The study of Literature

When I was at school (when everybody was at school) we took a course for our GCSE called English Literature, we also took a course called English Language.

The reason and aim of the Language course (to this day) eludes me; we did not learn vocabulary or grammar - the only part of the course I distinctly remember was a piece of coursework undertaking analysis of the reporting various newspapers of an action during the first Gulf war.

The Literature course was (of course) a requirement to study various books and complete assignments on them. We did a Shakespeare play, a Jane Austen novel and To Kill a Mockingbird, amongst others.

Both of those courses shared a common theme, they were 100% coursework, there was no final exam. This meant that Austen (who I have never liked much) and Harper Lee (I didn't take to 'To Kill a Mockingbird') were never read. Because there was no exam in order to fulfil the coursework requirements I just had to read the chapter(s) for the essay question in order to pass the grade. Pass I did, I got an 'A' for both courses.

The reason for this post is today's news that UK Education Michael Gove wants to overhaul the syllabus a drop US classics such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Crucible" from the syllabus.

Twitter is alight with indignation (Twitter alerted me to the story in fact).

The fact is that 'English Literature' is not  just about reading books by English writers; if it was them surely Dylan Thomas, Walter Scott and Robert Burns would all have to be struck off too! It is about reading books in English (even if that is not the language in which they were originally written). It is about exploring characters and themes, about understanding the world and people around you with the help of an authors eyes, it is about exploring history through literature.

Gove's apparent specific reaction against American authors is inexplicable. Some of the most powerful literary experiences of my teenage years (the very time when you study for your GCSE) were courtesy of American authors. There weren't many people I knew who didn't read "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and who weren't extremely affected by it. We read "The Crucible" and were lucky enough to see it at the National Theatre; amazing - to the extent that when we had to perform a play at the end of our course one of the classes chose "The Crucible" and just as powerful when performed by teenage girls.

If you are my age then odds are that you were also affected by "Dead Poets Society"; which was out at cinemas during the first year of my GCSE. Although the play featured was Shakespeare (the play we were studying in fact, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" this was my introduction to Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.

And where would we be without Emily Dickinson?

I studied literature in  the original language, I did French A-level. We read "La Peste" (Albert Camus), "Le Misanthrope" (Moliere), "Becket" (Jean Anuoilh) and "Therese Desqueyroux" (Francois Mauriac). I remember all of these for different reasons, but not because I was reading them in French. I did have to answer exam questions on them - so perhaps that is why I have a deeper recollection of those books, and certainly a deeper attachment - I still own a copy of "Becket" and will never forget reading "Therese Desqueyroux" in the car on holiday in Normandy.

The only positive of Gove's proposed changes is that the coursework would be abolished and replaced with exams. I'm not sure, however, that I would have taken well at the age of sixteen to having a deeper relationship with the likes of Dickens, Bronte or Austen!

If the focus of the exams is English as a language then by all means overhaul the 'Language' exam and teach students grammar and use of English in that course; focus on clauses, participles and all the other parts of language that are routinely taught when studying a foreign language course.

Literature should be inclusive. Of course there is a huge amount of powerful literature written in the English language, but there is equally a huge selection of literature in other languages which loses nothing being read in translation.

The proposed curriculum changes, as many commentators have noted, is likely to lead to less students carrying on their study of Literature to A-level and beyond. Those are impressionable years, and from recollection decisions are taken lightly and without much consideration for the effect on future years. It may not wash well with fans of the authors but being forced to read Dickens, Austen and Bronte is unlikely to gather the same enthusiasm as (from the opinions I have heard from those who finished the book) Harper Lee.

Michael Gove, who studied Literature himself, would appear to be imposing his own preferences on a generation of students, and possibly sounding the death knell for the study of Literature.

2013 - I am Mrs

So, another year over... 

It's been an odd mix of stories that hit the headlines this year. 

Several former world leaders and politicians died; Margaret Thatcher, Hugo Chavez and Nelson Mandela.

Pope Benedict resigned (the first Pope to do so in 600 years) and was replaced (after much chimney watching) by Pope Francis.

Another frenzy of media watching was induced by the birth of Prince George, son of William and Kate and third in line to the throne. Simon McCoy (BBC reporter) became an internet sensation with his honest reporting from outside the hospital.



