If it's so obvious Mr Birrell why not put it up front in an election manifesto and ask people to vote for it.

It's obvious right?

Why not trust the people instead of thinking you know best.

https://twitter.com/ianbirrell

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78969bcc-6ebd-11e2-9ded-00144feab49a.html#axzz2Jy68izw6

Brendan O'Neill in last week's Big Issue

Excellent article by Brendan O'Neill in last week's Big Issue about the EU.

"The problem with the EU is that it unites only the elites of Europe, governments and officials so afeared of their own populations that they have clubbed together in Brussels to make laws and decisions behind our backs."

http://brendanoneill.co.uk/post/41700989049/if-you-love-europe-say-no-to-the-eu

Nationalisation policies are not possible within the EU

Although a majority are in favour of the renationalisation of the railway system this can never happen while the United Kingdom is a member of the EU as it is not allowed under the free movement of goods and services.

And yet anyone who looks at transport must conclude that state ownership of the railways is the most pragmatic solution.

This is the dirty little secret the left is not telling its supporters - nationalisation policies are not possible within the EU (thus post office, NHS, basic utilities all must eventually be opened up to competition).

Owen Jones this morning defended the role of the trade unions, and yet they are powerless to counter EU policies.  They are indeed effectively a dead movement.  When the wildcat strikes at Immingham broke out in 2009, protesting at the free movement of EU labour, they were led by individual shop stewards not the union leadership.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/03/unions-foreign-labour-stikes

Who paid for them

http://creamcomments.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/16th-january-2012-some-thoughts-on.html
If Ian Preston, Professor of Economics at University College London, wishes us to take these surveys seriously he needs to advise us who paid for them:

NIESR 2012: “Examining the relationship between immigration and unemployment using National Insurance Number registration data”, Paolo Lucchino, Chiara Rosazza-Bondibene and Jonathan Portes, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 2012
MAC 2012: "Analysis of the Impacts of Migration", Migration Advisory Committee, 2012
CReAM 2005: “The impact of immigration on the UK labour market”, Christian Dustmann, Francesca Fabbri and Ian Preston, Economic Journal, 115, pp F342-F358, 2005
CReAM 2012: "The effect of immigration along the distribution of wages", Christian Dustmann, Tommaso Frattini and Ian Preston, Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming, 2012

As, under the 2010 Equality Act, every organisation receiving public money must (MUST mind you) promote a positive view of "diversity" regardless of facts, one can be forgiven for suspecting this is more an exercise in academics wanting to put their snouts in the research funding trough than impartial research.

Of course, if the research is tainted no-one benefits in the long run.

Ideally UKIP should not contest Eastleigh as a Conservative victory would be consistent in achieving their objective of an In - Out referendum on the EU.

This will be a time for statesman like behaviour at the top of UKIP and the Tories.

The place for Richard III

Surely the place for Richard III is St George's Chapel Windsor with his brother?

Or Westminster Abbey with his wife? (he could go into the same grave).

Not sure I like this idea of human remains being set up as a tourist attraction for people in Leicester to gawp at. 

Brian Cox is a British equivalent of James Franco

It seems Brian Cox is a British equivalent of James Franco.

He's a rock star, he's a scientist, he's a television presenter.

What a show-off.

Always with the sense that progress is too slow - the past week at work

Monday

I was expecting a slow sort of day, but when Director Vijay Singh arrived he immediately called a meeting of all managers in his office (which is a long room almost the length of the building).  He told us he wanted to launch a new campaign and have it in operation by next week.  It was obviously something he had thought up on the drive to the office this morning, especially as the theme chimed with a lead item on the Today programme.

I have learned that Vijay Singh is someone who mainly responds to things you tell him, rather than communications that are written down.  This places me at a disadvantage as I prefer to marshall arguments in a document with all the points referenced and supported.  Whereas someone like Callum Smith (Campaign Manager) can just spout any old guff off the top of his head and it gets accepted.

Back at my desk I tried to get to grips with my list of things to do in an effort to control the heaps of paper.

Rather esoteric discussion over whether we need to hire an interpreter for a public seminar (the idea has come from Alec Nussbaum's office).  We decided not to bother.  Callum Smith took the decision.

In the afternoon a review meeting with Vijay Singh to discuss communications.  As I expected, his enthusiasm of this morning had subdued, and he looked a bit sheepish when I raised the subject of the new campaign.  I wondered if it could be quietly shelved.

