Anti-cuts demo: Harpy Marx has pix

Harpy Marx has a great set of pix of today's anti-cuts protest in London at her website, including this rather fetching portrait of the proletariat's finest.

I like a man in uniform. Actually, I don't. But I'll make an exception for these chaps. You can come and rescue my cat stuck up a tree any time. (Be still my beating heart.)

Anti-cuts demo: Harpy Marx has pix

Harpy Marx has a great set of pix of today's anti-cuts protest in London at her website, including this rather fetching portrait of the proletariat's finest.

I like a man in uniform. Actually, I don't. But I'll make an exception for these chaps. You can come and rescue my cat stuck up a tree any time. (Be still my beating heart.)

Orwell Prize launch debate: poverty and Tory cuts

The nuts were on the platform, but where were the crisps? Laid out with less legroom than a Romanian airline, last night's Orwell Prize drinks 'n' nibbles launch at London's Frontline Club was a hot and sweaty affair with the faintest methane miasma of drains. The worst flatulence, however, was to come as we gained an insight into the mindset running the economy into the ground.

Four members of the intelligentsia did little to challenge the right-wing narrative that the ConDem coalition cuts are necessary, that we all have to share in the misery, and that there's not a lot we can do. David "Mr Polly Toynbee" Walker got off to a promising start, speaking of the invisibility of the poor and questioning the responsibility of the media in "enhancing the opacity of our fellow citizens". He listed achievements and failures of the Labour government to tackle poverty, concluding that the glass was half empty and half full. "Many of Osborne's destructions announced yesterday had been presaged by successive Labour secretaries of State for Social Security and two Labour Chancellors," who'd already targeted groups of poor people on benefits. Thirteen years of Labour government had left a gap of fifteen years in terms of health and longevity between the best and worst off. But he never nailed the argument that we have been reading the current economic situation through a series of distorting mirrors wielded by the Tories.

Lisa Harker (former co-director of the IPPR) wrung her hands but said little of substance. [EDIT: apols to Lisa but I mixed her up with Meg Russell whose performance at the 2010 Orwell Prize shortlist event earlier this year I was trying to forget when, horror-struck by nasty members of the public who had produced a Wanted poster lampooning the Westminster benefit cheats, she'd had to be calmed down by Helena Kennedy.]

Chris Giles of the Financial Times gave us facts and figures proving that the Tories were dissembling with their figures, but the chief source of entertainment for the mob – er, I mean the us – was the twitchy New Zealand Chief Economist for Reform and former adviser to the New Zealand government, Dr Patrick Nolan.

A classic bean-counting wonk too parsimonious even to move his mouth when he spoke, giving the unfortunate impression of a cat who'd just walked into the room backwards, his case seemed to rest on the assertion that there was too big an ageing population, as if this was a nuisance rather than something to be celebrated in an advanced society. He cited Canada as a success story, where a vicious right-wing government had laid into the poor with gusto in order to stabilise the economy. Nolan said you should never run any deficit. He also slagged off Joseph Stiglitz who, as gamekeeper-turned-poacher and a prominent critic of globalisation, is a bit of a hero to many of us seeking an equitable society.

Nolan really won us over with his claim that you don't measure the health service by the number of nurses, or the education system by the number of buildings. It's quality of spending, not quantity, ya dig. He should tell the rich to remember that next time they count their moolah. He was all about why we had to pick up the bill as "communities" and individuals had to take more responsibility because governments had less money.

As my lovely companion murmered, where's this money going to? The debt is all domestic. Then he said something about "it's the bond markets" and I felt my nictitating membrane flutter as it always does when sleep beckons.

The best moment came when my mates got to work from the floor. Sigh! My heroes.

First Louise (Harpy Marx) asked why no-one had mentioned the cost of Trident, "stupid, futile wars", the £1.3 trillion bail-out for the bankers, or the £70 billion lost in tax evasion every year. "It's always the poor who pay for this, this is an ideological attack on the poor." You can listen to her contribution here.

Then Laurie Penny (New Statesman and Penny Red) observed that the panel was allowing the ideology of the right to set the terms of the event. "The financial failings of the rich are being blamed on the moral failings of the poor."