 
A meteor crashed to earth in Russia breaking thousands of windows in the process, and a helicopter hit some scaffolding attached to a tall building in London on a foggy morning killing the pilot and one person on the ground. In other news about tall buildings it was found that the 'Walkie-Talkie' one of the new crop of skyscrapers in the City of London reflect rays of sunlight to such an extent that damage was caused to cars.

There were some true horror stories; the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon (leading to an extensively covered manhunt) and the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, startlingly close to home in Woolwich. The Boston manhunt was watched for several hours in this house on CNN as it was a Friday afternoon that our internet chose not to work, so I can personally vouch for the reporting of speculation on lack of facts. The Woolwich story was even stranger as shots of areas (where I have lived for over a decade) became unrecongnisable when shown from unfamilar angles. 

Boston had their moment of glory however, at the back end of the year when the Red Sox won the World Series. Husband being a Red Sox fan (I'm a Yankees fan) that was also huge news, at least in this house.

I have to thank 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2013', 'Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe' and some of Channel 5's countdown programmes for reminding me of the news this year. I missed a massive amount of it...

This year our personal story was our Wedding. Serious planning stepped up in the last six months before the wedding; flowers, cake, suit hire and of course the dress. My endlessley patient and organised mother drove me around all over the place to facilitate these tasks. I took Husband, his best man and my brother to the suit shop (handily near Waterloo in Borough) and had an excellent shopping trip to Lakeside (hadn't been there in decades) with my bridesmaids. Then there were of course the Hen Night and the Stag Do - both excellent outings for all concerned. Finally it was the big day; just as magical, amazing and wonderful as we could have hoped and imagined. Our two weeks honeymoon as tourists in London was amazing too, although we could have done without the heatwave!!!

So what will 2014 bring? I'll think about that tomorrow...

Catching up

It's been a while. Our house has been busy dealing with losing our beloved Tinker and making sure that Casper is coming to terms with his loss too. Nothing can ever replace that big kitten-cat shaped hole he left behind; but day by day you can learn to remember the privilege of having shared you life with such a loving little fellow, and the pain recedes an inch further.

In the meantime the 10th Anniversary of 9-11 passed in America. The events of that day aren't any  less shocking ten years later. One of those "where were you" moments that everyone remembers. Being in the UK we were on our lunch break at work, and I remember a colleague reading the story from a website "A 747 has crashed into the World Trade Centre". I told him he must be mistaken - a 747 is a jumbo jet. The internet then, not being what it is now, soon crumbled and crashed as the world tried to find out exactly what had happened. All the evening papers sold out, and it wasn't until I got home that night that the true horror and magnitude of the days events became clear.

Growing up in London in the 80s and 90s we were no stranger to terrorism and the threat if the IRA but this was an unprecedented scale.

Twin Towers Uploaded by nat_mach on September 15, 2011 © All rights reserved

This weekend my body turned traitor and my MS had another relapse. Right now I'm at the lying in bed not doing anything stage. Reading is better than writing on the internet - and I'm very grateful right now for iPhones, laptops and a wireless network! Desperate to get back to work, but sensible enough to know now that pushing things doesn't do any good in the long run.

In London news, flyers have come through the door warning of the 'Run to the Beat' half-marathon - causing chaos in our area on 25th September. Saw an amusing gratified sign on the way back from the hospital yesterday with road closure warnings on the front and a rage against 'corporate sponsored exercise' on the back.

Royal engagement

Unless you've been living under a rock you can't have failed to notice the news this week of the engagement of second-in-line heir to the throne Prince William's engagement to long-time girlfriend Catherine.

Personally I wasn't very interested. Neither were most people I know... one of my colleagues did go as far as to wonder if we'd get an extra Bank Holiday when they get married, but that was the extent of the conversation in our office.

I'm not very interested in Royal goings on these days - but that wasn't always true. I was a huge fan of the Royal family as a child. When Prince Charles got married I had a cardboard Diana doll that you could dress in different outfits (that is what passed for interactive back in those days!). My brother and I were taken by my mother to see the flowers at St Paul's (and again to Westminster Abbey after Prince Andrew's wedding). I drew a few pictures (the one I parcticularly remember was off the Queen and Prince Philip dressed for an official occasion) I would post them off and get a nice letter of thanks from a lady-in-waiting. When Prince William was born I had a great big coffee table book called "Born to be King".

