Dogs
Hampstead Heath
Jesus's House
Bertie outside Jesus's house
A hill
Some cars
Jardin de la paradis
Some cars
Monday, 2 February 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Out in the cold
I have never really been interested in EC competition law (or law in general?) but this year its hard to ignore. The feeling is reflected at university and whilst teaching I've been shocked at the amount of emails and that people are willing to stay an extra 10 minutes to talk about the economy and Europe. Well, ever the eurocentric, whats going on?
Well, I just saw a bit of the darling Peter Mandelson on BBC breakfast talking about the 'strikes' with the ever annoying & patronising Bill Turnball/Sian Williams duo trying to make him say 'yes those bloody Italians are taking the jobs and we're all very upset and an awful government - so much so that I will whip myself silly when I get back to my Kensington Palace'. Now then, I want to believe that this is purely a knee jerk reaction from a few xenophobic (and upset) workers in various international companies but I also want to believe that this is part of something much bigger - that the EUs 'laissez faire' approach is now starting to crumble. As much as the Daily Mail will attempt to amplify and indeed exaggerate the current state of play as something new-the reality is that its been going on since the 1960s (or possibly since the middle ages?). The EU operates on free movement ideology - the core foundation with which the institutions work with. Free movement of goods means that we get cheap(ish) Food, CDs, DVDs, books and clothes and all other kinds of delightful consumerist products. Free movement of capital entails those cheap holidays in Spaaayne* and Rhooadz. Free movement of persons translates to the notion that I can go study/live/work in any of the 27 EU member states meaning that for every picture of an dirty Italian using his middle fingers to express affection to the British paparazzi - there are British workers working as Hairdressers or Plumbers in Mallorca and lawyers in Brussels. So theres a bit of a strike that has something to do with foreign workers. Now then, aside from this one of my favourite past times is to look at the Daily Mail comments pages - these reflect what the 'real man' of England thinks and here you can find some real corkers:
Does Brown McBean and Nu-Lie-bour not realise that the majority of people in Britain do not want to be in Europe ! Oh, he didn't give the British people the referendum he promised, so he doesn't know then does he. I must be really thick !!
- John UK tax payer, Ex Pat, Bangkok, Thailand, 2/2/2009 4:52
Ahhhh...John the ex-pat who lives with his Thai-bride, so frustrated was he that he took his fat arse over to Bangkok to moan to the good people of Thailand about how crap Britain is whilst bolting down an English Breakfast (extra bacon please!). But John's got a point which I guess I have been to proud to admit. The UK does need a referendum. 'The people of Britain' need to have a voice and to once and for all make a decision. But really I am intrigued. What would happen? We would pull out, lose our free movement status, have no control on the budget, no access to state aid, no funding for research (especially when we're leading the way in Climate Change!). Essentially we'd fall into decay like my rotten back teeth - thats what would happen (but we'd have our paaahnd and sovereignty!).
I dont have the answers and I never pretend that I do but one thing that I have learnt in my short pathetic existence is that most people reject things because they dont understand them. They're ignorant as to whats going on across the pond. I should know as I was for some time thinking the exact same way - as do many people who are the the product of a working class family in the UK. So what to suggest? Well, maybe it would be good if schools started to teach a class along the lines of 'what happens outside of the UK/other white countries we have conquered'. At school we were taught a subject called PD or CIS...or something... which was basically citizenship. This was OK up until the fact that it only encompassed the UK and what the UK is about...and how you can claim benefits.... but why not throw in what the United Nations stand for - or what the EU does... hell, why not teach da kids a bit about the world rather than making us draw (and remember) what the inside of a British WWI trench looks like?
Ok, I have gone off on a tangent but my point is that the WildCat strikes that are taking place at the moment in the UK can easily spin out of control and turn into some kind of pseudo xenophobic/racist attack on our fellow Europeans which will feul the already anti EU press. What needs to be realised is that these strikes are the consequence of free liberal markets that have dominated the EC for four decades and something that we have benefited from (Auf Wierdersehen Pet!, Basildon/UK ex-pats in sunny Spaaayne). But we are really at the cross roads here: more anti EU sentiment will only push us further away from the EU (and interestingly Obama's America) - we need the EU more than ever before (Look to our Nordic Neighbours Iceland).
