems healthy enough as her renewed hunting escapades have proven.
Eventually we're going to have to bite the bullet and use the dreaded pill-popper. The one and only time we've attempted (and failed) to use it, Moll took my arm off and ran up the garden with it. Remember, this is a cat that three vets could not hold still for long enough to take a blood sample from one of her front legs, so it's going to be an ongoing struggle but one we'll have to get used to.
Not on your nelly! On Sunday night at nearly midnight, Moll renewed her Professional Pussycat Licence, and brought home a still live mouse, which, after I had taken her and her captive outside I made her drop using the long practiced method pulling her head back so that her jaws opened. That done, Moll is then locked in the house while the mouse makes its escape.
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| Knackered after decimating local wildlife.. |
This afternoon she caught another, this time killing it as well. I disposed of the corpse when I got home. It just goes to show that the old girl still has what it takes in the world of feline butchery!
Moll's only ailment thus far in her old age is an ongoing hyperactive thyroid problem, held at bay by one and a half pills a day (15mg) of Vidalta that costs roughly £1 per tablet. Having checked online they can be obtained for less than half that price, not that our vet has let us know. I reckon along with dentists, running a domestic veterinary practice is a licence to print money.
Update - In order to get Molly's meds online a vet's perscription is required. The vets charge £12 + VAT for the privilege. Am I surprised? No, not really! Anyway, the cost per mg of the drug at the vets is 9.74p, and even including the perscription fee the cost online is 4.35p! No contest.
Being a pair of wusses we currently give Moll the tablets hidden in such things as cat treats, cooked chicken, tuna, corned beef, fish paste, cheese, but the wily old girl gets wise to all of these eventually, and so the cycle starts again. She is getting her medication but it is probably not the full dosage or regularly enough, although she seems healthy enough as her renewed hunting escapades have proven.
Eventually we're going to have to bite the bullet and use the dreaded pill-popper. The one and only time we've attempted (and failed) to use it, Moll took my arm off and ran up the garden with it. Remember, this is a cat that three vets could not hold still for long enough to take a blood sample from one of her front legs, so it's going to be an ongoing struggle but one we'll have to get used to.
7 Jun 2011
Up, Up, And Away
It's been a busy week at work so far and it's only Tuesday lunchtime. What with my business partner being away on his annual sojourn to Sri Lanka, I've been running the good ship Addit, Makeitup & Co on me lonesome. As you may know, at the moment my left hand would not look out of place on the end of Tuntenkhamun's left arm. The stitches came out yesterday, and a new swathe of bandage was duly applied by the comely Nurse Debbie. Anyway, a few clients have turned up with their annual accounting records, and their initial question on seeing my wrapped maw is always along the lines of "How did you do that?" A reasonable query, and so far I have resisted the urge to tell an Asian taxi driver, a permanently gloomy gardener, and a rather dim tradesman that my injury came about as the result of a Rugby wanking accident.
It's all your fault, and you know who you are..;)
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Staying on the wonderful Accountan-sea, a forum I'm a member of had an article from an American accountant called Blumer extolling the virtues of Cloud Accounting...no it's not the art of counting clouds. Full of largely unintelligible techno-bollocks like "With Cloud tools, we are able to help clients move into a world of managing “data flows” as opposed to doing accounting"...and..."The new breed of accountants will have to become experts in how computer systems talk to each other and how best to make them work together"...and..." innovative cloud providers are building products that are challenging our beliefs on how to process accounting data"...wake up at the back, there!
At the end of his tech-speak wibbling, he reckons..."The right systems are challenging the old out-dated way of doing things and proposing new ways to do it. Some won’t like it. But they can kiss my butt."
Fair enough Mr Blumer, who I bet is large of girth and sports a stetson on nights out at the rodeo with his equally fat wife, but it's difficult enough getting clients to write things down on paper, or maintain a simple spreadsheet a ten year old could do in their sleep, let alone teaching them how to wing stuff off into the ether. It's another world baby, and it ain't nowhere near Shoesville.