I'm not sure when I lost interest in it all... but I have to confess skipping the pages in the newspaper relating to the story and not bothering to get an Evening Standard that evening.

A new paper

Last night in the Evening Standard there was an advertisement for a new paper; I suppose that as the Standard is London only and in the evening they don't see the start-up as direct competition.

Welcome the first new daily paper in a quarter of a century (or thereabouts). It's from the people who bring you the Independent and it's called "i".

A paper for "time-poor" people. My first reaction was - why would I pay 20p for something I can get for free? There were vouchers in the Evening Standard to get the paper for the rest of the week so I thought - why not? Of course today is Tuesday so there wasn't much point me taking Wednesday's voucher this morning, so I still paid 20p.


First reactions. A good size paper. Lasted me from waiting at the bus stop until just around Green Park. Unfortunately still not in the style of the London Lite with ink that doesn't come off on your fingers and a longer read means dirtier fingers! The layout is good - I liked the colour coded sections; I like the little "i" boxes with extra info and I liked the TV guide sorted by 'what you like to watch'.

I didn't much like the journalistic style I found it a little more informal than I would usually expect in a newspaper; in an article about mortgages "lending grew by a measly £1.6bn in September" - I think I expect less adjectives and adverbs in formal writing.

Pretty much my only complaint though. Not as much advertising as I thought there would be... not enough letters, but I suppose that is a bit much to ask in your first edition!!

I did found a read more of the non-news pages than I do with the Metro... I've got today's Metro so at some point I shall do a more detailed comparison - I wouldn't go out of my way to buy "i" but if I have 20p and a passing a newsagent...

Traffic chaos on the Greenwich Peninsula

Ask anyone who travels (or indeed has ever travelled) by car on the Greenwich Peninsula what the major problem is and they will probably tell you that all roads lead to the same place; quite literally. There are two major 'A' roads going from east to west and a 'B' road in between; these all lead towards Central London either via Blackheath and Deptford or Greenwich town centre itself. Then there are two 'A' roads going north to south - on culminating in the Woolwich Ferry and the other in the Blackwall Tunnel. In amongst these major arteries are a variety of smaller roads which, or course either take you nowhere or back to one of these major routes. The choked access across the Heath or the equally choked access through the Tunnel are the only ways into London.

Imagine then, these routes which can barely cope at the best of times (which I think is about 3am from Sunday into Monday!), when some sort of traffic trouble hits. Yesterday evening there was a car fire a few hundred meters from the entrance to the northbound tunnel; this apparently affected the road surface, lighting and CCTV. End result - the tunnel had to be closed. Now that is fine on a Sunday night (it sometimes happens to allow maintenance) but that is not so good in the Monday rush-hour. The almost immediate knock on effect as traffic is diverted is heavy traffic towards Woolwich (to use the ferry) and towards New Cross and Deptford (to hook up with the roads that will take you over Tower Bridge etc.). Of course, there is also the traffic being diverted off the A2 causing chaos at every junction.

I didn't know this when I set out for the Doctor's surgery at twenty to nine this morning... although I did note the nearly stationary traffic building up through the Village. After the Doctor I went down through Charlton to the Peninsula for some shopping; traffic through the light-industrial area was jammed heading towards Greenwich and the 422 (with amazing foresight) had been diverted to follow the 486 route (thus avoiding the stationary traffic towards Greenwich.

The tunnel was expected to remain closed until Wednesday although reports on the evening news state that it is now re-opened although traffic views taken from local cameras still look extremely congested.

Lucky I didn't get stuck in any of it or I really would be fuming. On the basis of this chaos one can only hope that vehicle transport of any kind will be BANNED when the Olympics come town and that everyone (competitors and dignitaries included) will be obliged to use public transport. The Borough has no less than three venues; Greenwich Park, Artillery Barracks and the O2. All of these in delightfully well served and accessible areas which aren't affected by traffic problems  at all... wait a moment, I think I might have to write to my MP.

