28th May 2012

It wasn't exactly Marlon Brando in the Wild Ones.

Firstly it was a Harley not a Triumph and secondly, it was West Cumbria not the USA.

But riding through the villages it seemed that there was a welcome party in each village.

The whole of Cumbria is decorated with Jubilee Bunting and every village has a sign announcing its Jubilee Weekend activities.

It is scary just how much people have decided to join in with the hype of the jubilee.

 Maybe it will be an opportunity to forget just how bad things have actually become under the con-dem government.

Even their supporters are turning against them.

Sir Richard Branson expressing how disappointed he is with their failure to invest in business and how little support entrepreneurs are receiving from the Government.

Various erstwhile supporters use words like lack of vision, no strategic direction, aimlessness, no policies, failure to deal with the deficit, lack of investment.

And as both the Royal Jubilee and the Olympics were either fixed years ago or the campaigns were successfully won by a Labour Government and a Labour Mayor of London, all the con-dems can do is to try to capitalise on the events.

Obviously I hope that British athletes are successful in the Olympics, lots of Medals, Gold, Silver and Bronze, including some sports in which we have done less well in previous games and of course, plenty of rowing, shooting and cycling medals where we seem to excel.

Equally I hope that people have an excellent Jubilee and that the Queen enjoys the support it implies, she is a gracious and popular head of state.

But there are fact thousands of folk whose valuable work in communities across the nation goes unacknowledged and unrewarded.

If Mr Cameron had seen fit it might have been possible to have woven into the celebrations some idea of a peoples jubilee, it might even helped to promote his big society which is in real danger of being sidelined as the damp squib it has become.

We may be better off as a nation than we were in 1952 but the reality of 2012 is a divided nation continuing to drift apart on a rising tide of apathy, with inexcusable wealth being accumulated alongside undeserved and unneeded poverty.

The statistics clearly demonstrate that the cuts are not affecting people equally and it is mainly those who have no power or political clout, the poor, the disabled, the workless, children, the elderly, who are paying the highest price, it is those individuals subsisting on welfare in its broadest and correct sense, who are seeing the cuts bite deeply and because their political capital is low to begin with, they have no champions to promote their cause.

The major social agents who have historically stood alongside the poor, Unions, Labour Party, Churches, Charities are themselves challenged by the con-dems wreckless pursuit of policies which impact negatively on budgets, on balance sheets and social effectiveness resulting in damage, possibly irretrievably, to social cohesion.

Naturally, being the cynic I am, I would have queried the sentiments behind a peoples jubilee if Mr Clegg or Mr Cameron had announced it, nevertheless it seems to be the case that many people will be celebrating the coming weekend as both a royal jubilee and a People's Jubilee.

25th May 2012

I almost daren't mention the Jubilee to my neighbours in case they realise that it's not too late to organise a party.

But if they do I have an excuse because I will be busy that weekend as we have a family baptism, so there will be a party, but it will be in honour of Evie our Granddaughter who is to be Christened and our Grandson Thomas, who will make his first communion at the same service.

It will be especially nice because I will be involved as the celebrant at the service.

So the date is already taken and if we choose not to we don't have to mention the jubilee or the long weekend with two Bank Holidays.

Of course the Bank Holiday's will have an impact. Apparently output will fall at the tractor factory and all the other factories across the land and the recession will deepen, trade figures will look pretty bad and the economy will suffer.

It seems an odd way of celebrating.

But everywhere you look, in every shop window, there are displays arranged with photographs of the Queen and Union Jacks and red and white and blue ribbons draped over everything.

It's as though overnight we have all become Royalists and Loyalists.

I still have a question however. If the financial services sector were responsible for the banking crisis why should they be given two extra bank holidays?

Doesn't seem right to me. I think they should be made to work weekends without pay until they have sorted out the mess for which they were responsible.

