29th December 2011

Not quite the bleak mid-winter.

It has it seems rained non stop since we got back from Genoa and looks like it will continue to rain until we leave for Spain, where of course it rains mainly on the plain.

But here we are mid-way between Christmas, feast of consumerism and maxing out credit cards in order to help the economy, and New Year, time for resolutions, or should that be revolutions.

The agenda for 2012 appears to be setting itself as a continuation of the 2011 agenda.

So more agonising over Europe and the Euro.

More Afghanistan.

More broken Britain.

More recession.

More all in it together.

More extravagant expenditure by those who have it to spend.

More tightening of purses by those who don't.

More Con-dem government.

This year the bleak mid-winter might drift into a bleak spring and a bleaker summer especially if the threatened recession actually materialises.

So I think that an early night is called for on Saturday followed by a quiet and reflective New Year's Day.

2011ended as years tend to do by the Archbishop preaching at Canterbury Cathedral followed by 'outraged' of Tunbridge Wells demanding that he keeps his nose out of politics, this because he quoted from the long exhortation in Cranmer's Prayer Book the 350th Anniversary of which happens to fall in 2012:

If ye shall perceive your offences to be such as are not only against God but also against your neighbours; then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them; being ready to make restitution".


He went on to suggest that maybe rioters and bankers helping themselves to what perhaps wasn't rightfully theirs i.e. bonuses or trainers from Loot-locker, had something in common.

But given that David Cameron had announced that we were still a Christian country it seemed reasonable to me, if not to 'outraged' of Tunbridge Wells, for an Archbishop to remind us what exactly being a christian country might mean.

Of course 350 years ago things weren't exactly quiet on either the religious or the political front, with upheavals and executions as the political pendulum swung between protestant reform and catholic supremacy, things are certainly quieter now.

Cranmer was burnt at the stake in 1556 after Queen Mary, a Catholic, assumed the Throne.

2011 ended with more deaths in London and Manchester and there is little to encourage us to believe that 2012 will be any quieter or more peaceful.

We will it seems remain a divided and torn society in the year ahead so I think that the precept of Micah might offer the best and most positive hope for a New Year:

Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.


That would be some revolution ..........

24th December 2011

The Santa run had to be postponed.

The Harley was fine, more a case of a willing spirit and weak flesh on the part of the rider.

Besides there is the Crib Service with the grandchildren at 3 00 pm.

So we curled up on the settee with a coffee and read the Newspapers.

Of course its all year end stuff, will things get better in the New Year? Will the constant encouragement to overspend and load the credit card with debt mean, as a famous Private Eye Christmas record released in the sixties had it, that there will be a profit (sic) over the land?

The papers are full of lectures from politicians and pundits telling us how to go about helping to end the downturn and avoid the inevitable recession that is feared.

The big society seems to have fizzled out.

There is no future in the rhetoric of all in it together when the 99% are camped outside St Paul's and the 1% are drinking Champagne and eating steak in the restaurants in Knightsbridge.

Maybe we will wake up in 2012 to be reminded that this is the year of International Co-operation.

From those 28 pioneers in Rochdale in 1844 the Co-op has grown into a world wide phenomenon.

As the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the launch of the International Year, Cooperatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.

At a meet the Candidates session in Penrith before the last election I asked the candidates about co-operation. The Conservative candidate dismissed the idea out of hand as naive.

The IYC web-site has a blog' see: http://uncoopsyear.wordpress.com/

It seems to me that providing a 100 million jobs around the world as co-operatives do, is anything but niaive.

Communism has failed, although the totalitarian repression of many 'communist' regimes was not actually communism.

Capitalism is also failing to provide either economic viability or social responsibility.

So maybe IYC 2012 can open a debate about the way forward in a world where religious oppression and totalitarianism are in the ascendant.

Maybe the big society will work if it becomes the co-operative society. 

My first job was as a delivery boy for the co-op in Stoke on Trent. I had a bicycle with a huge basket on the front and I delivered the orders, long before supermarkets came up with slogans like, you shop, we drop, the co-op was delivering customer's orders, or at least I was.