Another financial story

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks today in the case which has been rattling around the Courts for over two years. The investigation into unauthorised overdraft fees started with the launch of a test case in 2007; millions of claims were put on hold by the banks whilst the test case was decided; thousands of other claims weren't even submitted whilst the outcome of the case was awaited.

Commentators and observers prophesied that without these charges there would be an end to the current free banking system.

This ruling is unlikely to see the end of the controversy, however, as it is likely that the OFT will start looking into other routes (this case hinged on unfair contract terms) to see if money paid in charges can be recovered.

That's the press. What about the real story? I am perched firmly on the fence on this one. On the one hand, when you sign up to your bank account you agree to these terms and conditions (although you may not have actually bothered to read them!) so when the charges are incurred it really ought not to come as a surprise.

I've suffered from them myself (and indeed would have joined the queue for reclaiming them had my bank not refused to consider looking into it until this case was decided). The complaint is not so much with the charges but rather the scale of the charges.

Example: several years ago I had an agreed overdraft on my account (which I used on a monthly basis); at this time I was receiving monthly (?) statements - or rather not receiving them, as although the bank claimed that they were posted they rarely arrived with me. I don't use Internet banking (I can never remember the huge amount of security information required to log onto my account) - this meant that I rarely had any idea of how much money was in my account; or rather how far into my overdraft it was. Towards the end of the month I exceeded my overdraft by a few pounds (maybe even pence) - charges ensued; further into my unauthorised overdraft and direct debit payments are bounced - further charges ensue. The cost of lack of a few pounds - well over £60. This means that the next month I am £60 nearer reaching the unauthorised limit; and the next month even nearer, etc. etc. etc. This went on for several months. The bank refused to extend my overdraft limit; even though I pointed out the situation (and the fact that they were exacerbating the situation).

Now I admit in the above that I was at fault, and so I remedied the situation by changing the date of direct debits so that they came out at the start of the month; the bank solved their problems getting my statements to me.

What annoyed me (apart from the fact that it cannot possibly cost them £30 to not pay a direct debit) was that they will not try and work with you. Recently I got a print out from the cashpoint and discovered that my account was overdrawn (something that has not happened for a very long time). Being a responsible account holder I rang my bank, knowing that they had reduced my overdraft three times in six months - to make sure that I wasn't going to exceed my limit. I probably was, it transpired, by the time that pending payments were made. Could I increase the limit (even temporarily) to ensure that this didn't happen. No. I didn't ignore the situation, I asked for help - and the bank effectively stuck two fingers up at me. The biggest insult of all - my account isn't even a free account! I pay £15 a month for my account!

Post strike dates announced... again

The ongoing dispute over modernisation continues with both sides maintaining that the blame lies with each other for failure to bring the dispute to resolution. The general public is now beyond caring whose fault it is. The spectre of millions upon millions of items of undelivered mail and the Christmas season just around the corner means that pretty much any sympathy that was ever coming the way of the CWU (Communication Workers Union) has been exhausted.

The underpinning theme of the dispute is job security in the face of modernisation. At a time when many workers in the UK are living with pay freezes, pay cuts and the prospect of redundancies there is no empathy left for this aspect of the dispute. The walk sequencing machine (which would incur these job cuts by sorting the letters for the rounds) can only be a good thing, if the state of my post at home and work is anything to go by - regularly receiving letters not only for different buildings in the same street but for buildings in different streets altogether!

The problem is that the longer the disruption from this strike action continues the more and more we are finding that actually we can live without the Royal Mail. Extremely prolonged strikes will, in the end, damage the Royal Mail's business - possibly beyond repair.

BBC NEWS | Business | New postal strike dates announced

Snail mail saga continues

Today the Royal Mail workers begin their two day national strike. Here in London the 'wild-cat' strikes have been going on for so many months now that it is doubtful we'll even notice the difference. Whereas once you put your letter in the post box secure in the knowledge that it would arrive the next day (providing you used a first class stamp) nowadays you put your letter in the post box and hope that at some point in the future it will arrive where it is going. I'm still waiting for a cheque posted a week ago last Tuesday.