But then maybe that explains why the con-dem narrative holds the Labour Party to be responsible because if their friends were working every weekend they wouldn't be able to enjoy a glass of wine or two with them over a long, relaxed Sunday lunch.

I'm not especially anti royalist, on the 2nd June 1953 the Queen had been on the throne since the previous February, I was eight years old and I travelled across town with my mother, we had to take two buses, to my Aunties house, so that we could watch the Coronation on the only TV in the family, I guess there were three cousins there, and as there were no bank holidays all the menfolk were working.

My Grandfather bought us all model Coronation carriages painted in Gold with horses and heralds and the Queen and Prince Philip seated inside.

We loved them, they immediately were designated as Stage Coaches and were engaged in a whole range of games involving outlaws and Indians, the centre-piece of each game involved circling the waggons to protect their occupants from raiders.

I also remember the Silver Jubilee in 1977. There was a party. There was drinking. Glasses were raised in a Toast to her Majesty and there were the Sex Pistols.

That was the year I was described in the newspapers as the Punk Parson because I was outed as a fan of the Sex Pistols by the youth club who said Mr Smith is a punk parson and like Chinese whispers the rumour spread until a reporter from the Mirror turned up at my door with a photographer to find me in my usual black jeans and a black T shirt which happened to be ripped.

But in 2012, as far as I know there will be no parties in our street, unless of course it's been organised in secret and I haven't been invited .............

21st May 2012

Because we had a family party on Saturday to celebrate a 40th Birthday I missed the Chelsea - Bayern match.

However because the game went to extra time when I got home I watched the last thirty minutes and the penalties.

I guess I am pretty neutral about Chelsea but it was good to see a Premiership side beat a bundesliga side in such dramatic style and the European Cup come back to the UK for a season.

It was a good result for the Chelsea manager who may or may not be confirmed in post but Chelsea is an ageing team which needs to be rebuilt if it is to compete in the Premiership next season.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister was caught on microphone criticising John Terry in an exchange with Angela Merkel.

But then Mr Cameron appears to have sent a stern warning to the EEC generally to pull their socks up and sort themselves out.

I imagine that the new French President is still wondering how to deal with the snub he received when he visited Britain recently, although the best riposte would be to introduce a whole raft of socialist policies, to invest in growth, lower the Pension age, create more jobs in the public sector including and especially in education and stand back and watch the French economy outstrip the rest of Europe.

Somehow it seems that Mr Cameron's view of a big society simply doesn't extend to Europe, he wants to be in it and not in it, to stand on the touch line and question the referees decisions. The referee of course being Ms Merkel who has the authority, and the strong economy, to step in and sort the whole mess out.

Life is not as simple as football, as Kenny Dalglish has discovered as he embraces retirement once again.

But there is, I think, the glimmer of a workable analogy in the story of Chelsea's season.

The new manager enters full of technocratic ideas with a mission to challenge the dressing room, rebuild the team and start winning competitions.

Sadly instant success eluded him and faced with the beginnings of a coup in the dressing room where the established and senior players mounted a challenge to his authority he was as the expression has it, 'let go' presumably reluctantly and certainly expensively.

The caretaker manager then manages the impossible, he beats Barcelona.

So suddenly Chelsea find themselves in the final.

Bayern Munich were of course pipped at the post famously by Manchester United and somewhat against the run of play they were pipped at the post again by a Chelsea team without their talismanic Captain.

So the impossible becomes possible and the Blue Buses bear the team through West London carrying the Cup on which their name was engraved only after the last penalty has stretched the netting at the back of the Bayern goal.

All it took was belief and the investment of huge amounts of Russian money.

The analogy is in the unstated view that austerity doesn't win Championships.

If the owner had not invested there would have been no growth.

But Mr Cameron refuses to accept the truth of this. He insists that there is only one way. He positions himself outside the sphere of influence in Europe.

There is a huge challenge ahead for the European economy and Britain should be in it learning lessons in order to be better positioned to benefit from the upturn when it comes.

