Even our postal service has become class conscious - in 1968 and under a Labour government. You'll note it's not "Express" or "Priority" as with the US system, but "First Class" versus - what is it now - "Steerage"?
Sunday, November 07, 2010
The class system
Why, after all the supposed socialist and proto-socialist governments since WWII, do we have such a high and rising gap between rich and poor?
Something is completely ripe and succulent in the state of Denmark
UK is more corrupt than Qatar, Barbados or Luxembourg, says Transparency International.
Mind you, at 20th we're way above Italy, which ranks below Rwanda.
Mind you, at 20th we're way above Italy, which ranks below Rwanda.
Having a go, because they won't
Ex-MP Matthew Parris pleads the case for our Parliamentary representatives. Understandable, since he has simply moved from one profession that imagines it knows better, to another.
As usual, he does coy, paradoxical and faux modest so well; but not well enough to disguise the fact that the Fourth Estate has become as conceited - and part of the in-crowd - as the rest of our masters. I will allow them the first, if they will relinquish the second.
A recurring fantasy pesters me, about the episode (sadly the clip omits the marching, menacing entrance of AC; audio fly on the wall here) in which the now pointedly poppy-less Jon Snow deals with a gatecrashing Alastair Campbell rather differently:
JS (before AC even reaches the desk): Please leave the studio, you have not been invited onto this programme.
AC: I phoned to say I was coming.
JS: And you had your reply. Please leave immediately.
AC: No I won't, there's something that needs to be said right now!
JS: Please leave now, or Security will escort you off the premises.
AC: I'd like to see them try! Now be sensible, Jon -
JS: - We'll take a break. Security!
Instead, we got "And now we are joined by Alastair Campbell - a rare moment - thank you for coming in" etc - and the chummy handshake at the end. Channel 4 News patted itself on the back for a journalistic coup, but out here in the bleachers it just looked as though Campbell felt entitled to treat a news studio like an airport executive lounge.
Reporters Without Borders' "Press Freedom Index" says we've gone backwards since 2003 - and even two points down on 2009. Our national ranking is now 19th, below most of the Nordic and Baltic countries. Is there a link between cold weather and integrity?
As usual, he does coy, paradoxical and faux modest so well; but not well enough to disguise the fact that the Fourth Estate has become as conceited - and part of the in-crowd - as the rest of our masters. I will allow them the first, if they will relinquish the second.
A recurring fantasy pesters me, about the episode (sadly the clip omits the marching, menacing entrance of AC; audio fly on the wall here) in which the now pointedly poppy-less Jon Snow deals with a gatecrashing Alastair Campbell rather differently:
JS (before AC even reaches the desk): Please leave the studio, you have not been invited onto this programme.
AC: I phoned to say I was coming.
JS: And you had your reply. Please leave immediately.
AC: No I won't, there's something that needs to be said right now!
JS: Please leave now, or Security will escort you off the premises.
AC: I'd like to see them try! Now be sensible, Jon -
JS: - We'll take a break. Security!
Instead, we got "And now we are joined by Alastair Campbell - a rare moment - thank you for coming in" etc - and the chummy handshake at the end. Channel 4 News patted itself on the back for a journalistic coup, but out here in the bleachers it just looked as though Campbell felt entitled to treat a news studio like an airport executive lounge.
Reporters Without Borders' "Press Freedom Index" says we've gone backwards since 2003 - and even two points down on 2009. Our national ranking is now 19th, below most of the Nordic and Baltic countries. Is there a link between cold weather and integrity?
Monday, November 01, 2010
It's an ill wind...
(Please click on pictures to enlarge.)
Jesse's sidebar links to a website that shows national indebtedness, e.g.:
But this needs interpreting in the light of money owed both ways (the net international investment position, or NIIP), e.g.:
Recent ONS statistics show that as our pound and stocks devalued, our NIIP improved (if that's an improvement):
... so what counts as good news, and how badly-off are we?
Jesse's sidebar links to a website that shows national indebtedness, e.g.:
But this needs interpreting in the light of money owed both ways (the net international investment position, or NIIP), e.g.:
Recent ONS statistics show that as our pound and stocks devalued, our NIIP improved (if that's an improvement):
... so what counts as good news, and how badly-off are we?
Caravan news
We're heading back into the 60s/70s. Turn on, tune in, drop out. But I'd suggest a twist.
I've often said to others - especially my wife - never mind New Age travellers, let's become old age travellers. That is, no tats, no drugs, no atomkraft nie danke stickers. Just go where you like by caravan, pretending you're on holiday from your drab dwelling in e.g. Birmingham. That way the police will just see you as silly old crumblies and leave you alone. Bless you, love, we're on our way to Bournemouth for a fortnight, that sort of thing. My Mum used to say people always think you're dafter than they are, just play up to it.
In other words, don't challenge the system, just sidestep it unobtrusively. We're all too interconnected to bring down the system without horrible things happening to us, the ones we love and the ones we depend on. Find your niche. As the Chinese saying goes, better to light a small candle than complain about the dark.
It's not consistent, I think, to complain about Communist strategies for mass social subversion on the one hand and then on the other to advocate something very similar oneself, e.g. withdrawing all your cash from the bank on a given date, a move Ian PJ appears to support, though I well understand the temptation.
The point is not to smash the system - we've seen the joy that brought to Russia, China, Cambodia etc - but to encourage it to mutate to our preferences. CAMRA turned the tide on proper beer, people like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall got Tesco et al to get more serious about humane and organic food - all without torching the pubs and supermarkets.