It's a long journey from a push bike to a Harley, I can't imagine pedalling a bike now, but maybe if the weather picks up I might get to try out my new Christmas present, motorcycle boots, early in the year of co-operation .......


 

21st December 2011

I wonder what Mrs Cameron is buying Mr Cameron for Christmas?

I imagine that they have enjoyed reading How to Spend It together, planning what kind of presents would impress their friends in Oxfordshire or on Boxing day at Chequers.

Given his recent gruelling schedule I imagine ear plugs and a face mask to enable him to nap as he flies around the world, would be a good present.

Alternately a phrase book so he can say NO in twenty seven languages or, perhaps a dedicated iphone so that he can stay in in touch with the Chancellor, that would be useful when the Triple A rating is reduced to Alpha Minus and they need to call the Samaritans!

David Lammy's book on the riots makes interesting reading.

Whilst it is not polemical its analysis is insightful and has the benefit of being based on personal experience, you get the feeling that he was there. It also, usefully, positions him as the future Barack Obama of Tottenham when he makes his bid as the next leader of the Labour Party.

The analysis is good but the prescription, as is so often the case is weak, not every gang member or young hoodie or single parent family wants a key worker sitting at the kitchen table offering guidance.

They just want a share of the profits.

Essentially Lammy is looking carefully to find that ephemeral thing, good capitalism, in which workers can feel that they have a stake.

And in doing so he quite properly castigates the bankers for privatising profit and socialising their losses, they kept the profits for themselves and were then bailed out by the taxpayer, who has been encouraged by this dreadful con dem coalition to think of the people on benefits as their enemy rather than those who award themselves enormous bonuses or who year on year manage to avoid paying their taxes.

My father was a Bus Driver in Manchester, he didn't get a bonus other than the pride he took in his work and he paid his taxes.

As a public servant he was essential to the effective running of the urban infrastructure. He got people to work on time and he got them home again. Reading Lammy's book put me in touch with why people could take pride in being 'working class'.

Their wages represented a share of the profits.

His analysis of the impact of Council House sales by Mrs Thatcher is also accurate, it was the underlying cause of the ghettoisation of the unemployed and the constant reinforcing of the development of estates where generations of unemployed live increasingly dependant on benefits because they have been refused a share of the profits.

Lammy touches on the John Lewis Partnership which is certainly a better model than Lehman Brothers, but what he seems to have missed, although I haven't quite finished the book yet, so it might be in there, is the good old, old fashioned Co-op, where as a member I both own the business and have a share in the profits.

Mutualisation is not an old fashioned gimmick in fact it is a thoroughly modern concept and points us to a better and more co-operative relationship between all sections of society.

And it is urgently needed now because we are quite probably seeing the death throes of the Capitalist Dinosaur.

It's clearly broke and needs to be fixed, radically fixed.

To be radical means to get to the roots of things and to re-examine them.

2012 is the International Year of Co-operation. It offers an opportunity to get to the roots of how a society can be managed for the good of all its Citizens and put new systems into effect that mean that we all, not just the bankers amongst us, receive a share of the profits.

So I hope that Mrs Cameron finds something simple for Mr Cameron to enjoy during the Christmas recess, I suggest two tickets to Manchester and visit to the Co-operative Museum in Rochdale. 

Cheaper than a visit to the Leonardo Exhibition at the Tate and on the way home they can share the profits with a nice bottle of co-operative wine on the train..

19th December 2011

After we had left The Jewish Cemetery in Prague we felt that lunch was in order.

So we found a cafe, after we had all decided on what to eat I went to the bar to order.

Sitting at the bar were two Americans. They were discussing the beer. Gee, one opined, it tastes just like American beer.

I couldn't help myself, Ah well I offered, the clue is in the name, Budweiser,  a brewery in the city of Ceske Budejovice, right here in the Czech Republic. so it's no wonder it tastes the same, your American Beer is in reality Czech beer.

As I turned away from the Bar with our order I heard one American say to his countryman, what an ass ........

Of course they were right, I should not have listened to their conversation and I should have kept my mouth shut and my opinions to myself.