What is certain is that the collapse of the Euro could well drag UK plc with it, as markets collapse, customers turn away and earnings are dramatically reduced if that does happen it will be an own goal for which we will all pay the penalty.

18th May 2012

The weather is always a topic of conversation with the English.

Dull is normal. 

Dry is unusual. 

Sunny days are scarce.

Winters are not warmer although summers are, it is universally agreed, wetter.

But this year May has seen some crazy weather even for England and even for Cumbria.

A couple of nights ago I was at a meeting in Little Salkeld.

The event was held outdoors.

Pizza was cooked in a wood fired oven outside (risky but brave).

In the space of two short hours we experienced, rain, sunshine and hailstones.

Eventually we left but not before experiencing the most amazing rain, so torrential that it forced its way through the car's sunroof, which was closed.

When we got home, twenty five miles north, the streets were dry.

May is wet and cold. It promises to be wet and cold for the family party planned for this weekend.

In the Euro zone it seems that Greece and Spain are both, despite their better, calmer and more predictable climates both catching an economic cold.

The Euro is now a will it, wont it currency.

Will it survive Greece withdrawing, will Spain revert to the Peseta, will the Euro itself survive the new anti austerity policies embraced now by both Greece and France.

The con-dem government has committed itself to a programme of continued austerity, but it is a programme that is both flawed and unimaginative.

Either, ways need to be found to raise funds from the wealthy that do not impact on demand, in order to invest in programmes that will stimulate growth by getting the economy moving again or the electorate should be given an opportunity to express their view on austerity versus investing in jobs, growth and a future for young people.

But again and again we are drawn back by the con-dem coalition to reducing welfare, it plays well with the conservatives traditional voter base, but an economic catastrophe designed and implemented within the financial services industry should not then be paid for by the poorest and most vulnerable, whilst the bonus culture continues and the canapes are washed down with fine wines.

And meanwhile even in the middle of May the rain continues to pour down.

Of course there is a reason for all this.

In Biblical times the prophets would have read the signs and prophesied.

In Tudor times the Court Jester might have whispered in the Kings ear and policies changed.

But in our scientifically and politically correct times, we just assume that it is raining.

Global warming we say, touching the side of our noses, knowingly.

But Herodotus would be warning us right now, Hubris is always inexorably followed by Nemesis.

Climate change is just one thing that is warning us and if the futurologists are correct in their prognostications many things will be at risk, not the least our democracy.

So whether we welcome, celebrate or ignore the Olympics and enjoy or avoid the street parties we will inevitably stand under our brollies in the amazing rain so as we do lets raise a toast to an amazing reign.

15th May 2012

They think it's all over .......... it is now!

Immortal words as England defeated Germany in '66.

At the sound of the final whistle at The Stadium of Light the Manchester United players thought it was all over at The Etihad and they were Champions.

Two minutes of extra time later and it was all over and City had edged the Premiership for the first time since 1968, the same year that I was married, the year of the summer of love when revolution was in the air.

Now revolution is in the air again.

When I grew up in Manchester, United were still perceived as the 'Catholic' team and City the 'Loyalist' team. The loyalties and rivalries were no longer intense and are even less so now unlike the religious differences between a Celtic and a Rangers team in Glasgow, but they were there.

So who knows maybe in this year of Jubilees and Olympics loyalists can make hay until the rivalry is resumed in August when the football season begins again.

Meanwhile Roberto Mancini plans to 'strengthen' his team and Sir Alex plans to continue to invest in talented younger players whilst relying on former graduates of the academy such as Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

If you read the headlines of course it is all over and United's hegemony has been brought to an end but their death has been forecast once too often for anyone to seriously believe the obituaries.

Liverpool, Blackburn, Arsenal and Chelsea have all claimed the title and all have been shown to be pretenders as United have come back even more strongly, once famously fielding a team of 'kids' with which, the commentariat sneered, you win nothing.