Sadly, the Orwell Prize You Tube Channel has omitted video No 9 which has Nolan's response. Luckily, I made notes and was paying attention. [EDIT: Saturday 23rd Oct, vid 9 — the Nolan Tape —is now up.]

Nolan launched his riposte with a huffy "How predictable you mention banks and tax. I won't ask if you'd actually bothered to look at the statistics ...". He could have responded to Louise's comments by offering evidence in a coruscating counter-argument but instead eyeballed Louise and repeatedly demanded she "clarify which taxes were most prone to avoidance and who are the people who are most cheating the system." (Thanks Carl Raincoat at Though Cowards Flinch for finding the Spectator article written by the Great Man in his neurosis to have the last word.)

I did respond to his haranguing (you can hear my deep Joan Greenwood tones in video 9), and I should add that by this point the audience was most definitely sniggering at him and not with him. "It's easy to blame the bankers," he blustered, the only point where we all agreed. The tetchy sheep doctor should have got his pearl-grey tank-top off our lawn and allowed some proper debate. "Ahem, the Tolpuddle Martyrs," our Jean had to remind him when he Frank Fielded on the notion of protest and we yelled, "Suffragettes!". And totally correct she was, too.

After this staggering lack of empathy for the weakest in society, I want tumbrils rolling in the streets. I may even take up knitting. Or at least do my make-up during the speeches as Laurie "Red" Penny did last night to stave off boredom and fury.

If they want class warfare, may I suggest we give them class warfare?

Gift-wrapped.

Tied up in a neat bow with a red ribbon.

The Orwell Prize You Tube Channel here

How the richest 1,000 could clear the deficit here

Orwell Prize launch debate: poverty and Tory cuts

The nuts were on the platform, but where were the crisps? Laid out with less legroom than a Romanian airline, last night's Orwell Prize drinks 'n' nibbles launch at London's Frontline Club was a hot and sweaty affair with the faintest methane miasma of drains. The worst flatulence, however, was to come as we gained an insight into the mindset running the economy into the ground.

Four members of the intelligentsia did little to challenge the right-wing narrative that the ConDem coalition cuts are necessary, that we all have to share in the misery, and that there's not a lot we can do. David "Mr Polly Toynbee" Walker got off to a promising start, speaking of the invisibility of the poor and questioning the responsibility of the media in "enhancing the opacity of our fellow citizens". He listed achievements and failures of the Labour government to tackle poverty, concluding that the glass was half empty and half full. "Many of Osborne's destructions announced yesterday had been presaged by successive Labour secretaries of State for Social Security and two Labour Chancellors," who'd already targeted groups of poor people on benefits. Thirteen years of Labour government had left a gap of fifteen years in terms of health and longevity between the best and worst off. But he never nailed the argument that we have been reading the current economic situation through a series of distorting mirrors wielded by the Tories.

Lisa Harker (former co-director of the IPPR) wrung her hands but said little of substance. [EDIT: apols to Lisa but I mixed her up with Meg Russell whose performance at the 2010 Orwell Prize shortlist event earlier this year I was trying to forget when, horror-struck by nasty members of the public who had produced a Wanted poster lampooning the Westminster benefit cheats, she'd had to be calmed down by Helena Kennedy.]

Chris Giles of the Financial Times gave us facts and figures proving that the Tories were dissembling with their figures, but the chief source of entertainment for the mob – er, I mean the us – was the twitchy New Zealand Chief Economist for Reform and former adviser to the New Zealand government, Dr Patrick Nolan.

A classic bean-counting wonk too parsimonious even to move his mouth when he spoke, giving the unfortunate impression of a cat who'd just walked into the room backwards, his case seemed to rest on the assertion that there was too big an ageing population, as if this was a nuisance rather than something to be celebrated in an advanced society. He cited Canada as a success story, where a vicious right-wing government had laid into the poor with gusto in order to stabilise the economy. Nolan said you should never run any deficit. He also slagged off Joseph Stiglitz who, as gamekeeper-turned-poacher and a prominent critic of globalisation, is a bit of a hero to many of us seeking an equitable society.