Mind you, the idea of an accountant using phrases like "kiss my butt" is quite amusing, I think I'll take it up!
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It's all your fault, and you know who you are..;)
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Staying on the wonderful Accountan-sea, a forum I'm a member of had an article from an American accountant called Blumer extolling the virtues of Cloud Accounting...no it's not the art of counting clouds. Full of largely unintelligible techno-bollocks like "With Cloud tools, we are able to help clients move into a world of managing “data flows” as opposed to doing accounting"...and..."The new breed of accountants will have to become experts in how computer systems talk to each other and how best to make them work together"...and..." innovative cloud providers are building products that are challenging our beliefs on how to process accounting data"...wake up at the back, there!
At the end of his tech-speak wibbling, he reckons..."The right systems are challenging the old out-dated way of doing things and proposing new ways to do it. Some won’t like it. But they can kiss my butt."
Fair enough Mr Blumer, who I bet is large of girth and sports a stetson on nights out at the rodeo with his equally fat wife, but it's difficult enough getting clients to write things down on paper, or maintain a simple spreadsheet a ten year old could do in their sleep, let alone teaching them how to wing stuff off into the ether. It's another world baby, and it ain't nowhere near Shoesville.
Mind you, the idea of an accountant using phrases like "kiss my butt" is quite amusing, I think I'll take it up!
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1 Jun 2011
It's Up Here Somewhere...
A news article on the BBC website under the heading Can pub quizzes survive in the smartphone era? has some sensible responses, most along the lines of "Yes, and the cheats ruin it for everyone else, so should be shot"...well maybe not quite that extreme. However, there are a few responders who reckon cheating is good and the quiz should adapt to their ways. One such incredulous response was this from "smoker_dave"..
The quiz needs to evolve. How about embracing smart phone technology and having rounds with very obscure questions that are designed to be Googled.
The world is changing. There is no need to memorise countless facts and figures any more. The people who get ahead are the ones who can search the reams of information and pick out the relevant results
If this bloke turned up at The Quiz With Gravitas with his mates, all brandishing their smartphones, I'd be inclined to tell them to fuck off, or stick the phones where the sun don't shine! My more measured actual response was..
What a ridiculous idea! A quiz is meant to exercise your grey matter, you know, that thing inbetween your ears. As your name implies I guess you do your cheating in the outside smoking area, come back to tell your team mates, thereby ruining it for everyone else. I hope you get caught!
I await his reply with interest!
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While walking to work this morning approaching me were two women both wearing big and very dark shades as is the current trend. One was nattering away to her mate, looking directly at her friend and not where she was going. She didn't see a dip in the pavement and nearly turned her ankle. Recovering she turned to her mate and in a surprised tone said "That's dangerous, I didn't see it" without a trace of irony.
For some reason they obviously were wondering why I was chuckling to myself as I walked past.
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Any fellow bloggers out there will be aware of the Stats tab, telling you how many hits one's wibblings have had, and from what sources. Some wag inexplicably came across this blog using the search words "pictures of the biggist (sic) sloppy poo". I've no idea how that leads here, unless it is a reference to my loose writing style, but I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to type it in Google!
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The mangled maw - an update..
Just over a week ago I had my latest Dupuytrens operation on my left ring finger. The cast came off two days after the op, but the stitches will remain until this Friday. Movement is good, if a bit sore and the finger is now straight! Result.
When I get the chance I'll put up some charming before and after photos for your revulsion.
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The quiz needs to evolve. How about embracing smart phone technology and having rounds with very obscure questions that are designed to be Googled.
The world is changing. There is no need to memorise countless facts and figures any more. The people who get ahead are the ones who can search the reams of information and pick out the relevant results
If this bloke turned up at The Quiz With Gravitas with his mates, all brandishing their smartphones, I'd be inclined to tell them to fuck off, or stick the phones where the sun don't shine! My more measured actual response was..
What a ridiculous idea! A quiz is meant to exercise your grey matter, you know, that thing inbetween your ears. As your name implies I guess you do your cheating in the outside smoking area, come back to tell your team mates, thereby ruining it for everyone else. I hope you get caught!