Beyond all of this, the real reason for the bitterness is a mixture of the obvious economic downturn, but also the deep thorn in the UK's side which is that we do not lead Europe - and when the UK doesnt lead in something it loses interest and the public turn against it... this has happened with all of our Commonwealth 'friends'. Nonetheless the EU is changing - probably (and hopefully) the biggest since its birth in 1957. There will be a new Commission and new elections in Parliament. There are climate change deals, economic deals and that silent Treaty who will eventually creep up and bite Gordon Brown on the bum... but the big issue is whether we bother to participate and discuss what the EU is about or do we continue with the same 'Tony, Ex-pat builder/taxpayer/daily mail reader who lives in Torremolinos' attitude.
*Spaayne rhymes with Wayne
Well, I just saw a bit of the darling Peter Mandelson on BBC breakfast talking about the 'strikes' with the ever annoying & patronising Bill Turnball/Sian Williams duo trying to make him say 'yes those bloody Italians are taking the jobs and we're all very upset and an awful government - so much so that I will whip myself silly when I get back to my Kensington Palace'. Now then, I want to believe that this is purely a knee jerk reaction from a few xenophobic (and upset) workers in various international companies but I also want to believe that this is part of something much bigger - that the EUs 'laissez faire' approach is now starting to crumble. As much as the Daily Mail will attempt to amplify and indeed exaggerate the current state of play as something new-the reality is that its been going on since the 1960s (or possibly since the middle ages?). The EU operates on free movement ideology - the core foundation with which the institutions work with. Free movement of goods means that we get cheap(ish) Food, CDs, DVDs, books and clothes and all other kinds of delightful consumerist products. Free movement of capital entails those cheap holidays in Spaaayne* and Rhooadz. Free movement of persons translates to the notion that I can go study/live/work in any of the 27 EU member states meaning that for every picture of an dirty Italian using his middle fingers to express affection to the British paparazzi - there are British workers working as Hairdressers or Plumbers in Mallorca and lawyers in Brussels. So theres a bit of a strike that has something to do with foreign workers. Now then, aside from this one of my favourite past times is to look at the Daily Mail comments pages - these reflect what the 'real man' of England thinks and here you can find some real corkers:
Does Brown McBean and Nu-Lie-bour not realise that the majority of people in Britain do not want to be in Europe ! Oh, he didn't give the British people the referendum he promised, so he doesn't know then does he. I must be really thick !!
- John UK tax payer, Ex Pat, Bangkok, Thailand, 2/2/2009 4:52
Ahhhh...John the ex-pat who lives with his Thai-bride, so frustrated was he that he took his fat arse over to Bangkok to moan to the good people of Thailand about how crap Britain is whilst bolting down an English Breakfast (extra bacon please!). But John's got a point which I guess I have been to proud to admit. The UK does need a referendum. 'The people of Britain' need to have a voice and to once and for all make a decision. But really I am intrigued. What would happen? We would pull out, lose our free movement status, have no control on the budget, no access to state aid, no funding for research (especially when we're leading the way in Climate Change!). Essentially we'd fall into decay like my rotten back teeth - thats what would happen (but we'd have our paaahnd and sovereignty!).
I dont have the answers and I never pretend that I do but one thing that I have learnt in my short pathetic existence is that most people reject things because they dont understand them. They're ignorant as to whats going on across the pond. I should know as I was for some time thinking the exact same way - as do many people who are the the product of a working class family in the UK. So what to suggest? Well, maybe it would be good if schools started to teach a class along the lines of 'what happens outside of the UK/other white countries we have conquered'. At school we were taught a subject called PD or CIS...or something... which was basically citizenship. This was OK up until the fact that it only encompassed the UK and what the UK is about...and how you can claim benefits.... but why not throw in what the United Nations stand for - or what the EU does... hell, why not teach da kids a bit about the world rather than making us draw (and remember) what the inside of a British WWI trench looks like?