Nolan really won us over with his claim that you don't measure the health service by the number of nurses, or the education system by the number of buildings. It's quality of spending, not quantity, ya dig. He should tell the rich to remember that next time they count their moolah. He was all about why we had to pick up the bill as "communities" and individuals had to take more responsibility because governments had less money.

As my lovely companion murmered, where's this money going to? The debt is all domestic. Then he said something about "it's the bond markets" and I felt my nictitating membrane flutter as it always does when sleep beckons.

The best moment came when my mates got to work from the floor. Sigh! My heroes.

First Louise (Harpy Marx) asked why no-one had mentioned the cost of Trident, "stupid, futile wars", the £1.3 trillion bail-out for the bankers, or the £70 billion lost in tax evasion every year. "It's always the poor who pay for this, this is an ideological attack on the poor." You can listen to her contribution here.

Then Laurie Penny (New Statesman and Penny Red) observed that the panel was allowing the ideology of the right to set the terms of the event. "The financial failings of the rich are being blamed on the moral failings of the poor."

Sadly, the Orwell Prize You Tube Channel has omitted video No 9 which has Nolan's response. Luckily, I made notes and was paying attention. [EDIT: Saturday 23rd Oct, vid 9 — the Nolan Tape —is now up.]

Nolan launched his riposte with a huffy "How predictable you mention banks and tax. I won't ask if you'd actually bothered to look at the statistics ...". He could have responded to Louise's comments by offering evidence in a coruscating counter-argument but instead eyeballed Louise and repeatedly demanded she "clarify which taxes were most prone to avoidance and who are the people who are most cheating the system." (Thanks Carl Raincoat at Though Cowards Flinch for finding the Spectator article written by the Great Man in his neurosis to have the last word.)

I did respond to his haranguing (you can hear my deep Joan Greenwood tones in video 9), and I should add that by this point the audience was most definitely sniggering at him and not with him. "It's easy to blame the bankers," he blustered, the only point where we all agreed. The tetchy sheep doctor should have got his pearl-grey tank-top off our lawn and allowed some proper debate. "Ahem, the Tolpuddle Martyrs," our Jean had to remind him when he Frank Fielded on the notion of protest and we yelled, "Suffragettes!". And totally correct she was, too.

After this staggering lack of empathy for the weakest in society, I want tumbrils rolling in the streets. I may even take up knitting. Or at least do my make-up during the speeches as Laurie "Red" Penny did last night to stave off boredom and fury.

If they want class warfare, may I suggest we give them class warfare?

Gift-wrapped.

Tied up in a neat bow with a red ribbon.

The Orwell Prize You Tube Channel here

How the richest 1,000 could clear the deficit here

Final Destination: Harpy and Madam Miaow at London's Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park

Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland at sunset

Strapped in and ready to go (pic by Louise)





Madam Miaow and Harpy under the Roller Coaster

It's just poor luck that both Harpy and I watched Final Destination 3 the night before our fun outing to the AMAZING!!! fairground from Germany in Hyde Park over the Christmas and New Year. Wiping out a group of young people with an array of imaginative set pieces in a funfair setting, those images were lurking not too far beneath my frolicsome demeanour. Oh, all the things that could go wrong. Thankfully, this wasn't likely to happen here: the kit's from Germany. Talk about heavy industry. These machines were SOLID! (Apart from the Roller Coaster which got stuck.)

We enjoyed various rides but I was the only one of our party to risk life, limb and upchucked breakfast on the Power Tower: a 66 metre vertical drop that takes you to zero gravity over and over. Muttering, "Final Destination" as an homage to the movie and hopefully appeasing any bad spirit that might have hopped out of the telly and followed us here, I took them on with gusto. Unless it's dropping me out of the sky or turning me upside down it ain't a proper ride.

If you like bratwurst, pancakes and pretzels, this is heaven. Sadly, I don't and I yearned for a spring roll. But then I do whatever the season.

The sky was clear, the light was perfect. And I didn't even notice the cold.

I hope to have video clips up soon.

