In 1978 I moved from Manchester to Newcastle upon Tyne.
Partly as a result of publicity around this move and partly as a result of what was then my blog AKA the Vicars Letter in the parish magazine, a piece that I wrote was picked up by TV and Radio and the media generally and I was interviewed about my liking for Punk, I was outed by the Daily Mirror as Britain's first punk vicar.
Hey Ho.
Four days later buying fish and chips for supper my chips were handed to me wrapped in the edition of the newspaper carrying my photograph and the story, which was by now old news and soaked in vinegar.
Hey Ho, indeed!
In 1979 however, my interest in music (and Punk) undiminished, I read a review of a new EP released by a Manchester Band called The Tunes, the title of the album was Truth, Justice and The Mancunian Way, a play on both the theme of superman as well as a knowing reference to the continuing need for Justice in the light of the rise of what was becoming known as Thatcherism, following the 1979 election.
I have continued to keep the title of the album as a personal slogan given that I was born in Manchester and continue to be committed to both socialism as a way to create a better world and Manchester United whose winning ways have always made my Saturdays better than the Saturdays when the team has lost.
I did consider using the title as a strap line for this blog but Truth, Justice and The Mancunian Way was in a sense copyrighted by The Tunes and they deserve not to have their brilliant pun pinched by me.
However I recently found myself absorbed in a book that might well have been called Truth, Justice and the Mancunian Way.
Easy to do I guess.
You find yourself caught up in the Author's characterisation, the development of the plot and, usually the actions of the key character (s).
The book is in its way a horror story.
A story of deception.
A story of a particularly successful exercise in highway robbery.
A story of a land grab.
A story about the private exploitation of public assets.
What it wasn't was a novel.
It is called The End of the Experiment - From competition to the foundational economy.
It is published by Manchester Capitalism an imprint of Manchester University Press.
It has an introduction, a conclusion and three case studies.
At the heart of the books' thesis lies the suggestion that privatisation and the creation of markets is a failed experiment which allowed private companies to generate shareholder assets from the publicly owned goods that they 'inherited'.
The three case studies are, telecoms, supermarkets and dairy and banking.
The book is well researched and annotated, it is also well written and I read it in a single sitting.
By the end I was shocked and angered.
I hope that it is on the Shadow Cabinet's reading list, as it offers plenty of solid ammunition to demonstrate that the con-dem's, sub-thatcher commitment to privatisation contributes largely to the economic problems that we face as a society.
My only disappointment with the concept of a the foundational economy was that the book did not explore the potential for increased co-operative models, as in for example energy, telecoms and the co-op's alternative model of food retailing.
But Truth, Justice and the Mancunian Way is promoted in this challenging book written by a team of members of the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change.
The book ends on an optimistic note:
'We can blame others for the continuing failure of the thirty year experiment, the political responsibility for ending that experiment and starting another is collectively ours'.
Partly as a result of publicity around this move and partly as a result of what was then my blog AKA the Vicars Letter in the parish magazine, a piece that I wrote was picked up by TV and Radio and the media generally and I was interviewed about my liking for Punk, I was outed by the Daily Mirror as Britain's first punk vicar.
Hey Ho.
Four days later buying fish and chips for supper my chips were handed to me wrapped in the edition of the newspaper carrying my photograph and the story, which was by now old news and soaked in vinegar.
Hey Ho, indeed!
In 1979 however, my interest in music (and Punk) undiminished, I read a review of a new EP released by a Manchester Band called The Tunes, the title of the album was Truth, Justice and The Mancunian Way, a play on both the theme of superman as well as a knowing reference to the continuing need for Justice in the light of the rise of what was becoming known as Thatcherism, following the 1979 election.
I have continued to keep the title of the album as a personal slogan given that I was born in Manchester and continue to be committed to both socialism as a way to create a better world and Manchester United whose winning ways have always made my Saturdays better than the Saturdays when the team has lost.
I did consider using the title as a strap line for this blog but Truth, Justice and The Mancunian Way was in a sense copyrighted by The Tunes and they deserve not to have their brilliant pun pinched by me.
However I recently found myself absorbed in a book that might well have been called Truth, Justice and the Mancunian Way.
Easy to do I guess.
You find yourself caught up in the Author's characterisation, the development of the plot and, usually the actions of the key character (s).
The book is in its way a horror story.
A story of deception.
A story of a particularly successful exercise in highway robbery.
A story of a land grab.
A story about the private exploitation of public assets.
What it wasn't was a novel.
It is called The End of the Experiment - From competition to the foundational economy.
It is published by Manchester Capitalism an imprint of Manchester University Press.
It has an introduction, a conclusion and three case studies.
At the heart of the books' thesis lies the suggestion that privatisation and the creation of markets is a failed experiment which allowed private companies to generate shareholder assets from the publicly owned goods that they 'inherited'.
The three case studies are, telecoms, supermarkets and dairy and banking.
The book is well researched and annotated, it is also well written and I read it in a single sitting.
By the end I was shocked and angered.
I hope that it is on the Shadow Cabinet's reading list, as it offers plenty of solid ammunition to demonstrate that the con-dem's, sub-thatcher commitment to privatisation contributes largely to the economic problems that we face as a society.
My only disappointment with the concept of a the foundational economy was that the book did not explore the potential for increased co-operative models, as in for example energy, telecoms and the co-op's alternative model of food retailing.
But Truth, Justice and the Mancunian Way is promoted in this challenging book written by a team of members of the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change.
The book ends on an optimistic note:
'We can blame others for the continuing failure of the thirty year experiment, the political responsibility for ending that experiment and starting another is collectively ours'.
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