Gary (assistant librarian in the Reading Room downstairs) told me about his money problems (he has recently become a father although he no longer lives with his partner).  He fritters his money away on silly items (tattoos for instance).  Then complains about poverty.

In the afternoon I made telephone call, sent e-mails, took many small steps across a wide range of projects (always with the sense that progress is too slow).


Tuesday

When I arrived this morning I noticed that my computer had been opened - I always leave it completely switched off, never on standby.

Transport as an abstract subject is so boring - does anyone really understand the San Fran Rapid Transit System?

As a coping strategy I have put a huge heap of papers into the second drawer of my desk, intending only to get out the ones I am actually working on at the time.  But I soon found that the papers in the drawer took on an existential life and began to worry me.  And the worry made me feel stressed.

In the afternoon Cathy Q (a New Zealander) and Gerta arrived from Head Office to talk about the social services conference.  They are both very easy to get on with, and we were able to generate a lot of ideas.  Campaign Manager Simon C in the meeting, very shy about asking what budget I controlled.

Wednesday

A card passed around the office for Lois Cooper who is back in hospital (she has stomach cancer).

Someone from a magazine came to see me, out of the blue.  I wondered how she had tracked me down since I had never told her our actual address.  The conversation was harmless enough.

A meeting with Tim Watts about innovation - he hardly has anything new to say.  Effectively we seem to have given up on innovating.  Perhaps we are trying to do too much anyway.

Most of the afternoon taken up with discussions about the new website.  Two people came down from Head Office to talk through the project, and Deputy Director Marcia Walsh joined the meeting.  Later we moved into Vijay Singh's office to update him on progress and Surveys Manager Abi Reed joined the meeting - there seems to be no end to the planning, with new aspects continually being added.

Thursday

Arriving this morning I spent some time just drinking coffee and looking out of the window.  My view is of a road on the business park, lined with young trees.  No-one ever walks along the road, and there is so little traffic that the view has a still, almost lifeless quality.

One by one we were called into Vijay Singh's office to be told the results of the salary review.  Gary from the Reading Room, perhaps the lowest paid of all the staff, went in looking glum (perhaps expecting another reprimand for him juvenile behaviour) and came out grinning.  I went in just after 11 o'clock and was told I had got a ten per cent increase, which was unexpected (I suppose I must be doing something right).

Almost all the afternoon taken up with a meeting of the Management Team including Peter Whitgift from the Birmingham office and Carol Reynolds from our base at Head Office (she is supposed to be liaison with Alec Nussbaum).  New office manager Gladys Y (overweight and rather pushy) also sat in on the meeting - she was just there to take the minutes but often chipped in with her opinions.  I had not done any real preparation for the meeting so I had to bluff my way through (not for the first time).  I was on the meeting from 1pm until 4pm when I was released.  The others had to stay to give their departmental reports.

Friday

I was in London for a training course at Head Office, but as I arrived an hour early I walked idly around the streets looking at the architecture (stripped classical, full-blown classical, debased classical with swags). 

The course was moderately interesting.  During the lunch break I talked to Dominic from fundraising and we went to a sandwich bar called Wilds.  He told me he was interested in joining the Institute if it moved back to London (he lives in Crouch End).

The problem of being "Giles Fraser"

F Scott Fitzgerald wrote a long-forgotten short story called Bernice Bobs Her Hair.  It is about a dull pedestrian young woman in the 1920s who does something outrageous - she has her hair bobbed.  She immediately becomes the centre of attention, popular with her "friends" and admired for her daring.

However, after a little time the outrageousness fades, and she is then left with the problem of what to do next to maintain her outrageous daring reputation.

This I suspect is the quandary the Reverend Giles Fraser now finds himself in.

"They are not going to like what I have to say" he boasts on Twitter.  As if someone as morally bankrupt as Martin Sorrell is going to care two hoots about what Giles Fraser thinks.  Summit for UK Advertising indeed - what self-important twaddle.

"I played the pantomime villain" he says in his column today in the Guardian.  Of course he did.  It is the only role he can play.

And here we have the problem of being "Giles Fraser" (I am talking about the public persona).

There are a finite number of issues he can be "outrageous" about without becoming a caricature and losing his dignity.  And he surely must know that his calling as a priest does not really allow him to indulge in showbiz shallowness.  Occasionally he trys a toned-down serious column in the Guardian, but the result is so anodyne it resembles those women's magazines from the post-war era where a vicar's musings are alongside a poem by Patience Strong and a feature about a village baking competition.