London's paper landscape is changing again

Darryl over at 853 alerted me to another news story that had passed me by. The Evening Standard is transforming itself from an over-priced 'quality' evening paper into a free-sheet. The landscape of London's newspapers has been changing ever since the demise of the London Paper last month.

I didn't mourn the loss of the London Paper, it was the free-sheets equivalent of the Sun. Full of gossip and using a difficult to read print face. The London Lite is my preferred read of the day. Just the right length to get from the office home - and printed with ink that doesn't come off on your fingers (such a winner).

There was speculation at the time of the demise of the London Paper what this would ultimately mean for the free newspapers in London. Not quite yet it would seem. There are many criterion for a good free paper... the most important being availability. There were always a lot more copies of the London Paper than the Lite littering the tube not necessarily because more people read it but because their distributors stayed out later. Less copy sharing needed to take place. About half of the time when I read an evening paper I'm picking up a copy left behind by somebody else as the distributors have packed up and gone home.

So how will it work for the Standard? Will the current sellers keep their jobs and head out the paper without taking payment? It would be nice to think that they will keep their jobs and replace the cries of "Laaaate Stannar" (it took me years to work out it was 'Late Standard') with "Freeee Stannar".

A bright future for your Evening Standard | News

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A tale of thievery and of magic - of missing gargoyles and curses. It is too funny not to share!

Thief returns stolen gargoyles.

Less paper on the seats

There has been a lot of news the last few weeks about the imminent demise of the London Paper. Time was that if you wanted to read an evening paper in London there was only one choice... the Evening Standard. That bastion of London journalism which back in May ran a bizarre advertising campaign apologising to readers. These adverts appeared on buses and tubes which had in large letters (using the Evening Standard masthead font) "Sorry" and then in smaller letters underneath a collection of things for which the Evening Standard wished to apologise for to London... "for being negative", "for being complacent", "for losing touch" and "for taking you for granted".

Most Londoner's wouldn't disagree with most of the Standard's apologies... so a few years back when the first the London Lite and the London Paper hit the streets they were a welcome addition. Yes, the Lite came from the same stable as the Standard (and indeed could have named itself the Standard Lite) but the free paper with "ink that doesn't come off on your hands" proved instantly as popular (and prone to causing litter) as morning sibling the Metro. The London Paper provided the "Sun" to the Lite's "Daily Mail". With more focus on celebrity and gossip I never much liked it. Also the strange font type used makes the articles hard to read as I find all the words run together.

The only positive that the London Paper had over the Lite was that they print more copies and the distributors stay out later, which means leaving the office at 7pm you can get a London Paper but not a Lite.

Yes the free papers are an immense cause of litter on the tube and the streets, but it would be a shame if the Lite and the Metro follow the London Paper into obscurity. I won't pay 50p (or more!) to read a paper, so it is the only way I read the news off the internet.

Food for thought

Environment Minister Hilary Benn today called for a radical rethink on how we consume and produce our food.

This is fair enough. I'm all for sustainability... not just environmentally but the triple bottom line which means socially and economically too.

The perplexing part of the story is that one of the problems is that we (as a nation) just throw away too much food. One of the difficulties (it would appear) is that people pay too much attention to the labelling on food packages. Yes, those little dates stamped all over things... "display until", "best before" and "use by". Apparently there are people who have difficultly distinguishing between these... I always thought that they were self explanatory:

• display until - there for the retailer... tells them when to take it off the shelf and put it in the sale bin
• best before - commonly seen on vegetables and the like... in the opinion of the labeller when that food is in its 'prime'
• use by - mostly seen on meat and dairy - food should be used by this date... sensitive for avoiding e-coli, salmonella, etc.

Easy, isn't it. It makes you wonder how people managed back in the day when they bought their vegetables from a green grocer in brown paper bags and their meat from a butcher wrapped in grease-proof paper. No pesky dates to worry about then, everyone just used their common sense. Still I suppose assuming that in the modern world everyone has a modicum of common sense is opening a whole different can of worms!

I always remember when I was younger rejecting some fruit or vegetable on the basis that the 'best before' date had passed and my father saying to me "It says 'best before' - not poisonous after!".