I await his reply with interest!
 |
| smoker_dave looks for his phone after visiting The Quiz With Gravitas |
While walking to work this morning approaching me were two women both wearing big and very dark shades as is the current trend. One was nattering away to her mate, looking directly at her friend and not where she was going. She didn't see a dip in the pavement and nearly turned her ankle. Recovering she turned to her mate and in a surprised tone said "That's dangerous, I didn't see it" without a trace of irony.
For some reason they obviously were wondering why I was chuckling to myself as I walked past.
..............................................................
Any fellow bloggers out there will be aware of the Stats tab, telling you how many hits one's wibblings have had, and from what sources. Some wag inexplicably came across this blog using the search words "pictures of the biggist (sic) sloppy poo". I've no idea how that leads here, unless it is a reference to my loose writing style, but I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to type it in Google!
..............................................................
The mangled maw - an update..
Just over a week ago I had my latest Dupuytrens operation on my left ring finger. The cast came off two days after the op, but the stitches will remain until this Friday. Movement is good, if a bit sore and the finger is now straight! Result.
When I get the chance I'll put up some charming before and after photos for your revulsion.
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30 May 2011
Tony Blair - A Journey
A not unexpectedly weighty tome this, and in some parts, especially the overlong treatises on foreign policy, not the easiest of reads, but not as dry as one might have expected. Written in a conversational style, Blair comes across as a man with a sharp mind, but without intellectual baggage, pseudo or otherwise. In fact he maybe tries too hard to come across as the Ordinary Bloke he plainly is not.
It is nigh on impossible to write a review of a political autobiography objectively as the reviewer inevitably brings his or her own political bias to the table, however I'll try. Taking the book as a series of themes, this is my take...
New Labour
Blair was elected to Parliament when Labour was under the ideologically pure but hopeless leadership of Michael Foot, and Blair obviously has affection for Foot, but not for his party's then hidebound and completely out of touch policies. Blair sees the modernisation of the Labour Party as essential to making them electable and he's probably right, but he fails to see that his taking Labour to the centre and thereby pulling the Conservatives in the same direction has contributed in no small part to the general population's political apathy.
It is repeated many times in the latter parts of the book that in Blair's opinion if Brown was to deviate an inch from New Labour's tenet of introducing the free market into public services as a means of modernisation then they would lose to the Tories. I disagree completely with that idea. As one of thousands of disaffected Labour voters I voted Lib Dem in 2010 (God help me) purely because Gordon Brown was not and never would be Prime Minister material, not because he disagreed with Blair's version of modernisation.
Blair can be justifiably proud of dragging the Welfare State into the modern age which was the fulcrum of New Labour thinking, but I'm afraid for me New Labour remains a compromise, not a vision.
Gordon Brown
The relationship is described in minute detail and Blair goes to great lengths to describe Brown's treachery in daring to disagree with what some might see as Blair's Conservative tendencies where private capital is concerned, disguised as progressivism, but he does it in a manner that places the blame on GB's team, not on the man himself. He distills the ongoing and understandable resentment on Brown's part for Blair not handing over when initially promised by stating that he would only go if GB promised to continue New Labour's (read Blair's) reform program, something Brown was increasingly reluctant to do. Indeed why should he have given a promise to effectively put his own ideas on the back burner?
However, Blair goes out of his way to praise Brown's numerous contributions and talents on more than a few occasions, so it's obvious Blair still has affection for his old friend. It will be interesting to read Brown's take on the breakdown of the relationship, should he ever write it.
War & Peace
We've all got our opinions on the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war, and no amount of justification by Blair is going to change my view that the conflict was plainly wrong. Blair ultimately justifies the conflict by way of stating that if we hadn't removed Saddam when we did, he would have had to be removed at some later point anyway.
Firstly I thought that the reason for the war was Saddam's capacity to make and deploy WMDs? Secondly, why would "we" have had to remove him at a later point? I would have thought the first countries to be involved in any extraction would be Iraq's Arab neighbours, should the need arise.