Ivan Bardarov (a student at the American University in Bulgaria)

Someone called Ivan Bardarov (a student at the American University in Bulgaria) appears in the Guardian today giving us his views on whether Bulgarians should be allowed access to the United Kingdom.  He tells us "They had the chance to say no".  Actually we did not have the chance to say no - the Labour government promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and then signed the treaty without a referendum, therefore making it completely invalid in democratic terms.

Through the miracle of social media let me talk directly to Ivan Bardarov and say:  please do not come to the United Kingdom, you are not welcome here.

Until migration is brought under democratic control no migrants can be welcomed here - Bulgaria is a country that has experienced undemocratic governments and therefore I am sure you will appreciate how strongly people feel about this lack of control.

This week's The Review Show on BBC2 has been possibly the most left-wing I have seen.  Irritating private conversation between four people so similar they are inter-changeable.  Nothing interesting has been said.

I hope Oliver Kamm is right, and the Iranians did not put a monkey into space.  I have been low-level worrying about the poor creature over the last couple of days.  How could anyone be so cruel as to put an animal in a sealed container and send it into orbit with no hope of getting back safely.

But I suppose that is just bourgeois western anthropomorphism.

Justin Forsythe, the man who politicised Save The Children

Justin Forsythe, the man who politicised Save The Children as a Labour fiefdom, is currently on Newsnight.  How can he talk about the success of the international aid programme without giving credit to David Cameron's government.  I hope Eddie Mair asks him about the fatuous claim that children need to be "saved" from starvation in the United Kingdom.

Six toddlers

Zoe Williams tells us that looking after six toddlers cannot be done adequately.

She cites her own experience as proof.

Not having children I would not know what it is like to look after even one toddler. 

But I do not think Zoe Williams proves her case.  It might be that six toddlers are too much for one person to look after.  Or it might be that Zoe Williams, on a personal level, is simply not capable of looking after six toddlers.

Looking back to the era of very large families (in all social groups throughout the population) mothers seemed to cope with six or more toddlers at a time.  How did they manage?  Childhood was happier then was it not? 

Or is that just romanticising the past?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/feb/01/liz-truss-tried-six-toddlers?CMP=twt_gu

Moths

It was nice to see the Guardian devote half a page to moths today http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/01/british-moths-calamitous-decline

As the owner of several fully-grown chestnuts trees, I can verify that the Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner does not seem to cause any long-term damage.

Where is the fabled "split" in the Conservative Party

Michael Heseltine, Ken Clarke, now Sir Geoffrey Howe.

All the pro-EU Conservatives so far coming forward are just tired old has-beens from the far-distant past.

What possible relevance do they have to the Conservative Party of today?

Where is the fabled "split" in the Conservative Party that the left keeps harping on about?

To most of the current generation of Conservatives the trio Heseltine, Clarke and Howe represent the discredited self-important second division egoists who brought down Margaret Thatcher (treachery with a smile on its face).

Social housing - 3

It is likely that a new form of council housing needs to develop, linked to specific objectives in terms of social reconstruction, provision of essential-worker accommodation, and individual "redemption".

In many ways the Housing Association experiment has been a failure, breaking the connection (which had become increasingly tenuous as a result of central government diktat) between local taxpayers, local people in need, and local social housing.

The question needs to be put to all three major political parties:  what is your policy towards the non-profit housing sector?

Housing Association boards have often lacked the experience and the expertise to manage estates at a level that is more than just adequate - Labour is responsible for this failure.

Understanding the B demographic 16

The demographic complains frequently that although they acknowledge some degree of wrong-doing, the police response to this is out of proportion and no-one (least of all the older generations within their community) seem interested in supporting them.

There is a high rate of crime between different members of the demographic, sometimes of a very acute nature, and yet almost no-one feels they can report these crimes to the police - in this respect the demographic represents a Darwinian society in which might is right and the strongest enforce their will with impunity (it is interesting to speculate how individuals who have grown up in this milieu will relate to society once they have become middle-aged or elderly).

Lobby groups representing the larger community often work against the demographic (perhaps unintentionally) in framing discussions on new laws, policing and the court system - in part this is because the larger community does not understand the young demographic, and does not sympathise with their world outlook (if I am interpreting things correctly essentially the larger community subscribes to the mores of mainstream society, whereas the demographic is a world unto itself).

Cultural treatment of the demographic has been exploitative since the 1970s, although the nature of this exploitation has become increasingly subtle - individuals from the demographic are portrayed in ways that young males in the mainstream community seldom are.