But it always happens to me when I visit another country.

I become infatuated with its culture, its history and its people.

I always hope to be taken for a local even though I don't speak any language other than English.

Although on one memorable occasion in Czech over an evening with my daughter's friends and their family I found myself drinking with Horst, the father and by the end of the evening we were getting along very well indeed, conversing in a language which I think should have been called Bekerovka after the famous Czech liquor.

Thoughts about the Czech Republic have come to the fore with the news that Vaclev Havel has died. His life is a reminder that there is Statesmanship and there are politicians.

Unfortunately at the moment we seem to have as a choice which is no choice, to choose between politicians who appear to have set out their political strategy as sixth formers or undergraduates, worked their way up the party apparatus until, without having worked in any other arena or capacity and without any real experience, have emerged as Government and Opposition.

Vaclev Havel both as a writer and a lifelong opponent and critic of the regimes that governed Czech was invited to exchange the prison cell for the Presidential Palace.

We are in a parlous state here in the UK, isolated now in Europe, with the Banks still calling the shots over our flat lining economy, with the deficit refusing to respond to the economic strategy agreed between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor as though they were answering a question for an upper sixth economics exam where the consequences for real people are not taken into account or considered to be of no account.

The big society is no more and now we are being offered the open society but truth to tell big or open makes little or no difference if we are sidelined in Europe and there is 'no money left' and now we are reduced to listening to platitudes, and seeing vague attempts to legislate for goodness, such as the proposed tax breaks for being married.

Back at the bar the Americans continued to drink their Czech Beer.

An altogether better American beer experience happened in 1985 sitting in a restaurant in Boston with my family, we were drinking Rolling Rock with our burgers and pizzas.

The people at the next table had ordered a pitcher and two arrived, but instead of sending it back they handed it over to us at our table.

We poured the beer and raised our glasses, Cheers we said.

As they got up to leave one of the party came over and asked if we were visiting, yes we said we were, he asked if we were Australian. No English, we replied.

You like American Beer? Yes we do, we love it ...........

16th December 2011

So the delinquent families have been identified and each will have a specially trained worker, it will be like the old advert for one of the banks, which showed a Bank Manager crouched in the wardrobe, looking like he had been caught 'in flagrante'.

Oops!

There is a lovely story told about  a caseworker being introduced to such a family by a senior colleague.

They drive onto the estate, dodging the children playing in the street, drive around the burnt out cars, trying to avoid the broken glass rubbish piled up in the road, and, arriving at the house, park and lock their car securely.

The senior colleague explains that this family is being brought up by a lone parent who looks after the seven boys, his wife having left some years before.

Their standards are low and their manners shocking, he explains, but if we can keep the family together we can keep an eye on them, it's an exercise in damage limitation, and this kind of support is cost effective, we save £2 for every £1 you cost.

Don't let them see that you're shocked the children are wild, two have already been in trouble and received custodial sentences and there are fears that all seven will end up before the courts, so the aim is to prevent that from happening.

As the climb over the garden gate, which is tied up with string, they see a large Alsatian Dog in the garden.

Don't worry says the senior colleague all these families have a large wild eyed dog in the house, but he adds, don't look into its eyes, it will think that you are challenging it.

So avoiding the dog's eyes,  they edge forward cautiously and knock on the dilapidated door.

The old man opens the door and lets them in, the dog follows them and proceeds to lie down in front of the coal fire.

They spend a few minutes talking about the boys, asking how the old man is and how they are all coping, the senior colleague asks if the children are attending school.

Around the table the family is eating lunch and proceed to throw bits of food toward the dog, the young caseworker is horrified by this display of poor manners, and even more horrified when the dog stands up, walks across the room, cocks its leg and relieves itself against the kitchen unit.

Eventually they finish their business and the new caseworker arranges to call again next week.

As they leave the house and head towards the gate, the old man calls out to them, Hey! Aren't yer taking yer bloody dog with yer .............

14th December 2011

The Queen of Shops has spoken and Little Mix has won the X Factor.