Blair makes the point that Great Britain as a nation has a prominent role to play in world politics as a direct result of his ensuring our involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq etc. I think most folk in our tiny nation stuck here on the edge of Europe do not share our leaders' (of whatever political persuasion) obsession with clinging on to some vestige of long forgotten (by the population at least) Imperial power. The billions to be spent on renewing Trident, a symbol more than a useful military tool, and a decision Blair almost said no to but didn't have the balls, would be far better spent on incentivising the economy to ease the lot of the burgeoning jobless total.
It is plain that Blair does carry the weight of those who died in the various conflicts he had us involved in, and he is deeply sorry for the fact, but there remains no doubt in his mind he made the right decision where Iraq was concerned. I don't suppose we should have expected anything different on that front.
The achievement that New Labour and Blair should rightly be applauded for and the achievement that should have been Blair's legacy was getting the Northern Ireland peace agreement finalised and working against seemingly impossible odds. Mo Mowlem is portrayed as being only peripheral to the triumph, as Blair clearly views it as his legacy. If he can pull off a similar feat in his new role as Middle East Envoy with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict then Iraq may be forgiven.
The media
Blair started out as the media darling, spun them into at first annoyance and later downright hostility, and ended by being hunted at every turn.
Complaining that the media tried to bury him and and New Labour in the sleaze storm over cash for honours and the comical sideline of gravity's effects on Prescott's trousers when in the presence of his diary secretary, Blair says being hounded out that way would have been "reputationally ghastly".
I consider complaining about the media having wound them round his pinky for so long is somewhat disingenuous.
Regrets
A few, but too few to mention. Oh, alright then...he regrets the Fox Hunting legislation, and the Freedom Of Information Act. The former shows he's out of touch with majority opinion and the latter shows contempt for that same majority.
In conclusion, this book will not alter what most folk see as defining Blair - The Iraq War, and entrenched opinions will not change. I've come out of reading this with more respect for the man, but I don't like him now any more than before, but that's probably how he would want it.
It is nigh on impossible to write a review of a political autobiography objectively as the reviewer inevitably brings his or her own political bias to the table, however I'll try. Taking the book as a series of themes, this is my take...
New Labour
Blair was elected to Parliament when Labour was under the ideologically pure but hopeless leadership of Michael Foot, and Blair obviously has affection for Foot, but not for his party's then hidebound and completely out of touch policies. Blair sees the modernisation of the Labour Party as essential to making them electable and he's probably right, but he fails to see that his taking Labour to the centre and thereby pulling the Conservatives in the same direction has contributed in no small part to the general population's political apathy.
It is repeated many times in the latter parts of the book that in Blair's opinion if Brown was to deviate an inch from New Labour's tenet of introducing the free market into public services as a means of modernisation then they would lose to the Tories. I disagree completely with that idea. As one of thousands of disaffected Labour voters I voted Lib Dem in 2010 (God help me) purely because Gordon Brown was not and never would be Prime Minister material, not because he disagreed with Blair's version of modernisation.
Blair can be justifiably proud of dragging the Welfare State into the modern age which was the fulcrum of New Labour thinking, but I'm afraid for me New Labour remains a compromise, not a vision.
Gordon Brown
The relationship is described in minute detail and Blair goes to great lengths to describe Brown's treachery in daring to disagree with what some might see as Blair's Conservative tendencies where private capital is concerned, disguised as progressivism, but he does it in a manner that places the blame on GB's team, not on the man himself. He distills the ongoing and understandable resentment on Brown's part for Blair not handing over when initially promised by stating that he would only go if GB promised to continue New Labour's (read Blair's) reform program, something Brown was increasingly reluctant to do. Indeed why should he have given a promise to effectively put his own ideas on the back burner?
However, Blair goes out of his way to praise Brown's numerous contributions and talents on more than a few occasions, so it's obvious Blair still has affection for his old friend. It will be interesting to read Brown's take on the breakdown of the relationship, should he ever write it.