Now of course the other sport, politics, is also being subjected to the commentariats view that the next election is Millibands to lose.

Maybe, but as the Leveson Inquiry is demonstrating, whether in Politics or in Football, you are nothing without the press behind you.

Historically this is demonstrably true:

In Spain Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, toppled in the 23rd February 1981 coup, had established his power base when he ran Radiotelevision Espanola from which position he could influence the King in the immediate post-Franco years and lead the movement towards democracy in Spain.

In Italy it was Berlusconi's powerful position as a Media magnate that provided the platform for his political victory and his maintaining of his position as Prime Minister until the pressure on the Euro and dramatic fall out after the banking crisis.

In the UK it was the power of the Press which both led and followed the public appetite for change, that led to the emergence of New Labour and an unprecedented triple run of election victories by the then young, and how young he looked, Tony Blair, proving of course that you can win with Kids.

Now Leveson is demonstrating in the televised coverage of his inquiries proceedings just how closely entwined the Chipping Norton nexus of politicians and press folk was.

Emails, dinners, more emails, sleepovers and brunches and kitchen suppers in the grace and favour apartments and country houses where senior members of oppositions and governments, clinked glasses and enjoyed each others company.

Whether United lost the title or City won it is in some sense irrelevant because in practise the title was actually won in the headlines and commentaries that preceded and followed each match.

Whether Ed Milliband can win enough seats to allow him to form a Government in 2015, or before if the coalition falls apart, will in probability depend on how he is represented in the newspapers over the next three years.

Is the press too powerful? Are journalists too influential?

Or are they simply the voice of everyman making itself known in print for everyone to agree or disagree with as they see fit?

On Sunday the two games ended in a series of marvellous non-sequitors as the commentator declared:

I am quite independent, I don't mind who wins but I think United are champions for the twentieth time ..........

NOOOOO!

Diego Maradona's Son in Law,  Aguerro has scored in the final minute of extra time ..........

City are Champions for the first time since 1968 and Liam Gallagher of Oasis is on the pitch celebrating ................

10th May 2012

I'm not a lip reader so I couldn't discern what words passed between David Cameron and Ed Milliband as they walked into the Lord's yesterday for the Queen's Speech.

But the body language suggested that it was amicable.

Later of course the posturing and squaring up took place as the debate between the parties was conducted across the House of Commons.

I couldn't help feeling however that whilst we witness a ritual it is formulaic:

This speech is radical and will bring down the debt burden and kick start the economy being argued by one side, whilst the other side argues that the speech brings no hope to the poorest and imposes further strains on the domestic budgets of the squeezed middle.

In reality, however, I suspect that as Mr Cameron and Mr Milliband walked into the Lord's what we were seeing was a clear statement that both men are constrained by realities that mean that their room for manoeuvre is pretty limited and that if he was in power, Mr Milliband would have to follow a much similar programme to the one Mr Cameron is pursuing.

In other countries across Europe austerity is being rejected, Greece, having elected a neo Nazi Party cannot form an administration and France has elected a socialist President whose platform was to reject and renegotiate the austerity programme adopted by his predecessor.

The evidence from the Queens Speech suggests that the message is, there's not a lot anyone can do.

As Liam Byrne stated in his famous note: There's no money left.

The Conservatives, aided and abetted by Mr Clegg, argue that a spendthrift, Labour administration spent it all on a welfare programme that sapped the moral strength of those caught in the welfare 'trap' making their dependency a national scandal.

Well, as was once famously stated, they would wouldn't they, because of course they don't want to expose their friends and supporters in financial services who over the years have seen bonuses increase exponentially and who have trousered the profits and shifted them to offshore tax havens.

This Queen's Speech reads a little like a note saying we only have one plan, Plan A, and we are sticking with it.

So before long, as the squeeze tightens, we will see more cuts in Welfare, pensioners benefits, means tested and more and more people on low incomes having to choose between heating and eating.