How long before the girl group are appointed special advisers to George Osborne or David Cameron on some irrelevant topic as another specious attempt to rekindle public interest in their failing big society project?

We need to start shopping again, the High Street is threatened let's have an X Factor style makeover.

Better, cheaper parking. Fewer planning restrictions. Lower rates. Fewer shiny sheds. More pop up markets.

Well who knows? Ms Portas may have a point.

But comparing the High Street in Genoa with the High Street in Carlisle I would say that none of the above apply.

Parking in Genoa is a nightmare.

The shops are zoned in the sense that the High value stores line the better streets with the better addresses whilst the lower end stores, pop markets etc are found in the Old Town with the second hand shops. There are no Charity Shop,s Italians don't do charity shops.

Rates in Genoa are universally high.

Like in the UK the shiny sheds are out of town, Ikea is in Sestri for example, which is out of town and needs a bus, car or scooter to get to.

I guess that my own experience is not necessarily the same as yours or indeed Ms Portas, but the reason I don't shop much, either in Genoa or Carlisle, arises from two compelling reasons.

The lack of money and the Internet.

I do feel guilty when I buy another ebook from Amazon, I know that the closure of another lovely, local bookstore is imminent.

But the cost benefit ratio is clearly with Amazon. Oh, I know that there are Libraries, (just about).

But the ebook is instantly delivered to my kindle, I don't have to venture out into the rain and ice, don't have to drive around for hours before I can park, don't have to negotiate the in-house critic's wheelchair through a generally inaccessible town centre.

And, generally it is cheaper, which, given that my disposable income like most peoples (other than Bankers and Politicians) is increasingly being spent on keeping a roof over my head and paying the Gas Bill, is a good thing.

So it might be that the X Factor style, instant celebrity critic, still fresh from their latest TV series is not necessarily the best person to advise the Prime Minister on how to bring his big society vision to the High Street.

High Streets have been dying for years.

What is needed is not more shops and more greenfield housing developments but the repopulating of our Town Centres.

Over the years I have lived in three City Centres, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford, West Yorkshire and Genoa.

City Centre living is wonderful, energising and it is great to have your favourite department store or bookshop as your local store.

Bring people back into City Centres and the High Street will live again.

12th December 2011

Almost a 150 blog's.

Over 4000 views.

A steady stream of people stopping by to check out what is being said about the big society.

That's great and thank you and whilst this blog is read across Europe, the America's, China and Singapore as well as the UK it is still 100% an English blog, although I must admit that .blogspot.com, is American, so I can't be too jingoistic or self congratulatory.
Well today's theme is innovation. We need innovation if we are to create new products and earn our living as a nation in a competitive world.

And that is probably more true now we are isolated in Europe.

Yet how 'isolated' are we? It seems that the Tory Right have no problem with British public utilities, both water and power, being owned by companies based in France or Germany.

No problem with most London properties being owned by Russian billionaires.

No problem with our banks being owned by Santander. Or the ports, or the airports or the car manufacturers or the Football Teams in foreign ownership.

That it seems, is OK.

Well it would be better if the Glazer's allowed Sir Alex to buy a new mid-field line up.

Sitting in the darkness last evening with a calor gas hurricane lamp, reading my ebook on Kindle and watching Manchester United's goals on my ESPN app on my iphone, I thought how first century AD I was whilst equipped with 21st Century toys all designed in America and made in China.

If the new stair lift had been installed, German design I believe, the in-house critic would not have been able to use it or could even now be sitting half-way up the stairs waiting for whichever foreign company generates our electricity to switch it back on, unable to make a personal plea to Mr Sarkosy because the 'phone was both out of reach and unusable.

I cannot complain, who do you complain to?

No-one will write or 'phone to apologise, but this morning I noticed that I had still paid the bill, in Sterling not Euro's but that will come, just give it time.

How can we say that we are staying out of Europe, when we are largely owned by European Companies? How can we compete in an international market when our manufacturing is dominated by international investment?

There is a saying that the fruit never falls far from the tree.

Coalition fruit is proving to be isolationism and the defence of financiers and politician's friends.