More great pix at Harpy's

Madam Miaow among her people


Video posted here

Final Destination: Harpy and Madam Miaow at London's Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park

Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland at sunset

Strapped in and ready to go (pic by Louise)





Madam Miaow and Harpy under the Roller Coaster

It's just poor luck that both Harpy and I watched Final Destination 3 the night before our fun outing to the AMAZING!!! fairground from Germany in Hyde Park over the Christmas and New Year. Wiping out a group of young people with an array of imaginative set pieces in a funfair setting, those images were lurking not too far beneath my frolicsome demeanour. Oh, all the things that could go wrong. Thankfully, this wasn't likely to happen here: the kit's from Germany. Talk about heavy industry. These machines were SOLID! (Apart from the Roller Coaster which got stuck.)

We enjoyed various rides but I was the only one of our party to risk life, limb and upchucked breakfast on the Power Tower: a 66 metre vertical drop that takes you to zero gravity over and over. Muttering, "Final Destination" as an homage to the movie and hopefully appeasing any bad spirit that might have hopped out of the telly and followed us here, I took them on with gusto. Unless it's dropping me out of the sky or turning me upside down it ain't a proper ride.

If you like bratwurst, pancakes and pretzels, this is heaven. Sadly, I don't and I yearned for a spring roll. But then I do whatever the season.

The sky was clear, the light was perfect. And I didn't even notice the cold.

I hope to have video clips up soon.

More great pix at Harpy's

Madam Miaow among her people


Video posted here

Honest Scrap Awards: yippee! More blog appreciation

Back from Cornwall and a virtual signal black hole to find Willis at Old and In The Way has been kind enough to have given me an Honest Scrap award. (Yes, it does sound like "honest crap" when said fast.)

Willis blogs from across the pond and hails from a generation for whom I have the greatest respect — 1960s hippies who had plenty to fight for. Hard-hearted would-be tuff-nuts who say they hate hippies should remember that many of these guys were in the thick of some real struggles; civil rights, segregation and the Vietnam war.

This blog being firmly opposed to deregulation, I'm pleased to see that rules is rules:
1. You must brag about the award.
2. You must include the name of the blogger who gave you the award and link back to that blogger.
3. You must choose a minimum of seven blogs that you find brilliant in content or design (not sure how I fell through the cracks on this one!)
4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with this award.
5. List at least ten honest things about yourself.

My seven favoured blogs:

1)  Harpy Marx. No surprise here, or any of my first three choices. Harpy is a committed leftie who refuses to check in her brain at the door and continues to be a thorn in the side for her Labour Party associates and their rightward drift. Terrific on both political and cultural matters, she's also a fine photographer, documenting current protests by ordinary people.

2)  Splintered Sunrise. This Northern Ireland-based blogger is perhaps stylistically the best writer on the left. Sensitive and choc-full of brainy goodness, he wields a shiv where so many on the left go at it with a baseball bat. More arch than Marlene Dietrich's eyebrows.

3)  Slacker Chic. Mrs M goes from strength to strength entertaining us with her caustic wit and imaginative turns of phrase at her showbiz and fashion blog.  She's now writing a book about her experience as an army wife with a husband in Afghanistan and wondering what the hell the war's for. Read it here.

4)  My mate Steve has just started the St Ives Cornwall blog having been running his informative One St Ives website for a couple of years or more. It's been amusing watching everyone else down there treat the internet like it was the monolith at the beginning of Kubrik's 2001: A Space Oddysey and they were all our simian ancestors. I think they're catching on at last. His blog is the best website covering St Ives and has been a must-read during the recent St Ives Arts Festival.

5)  Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan before he was sacked for blowing the whistle  on the unsavoury habits of our friend and ally in charge over there. He says he has seen the heroin factories next to army bases in Afghanistan that cast doubt on whether this war is really about drugs as claimed by the Western powers. Oh, did I mention he was sacked?

6) China Smack describes itself as carrying hot internet stories, pictures and videos of China – a popular tabloid look at the Waking Dragon. When you've had enough of midget grooms and "crazy haircuts" sported by the yoot, you can always try China Labour Bulletin for heavier fare. Plus brilliant China stories at East West North South blog. The inclusion of these alone probably guarantee I fall foul of the Great Firewall. Burn, baby, burn!