The headlines were economy and justice.

But neither of these words were used in their classical sense as one might have expected from a bunch of old Etonians.

The word economy derives from the Greek word Oikumene, which refers to the interaction of religion, philosophy and political administration as it shapes society.

It is about more than money.

It is about more than who banks the bonuses or who has their welfare payments reduced.

The economy of British society, linked as it is to both European Society and the wider global society, is a reflection of how human beings interact with, share in and contribute to the common good.

The classic dilemma is austerity versus spending.

If the economy is to be the major focus of the parliamentary year we need to be certain that continued austerity will not simply drive down demand and throttle growth.

In the speech, the word justice, simply refers to the criminal justice system, televised magistrates courts and speedier and more draconian sentencing.

There will be more constitutional change as individual rights are challenged.

But again, in its classical sense, justice, or the rule of law, should lie at the heart of rebuilding trust in politics and be the key mechanism for revitalising engagement in the democratic process.

It is wrong that Governments and Mayors can be elected by one in ten of the electorate because the other nine voters have lost all faith in the democratic process.

I don't imagine that these thoughts were being shared by the the PM and the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, according to the BBC News, they were talking about their children.

6th May 2012

This week has seen the arrival of two awesome responsibilities.

Frankie and Meg.

Two Border Terriers.

Delightful denizens of the canine world.

Neither of them would win Crufts, but in a head to head with a Black Labrador, I know where my money would go.

So I took them for walks along with  my own Border Terrier/Whippet Cross (I know! Best not to enquire too closely!).

I had not gone far when nature called. First one and then the other and then the other.

The thought came into my mind s**t happens.

It did, like a civil service briefing, in triplicate.

As a responsible dog owner of course I had my bags ready and I scooped the poop, bagged and binned it, it was just that after dog number one had done its number two's, dog number two performed, followed by dog number three.

But it occurred to me, as I walked, that David Cameron must have been thinking the same after a series of disastrous local elections, the most disastrous of course being the London mayoral elections, which means that Boris is now a serious threat to his leadership because he is now a serial election winner, whilst Dave appears to be seriously considering dumping the serial loser, Nick Clegg and forming a coalition with UKIP.

As the T Shirt says, Same S**T, different day, or in this case party.

2nd May 2012

It seems we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Ebay helps us to establish price but not value.

Freecycle helps us to establish value but not price.

Oxfam online succeeds by creaming off the best of the donations and selling them online at a higher price than might be achieved in their shops.

Today I tried to donate a printer to a charity shop, complete with lead, CD, all the paperwork and the original invoice.

It was refused.

The truth is however that the reason the printer is surplus to requirements is that I bought a new one.

The reason that I bought a new one is that when I went to the store to buy replacement cartridges I noticed a new wi-fi printer selling for less than the cost of replacement cartridges so I bought a new one.

Of course the printer companies are following a well trod strategy first developed by companies selling razors.

Sell the razor for less than it costs to make and make your profits from selling the replacement blades.

So what is the value of a printer compared with the value of an ink cartridge?

The price is clear, about the same or possibly less, but the value?

This equation between price and value runs right through our economy.

In continental Europe a cup of espresso coffee, 'normale' in Italy or 'solo' in Spain, is less than a Euro, in Carlisle recently I paid £2 10 for a cup of espresso coffee.

The undercover economist argues that the price you pay is not for the coffee itself but is rent for the seat you sit on to consume the coffee.

This is a rational argument and it may be that the rent will rise depending on the location, but then sitting outside in a cool wind in a damp northern city ought in practise to cost less than sitting beside the ocean in seventy degree sunshine in southern Spain?

It is possible to argue from the price of coffee to the value of Trident.

The cost of war to the value of peace.

The cost of bankers bonuses to the value of jobs for young people.

The cost of welfare to the value of safety and security for the sick, the elderly or the poor.

Or as Faust discovered the cost of selling your soul to the value of eternal peace.