Ok, I have gone off on a tangent but my point is that the WildCat strikes that are taking place at the moment in the UK can easily spin out of control and turn into some kind of pseudo xenophobic/racist attack on our fellow Europeans which will feul the already anti EU press. What needs to be realised is that these strikes are the consequence of free liberal markets that have dominated the EC for four decades and something that we have benefited from (Auf Wierdersehen Pet!, Basildon/UK ex-pats in sunny Spaaayne). But we are really at the cross roads here: more anti EU sentiment will only push us further away from the EU (and interestingly Obama's America) - we need the EU more than ever before (Look to our Nordic Neighbours Iceland).
Beyond all of this, the real reason for the bitterness is a mixture of the obvious economic downturn, but also the deep thorn in the UK's side which is that we do not lead Europe - and when the UK doesnt lead in something it loses interest and the public turn against it... this has happened with all of our Commonwealth 'friends'. Nonetheless the EU is changing - probably (and hopefully) the biggest since its birth in 1957. There will be a new Commission and new elections in Parliament. There are climate change deals, economic deals and that silent Treaty who will eventually creep up and bite Gordon Brown on the bum... but the big issue is whether we bother to participate and discuss what the EU is about or do we continue with the same 'Tony, Ex-pat builder/taxpayer/daily mail reader who lives in Torremolinos' attitude.
*Spaayne rhymes with Wayne
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Maybe I'm Amazed
I just listened to Paul McCartney's first solo album which I've been meaning to get for ages but for some reason I've never bought. I don't know if its because of how I feel at this particular stage in life or because I love McCartney's music -maybe its a it of both - but anyway its just brilliant. Its so simple and beautiful. Maybe you have to understand what the guy was going through to get the album but even if you don't know that, its just brilliant. What a musician.
Monday, 29 December 2008
My Imaginary Allotment
I've been stuck in bed all day today fighting some weird fever/vomiting illness that just wont die. Out of sheer boredom I decided that the best thing for me to do was to have something to look forward to. When I get ill I usually make a pact with myself, something along the lines of 'when I'm better, I promise I will be active, say hello to my neighbours more and fix that bloody drawer that doesn't shut properly'. Of course, once the illness has passed my pact goes out of the window and runs down the road shouting 'loser'. I then go back to eating crisps, laughing at crap panel shows on bbc iPlayer and banging my drawer until it closes shut.
Ah ha!
But today I thought to myself, 'hey why not do something now so that when the repercussion comes you will have to do something you lazy shit.' So I've ordered myself a potato grow bag.According to the website I should e able to yield about 20-30 lbs of potatoes over the winter. Yeah eat that Boris Johnson! My real pact though is that when the spud-bag arrives I will get more of these little sacks that sit out in the garden. Peas, carrots, peppers, maybe a goat... the list is endless. The truth is that come March I will probably end up with a mouldy sack damp with next doors cat wee.
The soon to be cat-piss-infested potato sack
Ah ha!
But today I thought to myself, 'hey why not do something now so that when the repercussion comes you will have to do something you lazy shit.' So I've ordered myself a potato grow bag.According to the website I should e able to yield about 20-30 lbs of potatoes over the winter. Yeah eat that Boris Johnson! My real pact though is that when the spud-bag arrives I will get more of these little sacks that sit out in the garden. Peas, carrots, peppers, maybe a goat... the list is endless. The truth is that come March I will probably end up with a mouldy sack damp with next doors cat wee.
The soon to be cat-piss-infested potato sack
Sunday, 30 November 2008
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem?
Today we will see the Lord Turner and the Committee for Climate Change flex their muscles for what is surely to be the most untimely advancement in the last three years of the world going 'green'. The Committee will essentially set out emission targets for the the present and distant future governments at a time when most people are losing sleep on how they can feed their consumer habits. Economics and Environmental Policy have apparently never seen eye to eye - that is until the Stern review of 2006 which essentially predicted what is happening right now: the economy works with ecology. If were having difficulty digging it out of the ground and pumping it into the air then we're going to have difficulty filling our bellies with food. So here we are, 2008 will soon see in 2009 and will ultimately bring us to one of the biggest recession the west has witnessed. It will cost Europe at least twice as much as the two world wars put together. Scared? Well, Lord Turner doesnt seem to be. Lord Turner, you see is also the new Chairman of the FSA and is also backing the Government with the expansion of Heathrow. You just cant make these things up.