7) Lastly, Christina Martin, hilarious stand-up comic, and the first and, for all I know, the only woman to write for Viz. Sadly, I'm recommending her to you just as she announces her last Viz blog. Smart and always has something intelligent to say about religion and other social matters such as disability.

Ker-rist! It's half one in the morning and I still have to write out my life story, according to the award rules. Sorry, being a lifelong rebel I'm closing down for the night and getting some kip.

One honest thing — I miss my cat Trotsky. Second honest thing, if a Certain Person doesn't stop snoring I may have to do to him what I did to my cat.

G'night, all.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...

Honest Scrap Awards: yippee! More blog appreciation

Back from Cornwall and a virtual signal black hole to find Willis at Old and In The Way has been kind enough to have given me an Honest Scrap award. (Yes, it does sound like "honest crap" when said fast.)

Willis blogs from across the pond and hails from a generation for whom I have the greatest respect — 1960s hippies who had plenty to fight for. Hard-hearted would-be tuff-nuts who say they hate hippies should remember that many of these guys were in the thick of some real struggles; civil rights, segregation and the Vietnam war.

This blog being firmly opposed to deregulation, I'm pleased to see that rules is rules:
1. You must brag about the award.
2. You must include the name of the blogger who gave you the award and link back to that blogger.
3. You must choose a minimum of seven blogs that you find brilliant in content or design (not sure how I fell through the cracks on this one!)
4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with this award.
5. List at least ten honest things about yourself.

My seven favoured blogs:

1)  Harpy Marx. No surprise here, or any of my first three choices. Harpy is a committed leftie who refuses to check in her brain at the door and continues to be a thorn in the side for her Labour Party associates and their rightward drift. Terrific on both political and cultural matters, she's also a fine photographer, documenting current protests by ordinary people.

2)  Splintered Sunrise. This Northern Ireland-based blogger is perhaps stylistically the best writer on the left. Sensitive and choc-full of brainy goodness, he wields a shiv where so many on the left go at it with a baseball bat. More arch than Marlene Dietrich's eyebrows.

3)  Slacker Chic. Mrs M goes from strength to strength entertaining us with her caustic wit and imaginative turns of phrase at her showbiz and fashion blog.  She's now writing a book about her experience as an army wife with a husband in Afghanistan and wondering what the hell the war's for. Read it here.

4)  My mate Steve has just started the St Ives Cornwall blog having been running his informative One St Ives website for a couple of years or more. It's been amusing watching everyone else down there treat the internet like it was the monolith at the beginning of Kubrik's 2001: A Space Oddysey and they were all our simian ancestors. I think they're catching on at last. His blog is the best website covering St Ives and has been a must-read during the recent St Ives Arts Festival.

5)  Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan before he was sacked for blowing the whistle  on the unsavoury habits of our friend and ally in charge over there. He says he has seen the heroin factories next to army bases in Afghanistan that cast doubt on whether this war is really about drugs as claimed by the Western powers. Oh, did I mention he was sacked?

6) China Smack describes itself as carrying hot internet stories, pictures and videos of China – a popular tabloid look at the Waking Dragon. When you've had enough of midget grooms and "crazy haircuts" sported by the yoot, you can always try China Labour Bulletin for heavier fare. Plus brilliant China stories at East West North South blog. The inclusion of these alone probably guarantee I fall foul of the Great Firewall. Burn, baby, burn!

7) Lastly, Christina Martin, hilarious stand-up comic, and the first and, for all I know, the only woman to write for Viz. Sadly, I'm recommending her to you just as she announces her last Viz blog. Smart and always has something intelligent to say about religion and other social matters such as disability.

Ker-rist! It's half one in the morning and I still have to write out my life story, according to the award rules. Sorry, being a lifelong rebel I'm closing down for the night and getting some kip.

One honest thing — I miss my cat Trotsky. Second honest thing, if a Certain Person doesn't stop snoring I may have to do to him what I did to my cat.

G'night, all.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...