The notion that we are 'all in this together' has proven to be nothing of the sort as the cost of living soars and the incomes of middle class families shrink.

Apparently one British manufacturer is engaged in a number of law suits about 'intellectual property rights' the company is well known and has been engaged for some years in pursuit of the dream of the 'better mouse trap'.

Whilst I have never been convinced by their attempt to out hoover Hoover, I have to admit that the hand dryers that bear their logo, which have been fitted in the public toilets in our local arts centre and museum are, quite simply 'state of the art' and really do do what it says on the tin, they are the 'better mouse trap'.

So I was especially delighted and took a real sense of pride, when recently in Genova I had to use the washroom in a cafe, to find installed there, genuinely British hand dryers that worked, that worked efficiently, that did their job with minimum fuss, so much so that I washed and dried my hands three times whilst singing 'Rule Britannia'.

10th December 2011

Driving into Carlisle last week we passed a tanker carrying sewage.

Written on the side was the word serious and under that a slogan.

The motion is carried.

As the speaker frequently comments, Ordure, Ordure, or at least that's what it sounds like against the racket of braying MP's in the background.

As the week closes the overwhelming sense that Banks and Politicians have failed us gains momentum.

As a young man I became convinced that Anarchism was the way forward, no politics, no politicians and every major decision made by means of a referendum.

An Anarchist society is essentially a contradiction in terms but I joined and enthusiastically read my way through the literature from Bakunin to Proudhon and the early Christian Anarchists.

I even became actively involved in a campaign called Anarchy in, Politics out during one election campaign when it looked like the Tories were going to be re-elected.

Despite my campaigning they were re-elected and it was some years before the Labour Party were able to form a Government.

Returning from the European Summit the Prime Minister has again sought to protect the financial services industry and The City of London by using his veto, thereby isolating Britain from Europe.

His actions raise an interesting question about what is in Britain's interest?

The newspapers are divided on this and clearly it is to soon to tell but my instinct is to feel that anything supported by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage is not going to be something that I would welcome.

Apparently Ed Milliband tweeted his response which was disapproved of by Mr Murdoch's Times Newspaper but then there is no surprise there, although it was the tweeting rather than the content of the tweet that was criticised.

I have come to the conclusion that it all comes down to being able to speak English.

If only the French and the Italians and the Germans would make English their national language then we'd get on really well with them and feel relaxed about being European, but instead they insist on speaking French or Italian or German, indeed some can speak all three languages at once.

I didn't learn a language or very much else at school and left with an 'O'Level in Woodwork.

But I do remember one teacher explaining that language gave us an insight into national characteristics and temperament. His example was Belgium which is a nation divided by two languages. The parts of Belgium nearest the Dutch Border speak French, he explained and the parts nearest to France speak Flemish, in that way he suggested, they defend their national interest.

Recently in Genova I recognised a pun in the name of a Cafe, combining the word Barrista and the name of the Street it was on to form a new word, Barribaldi.

But largely I still prefer to pun in English, once, swimming in the Mediterranean, I spotted a floating island of sewage, I called to my family nearby, don't swim here, just go through the motions ..........

8th December 2011

It has to be said that the Cumbrian weather is not letting us down.

It must also be admitted that no matter how much we might like to, we can't blame the Government.

So we continue to struggle in a country of two halves, divided by amongst other things, the weather.

Apart from almost being blown off my feet by a gust of wind on the way to the Surgery I was wrapped up in a variety of winter weather layers and wearing my green hunter wellington's, which in this part of the world are not a fashion accessory, but a necessity.

So when I arrived at the surgery looking like an arctic explorer or a Cumbrian farmer, I waited as asked in the waiting room, dripping water onto the hard wood floor.

Then the Nurse came to the door and whispered a name, it could have been any name, Mr Next or Mr Unwell, or Mr Sick, or Mr Almost Drowned.

There was only one other person in the waiting room and he immediately stepped forward and entered the room, and the Nurse closed the door.

What happened next was like a Brian Rix farce.

First the Nurse emerged looking puzzled.