Double strike

First there was the news that RMT workers on the Underground are to go on strike this month for 48 hours, which will likely cripple the transport system in London and bring the tube network to a virtual (if not complete) standstill. Until (and if) they find a solution avoid central London from 7pm on the 9th June to 11th June.

Then there is the news that postal workers (this time the CWU) have voted 9-1 in London in favour of strike action. The changes are necessary say Royal Mail as, apparently the mail volume in London has fallen by 10%. I don't find this surprising. Other offices in our company with larger mail volumes no longer use Royal Mail to deliver their letters; the alternative is cheaper.

At a time when people all over the country are losing their jobs, taking cuts in hours or taking pay freezes... these workers go on strike. I don't know the ins and outs of the issues with these unions and their bosses, but I know one thing. Right now is the time for people to pull together and to appreciate that times are tough... not to make everyone's lives more difficult by walking out on strike.

Protests... a month early?

Traditionally (well in recent years, anyway) May Day (1st May) has been a target for anti-capitalist protesters. They have got going a month early this year as parts of London grind to a halt due to the protests in advance of the G20 Summit. Although (as always) the protests are promised as 'peaceful' there are (as always) a minority which mean that the violent clashes between police and demonstrators take place. This is always a shame as the focus is shifted  away from the message of the demonstration (which is valid) and instead concentrates on the negative aspects of the day.

Although most protests are centred in the city and around the Bank of England disruption is also expected as far afield as Buckingham Palace and the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

My entire experience of the day was a quick phone call to my mother (whose office is in the City) to make sure she was OK and watching the crowds on the lunchtime news. A good day not to be in town by all accounts!

BBC in new row

The BBC finds itself in the spotlight (again) for all the wrong reasons (again). This time it is the refusal of the BBC to air the DEC's Gaza Crisis Appeal; a decision (incidentally) also taken by Sky.

The appeal has aired on all the other terrestrial channels (ITV, C4 and Five). The BBC has refused to air the appeal, citing impartiality as their reason. This decision has caused protests outside Broadcasting House, actors and directors refusing to ever work for the Corporation again and protesters burning their TV licences.

All of this has given the appeal far more exposure than it would ever have got if it had simply been aired on the BBC. Let's face it - most of us switch off after the show we watched finishes, or channel surf. Very few people (when nearly every TV now has more than the five terrestrial channels) sit and watch one channel for hours on end.

If the point of the appeal is to raise awareness and get charity donations. Well awareness raised. In the current climate I'm not sure that charity giving is quite what it once was anyway. And how many people are persuaded to give money by disaster appeals on TV anyway? Unless you have been living under a proverbial rock you cannot fail to be aware of what is going on in the Middle East. You're either planning on giving money to charities or you aren't.

This whole furore is yet more complaints on something which really doesn't merit the amount of attention that it is generating. Yes, the BBC is publicly funded, so yes Licence payers have a right to not like how the BBC does (or does not) spend their Licence Fee. But you can't please all of the people all of the time. I'd rather the BBC didn't spend my Licence Fee paying Jonathan Ross's inflated salary - but I haven't burnt my TV Licence in protest.

And it isn't like the BBC are ignoring the situation - far from it. They report the entire story in a very straightforward manner on their website - and also give the web address and telephone number of the DEC whose appeal they are refusing to broadcast. How's that for unbiased!

It's official (more gloomy financial news)

Headline news today, it's official... the UK is in a recession. Who knew? Wait a minute... just about everyone. OK, we'll let them off in as much as a recession is officially defined as two successive quarters of negative growth, and obviously you can't definitely say that until the end of the second quarter - but even so... could they sound a little less surprised about it?

Headline on the Evening Standard billboard at lunch time "Brown: I didn't see crisis coming". Really? I'd hope not, otherwise I'd be adding a few other derogatory adjectives in addition to the ones I've already utilised (those being useless, hopeless and others of that vein). If he'd seen it coming then I think his lack of action could only be labelled criminal. The question is  how could the man who is Prime Minister (and was formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer) not have seen it coming?!

In other news famous 'bail-out' bank Northern Rock awards bonuses to staff. They've not finished paying back all the money the Government leant them yet. How dare they give out bonuses. I don't care what excuse they give. There is none. Whilst the rest of the country deal with pay cuts, no bonuses and worse still job losses how can staff at one of the several institutions who helped precipitate this crisis possibly be rewarded.