We will have to wait and see if today's news will put the UK at the foreground of emission targets but what is more interesting and important for me is whether we have learnt anything in the last few years? Surely now is the time to start growing your own potatoes in your back yard? To cycle to work on that bike, to stop those cheap flight holidays and pull on the extra cardigan for the sake of the electricity bill? I've been thinking of what I should do with this blog for a while and there's just one thing for it - it has to turn into a 'holier than thou' green blog. I cant hide it anymore, I cant resist the smugness of cycling everywhere I go and recycling everything I buy (almost). Being green is like being a Catholic...you've got to spread the word.
We will have to wait and see if today's news will put the UK at the foreground of emission targets but what is more interesting and important for me is whether we have learnt anything in the last few years? Surely now is the time to start growing your own potatoes in your back yard? To cycle to work on that bike, to stop those cheap flight holidays and pull on the extra cardigan for the sake of the electricity bill? I've been thinking of what I should do with this blog for a while and there's just one thing for it - it has to turn into a 'holier than thou' green blog. I cant hide it anymore, I cant resist the smugness of cycling everywhere I go and recycling everything I buy (almost). Being green is like being a Catholic...you've got to spread the word.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Casa de Dramatismo
I am living in a strange Spanish-cum-latin American comedy/soap opera. Its true. All of my flatmates are from a Latin descent and some days it really feels like a punch line will come and the credits will roll to the sound of pseudo audience applause and laughter. Each of my flatmates have their character, the busy mum, the drunkard dad, the wayward hippy daughter. They all have their distinct trades (Teacher, Carpenter and Journalist). Then there's the boyfriends, girlfriends, friends and more friends of the flatmates. Musicians, air hostesses, shopkeepers, gardeners, lecturers, cleaners, plumbers. Mix all of this together and you have a Latin cocktail of music, dancing, talking food and talking. Especially talking. Once youre in the kitchen you can be stuck there for a minimum of one hour, and it always ends on the same topic : politics. Whether its Galtieri or Zapatero, the talk will always be how awful or great the leader has been. Of late it has been how awful Johnson is, the Colombian flatmate is adamant that Boris is an awful awful man that mirrors everything that is wrong with the UK. ''Dayvid I have a been in this coo-ntery for thixteen years and this a man isa not good....he is a wanker''. This sentence is usually the opener for him to pick up the Evening Standard and point to page 7. Anyway, I dont want to sound like a Boris obsessive, because I am not.
The main thing is that the Latin soap opera is passionate and I have learned that if you want to be in the show you have to play the part. Be dramatic in political and historical debate, laugh when the men laugh, catch the winks, slap each other on the backs and generally not behave so British.
The main thing is that the Latin soap opera is passionate and I have learned that if you want to be in the show you have to play the part. Be dramatic in political and historical debate, laugh when the men laugh, catch the winks, slap each other on the backs and generally not behave so British.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Cos Im a Muswell Hillbilly Boy
Its been well over a year now since my obsession with the kinks began and I still cant stop listening to the genius that is Ray Davies. I dont know why no one introduced me them earlier but I am glad someone did. Its a dangerous phrase amongst music gurus but The Kinks truly are one of my favourite bands. Lately I have discovered Ray's catalogue of theatrical work - which is grotesqley silly yet tender and to the point.
I think I could sit and write all day about what the kinks are and what they stood for but I shant, I will just leave it here with 'Til Death Us Do Part' which is lovely and beautifully delivered and Cricket, which is...well... just silly.
I think I could sit and write all day about what the kinks are and what they stood for but I shant, I will just leave it here with 'Til Death Us Do Part' which is lovely and beautifully delivered and Cricket, which is...well... just silly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