Then Mr Next came out and started haranguing the receptionist.

Then the Nurse disappeared altogether and I approached the receptionist to explain that I was still waiting.

Then the nurse ushered me into the room saying I will explain it to you inside.

But, once inside, she began to question me in a somewhat patronising manner, asking if I knew why I was there, almost asking if I knew the name of the Prime Minister and saying I called your name and you didn't answer.

Whispered I said, you whispered a name.

Then it was back out into the wild weather of winter to struggle back home, wondering all the while whether it is still warm and sunny in Genoa?

It seems that the big society is unravelling rather rapidly as the Prime Minister (Now what is his name again?) attempts to tell us clearly what is happening in Europe and how he is protecting Britain's interests whilst attempting to resolve the Euro Crisis whilst not being part of the Euro Zone.

Having his cake and eating it whilst pursued by an angry mob of Eurosceptics led by the Mayor of London.

As a Nation Britain has never quite seen itself as European. Occasionally there has been a Grand Project, Concorde, the Euro Fighter or the Channel Tunnel, but our reluctance to be European was once summed up for me by a member of the congregation in my first parish.

He was retiring and he and his wife were embarking on a Mediterranean Cruise, I expressed the usual envy at his good fortune and how much I expected that he was looking forward to the trip.

No Vicar, he remarked, it's the wife as wants to do it, I'd rather stay here.

He explained that he had once had a weeks holiday in Belgium with his family and it had rained for the whole week. On the Ferry on the way home, he had commented to his wife, if that's abroad you can keep it!

We need a bigger vision for the big society than we are being given. It's got to be about more than pavement cafes and shoes worn without socks, we need markets for our goods, prosperity for people and a more equitable sharing of the nation's wealth.

The North / South divide can be seen in jobs, wages, poverty, health and well being, but if we insist on being a peripheral nation on the edge of Europe but not part of it, then it will not only be the weather that divides us ...........

6th December 2011

Driving North on the M6 last evening we travelled across Shap.

It's a long drag up the old road and it is hard to recall how significant a moment it was when the old cars and motorbikes that my parents ran managed to climb to the top without overheating.

We often stopped for a picnic whilst the engine cooled down, then checked the oil and water before setting off at a gentle pace.

It was a gentler time altogether.

Now on the motorway, whilst still a steady climb most modern cars don't even notice and even the lorries maintain their normal cruising speed.

Last night the road surface had a light covering of icy snow and still people continued to maintain their cruising speed despite the poor visibility.

At one point passing the scene of a multiple car pile up, with the mist illuminated with blue and orange flashing lights, the roadside warning lights asked motorists to slow to 30 mph, but no one did and as I slowed a lorry roared up to the back of me and I had to accelerate away to avoid a collision.

We live in pretty scary times and with its impeccable sense of timing and brilliant intuition the Government senses that this is just the right moment to raise the speed limit.

Last night seeing the motorway with so many cars roaring into the dark and snowy distance I found myself thinking of Lemmings and the phrase 'built by robots driven by idiots' came into my mind.

But hey! Nostalgia's not what it used to be and I guess that grumpiness is not necessarily the preserve of old men or women.

Not that I am young.

The news continues to focus on the Euro, the Riots and of course the the LSX protest continues to generate interest and headlines.

Other Occupy groups have sprung up around the place.

At the Co-op Northern Regional conference there was a good deal of discussion about the impact and long term effects of the campaign.

Co-operation or mutualisation is both a practical and an idealistic way of running both business and society but a recent survey found that people questioned found the Co-op 'old fahsioned'..

One of the key lessons of the LSX protest and indeed the many pop-up occupy groups is: there is another way of organising things.

A way that is inclusive and does not materially benefit the small group over and against the large.

It is unfortunate that David Cameron came up with the notion of a Big Society, because the words have now become associated with his particular form of Conservatism and cannot therefore be easily used by anyone who shares the vision of a society based on the idea of a public good.

It seems that the knee jerk response to the riots, gangs and brokenness, is not altogether right either.