The first to operate on the new model will doubtless get a free or cheap ride - see the caravanners who've invaded upmarket Venice Beach, a place where they could never afford to buy houses even before they had theirs repossessed - and then the system will adjust.
There's no need for a hey-guys-let's-all approach: do what you've decided, don't put up with what you don't have to, be prepared to pay the price for your decision. If enough others do the same, society will change appropriately; if not, you've suited yourself. I quit teaching in 1989 because I wasn't prepared to put up with the crap and bullying, and it cost me financially - but who knows what carrying on would have cost me? My life has been incredibly richer experientially as a result of realising that it wasn't all decided for me. We forget how free we are already.
No self-destructive emotional spasms, please, we're British.
I've often said to others - especially my wife - never mind New Age travellers, let's become old age travellers. That is, no tats, no drugs, no atomkraft nie danke stickers. Just go where you like by caravan, pretending you're on holiday from your drab dwelling in e.g. Birmingham. That way the police will just see you as silly old crumblies and leave you alone. Bless you, love, we're on our way to Bournemouth for a fortnight, that sort of thing. My Mum used to say people always think you're dafter than they are, just play up to it.
In other words, don't challenge the system, just sidestep it unobtrusively. We're all too interconnected to bring down the system without horrible things happening to us, the ones we love and the ones we depend on. Find your niche. As the Chinese saying goes, better to light a small candle than complain about the dark.
It's not consistent, I think, to complain about Communist strategies for mass social subversion on the one hand and then on the other to advocate something very similar oneself, e.g. withdrawing all your cash from the bank on a given date, a move Ian PJ appears to support, though I well understand the temptation.
The point is not to smash the system - we've seen the joy that brought to Russia, China, Cambodia etc - but to encourage it to mutate to our preferences. CAMRA turned the tide on proper beer, people like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall got Tesco et al to get more serious about humane and organic food - all without torching the pubs and supermarkets.
The first to operate on the new model will doubtless get a free or cheap ride - see the caravanners who've invaded upmarket Venice Beach, a place where they could never afford to buy houses even before they had theirs repossessed - and then the system will adjust.
There's no need for a hey-guys-let's-all approach: do what you've decided, don't put up with what you don't have to, be prepared to pay the price for your decision. If enough others do the same, society will change appropriately; if not, you've suited yourself. I quit teaching in 1989 because I wasn't prepared to put up with the crap and bullying, and it cost me financially - but who knows what carrying on would have cost me? My life has been incredibly richer experientially as a result of realising that it wasn't all decided for me. We forget how free we are already.
No self-destructive emotional spasms, please, we're British.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
He who pays the piper
Why do we talk about British freedom and independence when our political and business leaders have sold the country from under us?
Germany's Deutsche Bahn has owned the Royal Train since 2007 and has now just sacked the manager despite his 30 years' service. Follow the money, and you'll see that you have to pay a Frenchman to get from England to Wales across the Severn. The Frogs also own British Energy. Cadbury's is now American, HP Sauce Dutch, Coca-Cola has just closed down Malvern Water, even the UK's tax offices are owned by a property company based in Bermuda... Banking, car manufacture (or rather, assembly), we could go on. It would be far easier to list the few major enterprises that are still (as ultimate beneficiary) British-owned.
A new book by Matt Taibbi reveals that the same is now going on in America.
Will it eventually become a war of the people against their rulers?
Germany's Deutsche Bahn has owned the Royal Train since 2007 and has now just sacked the manager despite his 30 years' service. Follow the money, and you'll see that you have to pay a Frenchman to get from England to Wales across the Severn. The Frogs also own British Energy. Cadbury's is now American, HP Sauce Dutch, Coca-Cola has just closed down Malvern Water, even the UK's tax offices are owned by a property company based in Bermuda... Banking, car manufacture (or rather, assembly), we could go on. It would be far easier to list the few major enterprises that are still (as ultimate beneficiary) British-owned.
A new book by Matt Taibbi reveals that the same is now going on in America.
Will it eventually become a war of the people against their rulers?
Saturday, October 30, 2010
UK banking system overconcentrated
According to the advert on the left of this article, the USA has 7,830 banks of which 437 are judged to be in immediate danger of failing. Assuming that happens, that leaves 7,393 banks servicing a population of 310,592,000 - equivalent to a little over 42,000 people per bank.
The UK has "about 400" banks and building societies (FSA list here) to service a population of 62,008,049 - equivalent to over 155,000 per bank.
In other words, the US has about 3.69 times the number of banks per million head of population - a much smaller average customer base, but a correspondingly larger reserve of lesser-sized organisations to take up the slack if one or more of the big ones goes down.
This suggests that it is even more important for the UK to consider breaking up the biggest outfits, because the fall of one of our greatest trees would create a much bigger clearing in our forest than it would in the States.
The UK has "about 400" banks and building societies (FSA list here) to service a population of 62,008,049 - equivalent to over 155,000 per bank.
In other words, the US has about 3.69 times the number of banks per million head of population - a much smaller average customer base, but a correspondingly larger reserve of lesser-sized organisations to take up the slack if one or more of the big ones goes down.
This suggests that it is even more important for the UK to consider breaking up the biggest outfits, because the fall of one of our greatest trees would create a much bigger clearing in our forest than it would in the States.
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