War & Peace
We've all got our opinions on the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war, and no amount of justification by Blair is going to change my view that the conflict was plainly wrong. Blair ultimately justifies the conflict by way of stating that if we hadn't removed Saddam when we did, he would have had to be removed at some later point anyway.
Firstly I thought that the reason for the war was Saddam's capacity to make and deploy WMDs? Secondly, why would "we" have had to remove him at a later point? I would have thought the first countries to be involved in any extraction would be Iraq's Arab neighbours, should the need arise.
Blair makes the point that Great Britain as a nation has a prominent role to play in world politics as a direct result of his ensuring our involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq etc. I think most folk in our tiny nation stuck here on the edge of Europe do not share our leaders' (of whatever political persuasion) obsession with clinging on to some vestige of long forgotten (by the population at least) Imperial power. The billions to be spent on renewing Trident, a symbol more than a useful military tool, and a decision Blair almost said no to but didn't have the balls, would be far better spent on incentivising the economy to ease the lot of the burgeoning jobless total.
It is plain that Blair does carry the weight of those who died in the various conflicts he had us involved in, and he is deeply sorry for the fact, but there remains no doubt in his mind he made the right decision where Iraq was concerned. I don't suppose we should have expected anything different on that front.
The achievement that New Labour and Blair should rightly be applauded for and the achievement that should have been Blair's legacy was getting the Northern Ireland peace agreement finalised and working against seemingly impossible odds. Mo Mowlem is portrayed as being only peripheral to the triumph, as Blair clearly views it as his legacy. If he can pull off a similar feat in his new role as Middle East Envoy with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict then Iraq may be forgiven.
The media
Blair started out as the media darling, spun them into at first annoyance and later downright hostility, and ended by being hunted at every turn.
Complaining that the media tried to bury him and and New Labour in the sleaze storm over cash for honours and the comical sideline of gravity's effects on Prescott's trousers when in the presence of his diary secretary, Blair says being hounded out that way would have been "reputationally ghastly".
I consider complaining about the media having wound them round his pinky for so long is somewhat disingenuous.
Regrets
A few, but too few to mention. Oh, alright then...he regrets the Fox Hunting legislation, and the Freedom Of Information Act. The former shows he's out of touch with majority opinion and the latter shows contempt for that same majority.
In conclusion, this book will not alter what most folk see as defining Blair - The Iraq War, and entrenched opinions will not change. I've come out of reading this with more respect for the man, but I don't like him now any more than before, but that's probably how he would want it.
29 May 2011
Lick My Decals Off Baby
...or fawn at the altar of fanboy (and it is nearly always boys) tv.
What is it about children's tv programme Doctor Who that makes otherwise intelligent males of all adult ages lose any sense of critical faculty?
I can envisage that sentence alone getting them hot under the collar, but come on! Take last night's double episode concluder to The Almost People, which had an old fashioned DW plot - isolated humans take on beasties/mutants* and win against seemingly impossible odds, while planet explodes/melts* (*insert adjectives of choice). Fair enough, I've no problem with that, and I would have thoroughly enjoyed it as a 14 year old. The fact something as adolescent and simple as that has blokes in their 30s, 40s, and older enthralled mystifies me I must say. It can't all be down to the admittedly delicious Amy Pond can it??
Apart from the short burst of intrigue at the end advancing the season's rolling story I felt the entire episode was a bit...meh. I did just manage to stay awake though, but there have been episodes in this season where that has not proved possible for my aging bones.
As for the rolling story, I won't elaborate here, as some may not yet have seen last night's episode (you only need watch the last two minutes), but I bet its conclusion will make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
It seems only the Yanks can make sci-fi with grown up storylines that (a) require a bit of life experience to follow (b) actually make sense outside of a pseudo-science framework. Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica being two fine examples.
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So, you curmudgeonly old bastard, what do you reckon is good tv at the moment I hear you say?