Opportunism played a major part but the main focus of the sense of indignation that underlay the looting seems to have been a public dissatisfaction with policing, particularly Stop and Search.

Broken policing? Broken politics? Broken economics? Broken policy making?

But no, for the con-dem Government it continues to be, broken society.

But that will no longer do, we cannot any longer continue to travel the old and unreliable way.

I was reminded this morning of a passage in Jeremiah, 'stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for your souls'.

Sadly the people of Israel said no.

So far we seem to be saying no as well, so, in the words of a Bob Dylan song, we'll 'just keep doing ninety miles an hour' down the dead end street we're on.

1st December 2011

It's clear what the best thing about being home is.

We've already spent time with children and grandchildren and look forward catching up with the rest of the family over the next few days.

Manchester United's strikers were in poor form last night at Old Trafford.

It would seem that Sir Alex's selection difficulties are made worse by some of the team not really understanding what playing for United means.

A poor performance all round I would say, and an argument for a leaner, meaner, altogether hungrier squad. May be it's time to release some of the makeweights?

If I was Sir Alex, last night would have been enough to make me give serious consideration to retirement, nobody needs that degree of aggravation when George Osborne sends you a winter fuel allowance every year.

It seems that the true strikers made their point pretty well.

Coming through passport control at Edinburgh I whispered a quiet expression of solidarity, 'Good Luck on Wednesday', and received a smiling thank you, in return.

It's interesting. When it works it can be great.

We caught the bus at 6 00 am local time in Genova the bus driver maintained a steady cruising speed and we arrived at Milan Malpensa exactly on time.

The special assistance at Milan arrived in the form of a very pleasant young lady who ushered us through the staff control area, as usual I set the alarms ringing, but the security official simply smiled at my rings and ushered me through.

Common sense is all it takes and how much better than our last experience with bags emptied, trousers falling down and stocking feet.

Then easyjet lived up to their name, the plane was due to leave at 12 05 local time and we were in the air at 12 07, amazing efficiency and lovely staff made the whole experience a pleasure.

Then home at last twelve hours after leaving Genoa we opened our front door and put the heating on.

The social contract meant that the wheelchair and its occupant was assisted onto buses, trains and planes with courtesy and dignity.

Of course that is just one story of one couple. Sadly the European Project now looks in danger of being dragged down by the banking crisis which is gaining momentum again.

Why is it that George Osborne, echoing the rhetoric of the Thatcher years, wants us to believe that the economy is like the weather, and is outside human control. His use of weather related words like 'storm' reveal someone who wants us to believe that somehow the only thing we can do is reach for the umbrellas. Not so of course. The Unions are right to point out that what is happening as working people's income is losing value through inflation and cuts in public expenditure needs a stronger clearer response from national governments.

The Polish Prime Minister put it very clearly saying that he fears German inactivity as much as if not more than, it's activity.

Every time I went to a Bancomat, I wondered whether it would swallow my card and refuse to give me any more Euro's because it had run out of them or worse my own bank was not prepared to exchange the pounds in my account for a currency that is out of control.

The British Government has made itself peripheral to the debate in Europe, if it had joined the Euro it might have more influence, but what is clear that the future is looking increasingly uncertain, the Euro's on my dressing table ready for our next visit into the Eurozone may well be worth little or nothing if the Euro collapses and national currencies reintroduced.

One travel company, based in Germany is apparently already changing its contracts with Greek Hoteliers with a reference to Euro's or New Drachma's in the event of Greece leaving the Euro.

So strike for a day and nothing changes, what we need is a sustained national conversation about how we recover from the mess that the so called 'Masters of the Universe' have got us into.

But I'm not holding my breath, the post war social contract has usually been more honoured in the breach than than observance.

This morning we went into Carlisle and walked past Sir Philip Greens new Top Shop store, it was being refurbished when we left in October, there are two high steps up to the ground floor level. The in-house critic, sitting in her wheelchair observed, 'they want me in there even less than I want to go in'.

Just as well really!

Buses in Genoa, planes in Milan, trains in Edinburgh all accessible, but not the newly refurbished Top Shop in Carlisle?