Inauguration

Today, at last is the day. Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The Fourth Estate of the 51st State were quite calm about it today - I suppose it is tomorrow that they will really go to town. There is no doubt that it is historic, monumentous and various other hyperbole - but at the end of the day, it isn't our head of state.

Despite what the local news would have you believe. Watching BBC Breakfast this morning I was bemused to find that the lead story on the local news was the imminent happenings in Washington. The tenuous link that lots of Londoners were flying out for the event. Never mind actual news in London (like Boris threatening court proceedings over Heathrow's runway three).

Last word on Mr President - I'm delighted that he upholds the strong tradition of farmers, military and the legal profession by being a law lecturer!

Here we go again

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Today the Government announces yet another 'rescue' package. What is announces to is billions (yes, billions) more pounds of tax payers money being tipped into the seemingly bottomless pit that is the UK economy. This time the measures will let banks 'insure' against expected bad debts, give the Bank of England the opportunity to buy stakes in companies across all sectors of the economy, give Northern Rock (already the beneficiary of one of these rescue packages) more time to repay their loans and finally allow the Government to increase their stake in RBS by another 12%.

The idea is that if the banks want to insure against the bad debts they have to make legally binding commitments to start lending money again. Let's hope it works shall we, and let's not worry just now about balancing the books down the line.

The problem, at the end of the day, I'm afraid must come in part (a large part) from the consumer society in which we live and the 'must have' attitudes that are so common nowadays. Why are there bad debts? Setting aside the problems which have arisen in the current financial climate, why were there the original bad debts (which pretty much started this whole mess)? Because people borrowed money that they couldn't afford to repay.

I've been watching a series on the BBC called 'Around the World in 80 Faiths'. An Anglican Vicar is travelling the world and 'taking the religious temperature of the planet'. We've done 30 of 80 so far. It has been quite interesting. What struck me particularly this week was at the end of the programme he visited some Kalahari bushmen. I watched them going about their daily lives (women picking leaves and berries and men hunting) as they had done for thousands of years. I wondered if their lives were any less enriched lacking as they did the modern appliances we all take for granted. Probably not, was the conclusion that I came to - as most of the things that they don't have they probably aren't even aware are missing from their lives.

That is the problem with consumerism. If you know it is out there then you have to have it, don't you?

In a massive hole

This morning Gordon Brown was giving a speech promising help for the unemployed. Employers, he said, would be given £2,500 for every person they trained who had been out of work for six months. Other measures such as 'extensive' job interview training were also announced.

I think that Gordon is missing the point. He can offer employers any incentive he likes to employ people, but if the jobs aren't there then they simply can't . I mean, what is £2,500 - a salary for four to six weeks?

More and more retailers are going under every day. Only this weekend I went to The Pier's website to find that they (amongst so many others) have gone into administration.

It isn't just retail either. Where I'm sitting (in construction) things are just as grim. The phone hardly rings and nearly every job I work on has now gone on 'hiatus' for an unspecified (and possibly indefinite) period.

The Government's repeated attempts to 'kick start' the economy by repeatedly lowering interest rates seems to have little effect - 3.5% since last October. Banks still aren't lending money - to each other, to business or to personal customers. Already at a record low everyone is wondering how much lower they can go... will they get to 0% - will that help at all? I saw a great quote in the letters page of a newspaper the other night; attributed to Albert Einstein "The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over, and then expecting different results". Kind of sums up the Government right now.

All that is happening is that some (not by any means all) mortgage lenders pass on some of the cuts, and most people put the savings aside for a rainy day... after all, who knows if they'll still have a job in a few months from now. Add to that that the self same lenders are equally fast to pass on the full cuts to their savers - meaning that all the 'high interest' accounts now count for very little. In addition although house prices are dropping now isn't the time to try and get on the ladder as some banks/lenders now require a 40%+ deposit.

All these incentives (rate cuts, VAT cuts, money hand outs) will have to be paid for eventually. The good times won't seem so good when we're all taxed to the eyeballs.


The first rule of holes (I was always told) is don't dig deeper. Will someone please take away Gordon's shovel?