The Shadow Line is great in a "take your eye off it for a second and you'll have to rewind" way. An understated copper with a double life (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a moody and reluctant drug baron (Christopher Ecclestone) with a mad, threatening lieutenant (Rafe Spall - no really!) investigate the murder of Ecclestone's former boss hours after being released on a Royal Pardon from a long drug supply conviction, with sub plots revolving around the copper's double life, an investigative reporter and a shadowy and comprehensively nasty is-he-a-gangster-or-a-spook guy called Gatehouse who dresses like a character from 50s film noir. Utterly captivating stuff.
Apart from that there is not a lot of interest on at the moment. I still watch Jools Holland's Later, even though he very rarely deviates from inviting whatever is currently "hot" combined with an endless list of R&B (old definition) belters and a few folkies of both the old school and world variety. I'm not going to stumble across the next (or even the first) Porcupine Tree watching this, but as it's the only even slightly non-mainstream music prog on trad tv, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.
Can't wait for the new series of Forbrydelsen (that's The Killing - original Danish version) later this year. Ok, it's not quite as good as the Swedish Wallander, but it'll more than do. If you've yet to sample the delights of Sarah Lund's Fairisle sweaters you should give it a go. Apparently so popular are these patterened knitted jumpers that the company that makes them in the Faroe Islands had to take on extra staff to cope with demand.
It has to be said that BBC4 is the best and most innovative tv channel available on Freeview, and long may it continue!
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What is it about children's tv programme Doctor Who that makes otherwise intelligent males of all adult ages lose any sense of critical faculty?
I can envisage that sentence alone getting them hot under the collar, but come on! Take last night's double episode concluder to The Almost People, which had an old fashioned DW plot - isolated humans take on beasties/mutants* and win against seemingly impossible odds, while planet explodes/melts* (*insert adjectives of choice). Fair enough, I've no problem with that, and I would have thoroughly enjoyed it as a 14 year old. The fact something as adolescent and simple as that has blokes in their 30s, 40s, and older enthralled mystifies me I must say. It can't all be down to the admittedly delicious Amy Pond can it??
Apart from the short burst of intrigue at the end advancing the season's rolling story I felt the entire episode was a bit...meh. I did just manage to stay awake though, but there have been episodes in this season where that has not proved possible for my aging bones.
As for the rolling story, I won't elaborate here, as some may not yet have seen last night's episode (you only need watch the last two minutes), but I bet its conclusion will make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
It seems only the Yanks can make sci-fi with grown up storylines that (a) require a bit of life experience to follow (b) actually make sense outside of a pseudo-science framework. Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica being two fine examples.
..............................................................
So, you curmudgeonly old bastard, what do you reckon is good tv at the moment I hear you say?
The Shadow Line is great in a "take your eye off it for a second and you'll have to rewind" way. An understated copper with a double life (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a moody and reluctant drug baron (Christopher Ecclestone) with a mad, threatening lieutenant (Rafe Spall - no really!) investigate the murder of Ecclestone's former boss hours after being released on a Royal Pardon from a long drug supply conviction, with sub plots revolving around the copper's double life, an investigative reporter and a shadowy and comprehensively nasty is-he-a-gangster-or-a-spook guy called Gatehouse who dresses like a character from 50s film noir. Utterly captivating stuff.
Apart from that there is not a lot of interest on at the moment. I still watch Jools Holland's Later, even though he very rarely deviates from inviting whatever is currently "hot" combined with an endless list of R&B (old definition) belters and a few folkies of both the old school and world variety. I'm not going to stumble across the next (or even the first) Porcupine Tree watching this, but as it's the only even slightly non-mainstream music prog on trad tv, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.
Can't wait for the new series of Forbrydelsen (that's The Killing - original Danish version) later this year. Ok, it's not quite as good as the Swedish Wallander, but it'll more than do. If you've yet to sample the delights of Sarah Lund's Fairisle sweaters you should give it a go. Apparently so popular are these patterened knitted jumpers that the company that makes them in the Faroe Islands had to take on extra staff to cope with demand.
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| Chunky! |
It has to be said that BBC4 is the best and most innovative tv channel available on Freeview, and long may it continue!
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