The Conservatives are by far the most formidable machine

 Latest YouGov poll: Conservatives 32%; Labour 44%; LibDem 10%; UKIP 8%; LAB 12% lead returns. 

Mutterings of dissent in the Conservative Party, although the Guardian reports:  "One prominent backbencher said: David Cameron will lead us into the next election. These people are somewhat deluded. What is their problem?"

If you look objectively at the parties, the Conservatives are by far the most formidable machine - in terms of numbers, quality (training and motivation), discipline, and organisation.  I cannot comment on money, but I do not think it is an issue.  And in terms of leadership Grant Shapps is doing an excellent job.

This must be the most boring Question Time ever.

Ken Clarke, Minister without Portfolio, on the Today programme this morning

Long interview with Ken Clarke, Minister without Portfolio, on the Today programme this morning.  Ken Clarke is very slippery and evasive, and John Humphrhys found it difficult to pin him down on the subject of British membership of the EU.  Ken Clarke tells whopping lies in such a reassuring and avuncular way that even in the pantheon of parliamentary liars he is pre-eminent (it is perhaps very fitting that he is partnering Peter Mandelson in the Vote Yes for Europe campaign).

So although the interview rambled on for some time, it did not reveal much in the way of hard facts, and the supposed benefits of EU membership, often referred to, were not made clear (what exactly does "our clout in the world" mean to the average voter?).

You can see the Clarke strategy here.  To deflect discussion into such boring and mundane "process" topics that the major issues will go unexamined and the vote will be won on default.  Ken Clarke is a master on whipping up apathy and no doubt the EU Directive on Chlorofluorocarbons and other such tedious issues will be used to muffle any voice that has the temerity to ask: what has the EU ever done for us.

However if you talk to ordinary people you soon find that "Europe" in their minds equates to "telling us what to do", pettifogging health and safety restrictions (not, to be fair, always caused by the EU), and "all these Europeans flocking over here" (a quote from Gillian Duffy).

As migration is the most in-your-face EU issue that concerns voters it was surprising that Ken Clarke was not asked about it.  He would have replied that the free movement of peoples cannot be renegotiated - which is why there is a sense of unreality about the Vote Yes argument.  Unless the political class gets to grips with the issue of migration volatility within the EU the prospect of an Out vote is a lot more certain than most people realise.

Labour activist Matthew Reilly tells us he is sickened by this headline in the Daily Express.  However newspapers (especially tabloids) only put on their front pages what they think will sell copies.  Do Labour activists not stop to ask themselves why any mention of migration will cause a spike in circulation?

Is it not a clue that people are starved of information on the subject, feel powerless and misled by the political parties, and despite all the pious entreaties about "having a national debate on immigration" that debate never happens?

Labour activist Steve Akehurst complaining earlier today about rising rents in Lambeth (and elsewhere, becoming especially an issue he claims in "swing seats").  How can rents rise if demand is not rising?  How can demand rise if the population generally is not increasing?  Some of the increase will be due to divorce, some to lack of social housing, some due to internal migration.  However a large percentage will be caused by the arrival of migrants.  This fact goes unacknowledged, "proof" is produced that "demonstrates" migration does not cause rents to rise - and yet the millions of migrants who have arrived in the last ten years are obviously living somewhere, and the majority will be in rented accommodation which puts pressure on supply and allows landlords to increase rents.

But if you try to raise the economic consequences of volatile migration the discussion is immediately turned to the issue of race, and the implication made that only racists are concerned about immigration.

Jonathan Meades documentary Joy of Essex

Last night I watched the Jonathan Meades documentary Joy of Essex on BBC4  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qfr95/Jonathan_Meades_The_Joy_of_Essex/

The programme was an examination of utopian and quasi-millennarian planned communities in the county over the last hundred years or so, as expressed in architecture.  Almost everything in the documentary was new to me, although I thought I knew Essex fairly well.  The Jonathan Meades style is detached and deliberate - there are no extemporary touches (interviews for instance), just carefully composed lucid narration combined with beautiful images.

So convincing is Jonathan Meades as a presenter that one can unwittingly fall into the trap of agreeing with him.

He is an unrepentant champion of modernism, and dismissed the reluctance of elderly people in Frinton-on-Sea to live in modernist houses as mere snobbery.

Modernist houses can, of course, look wonderful.  One thinks of High & Over in Amersham, one of the most beautiful houses in the northern home counties (ie you count Buckinghamshire as a home county).  However it is important not to be taken in by the surface beauty.

As Le Corbusier told us, modernist houses are machines for living in.  Modernism represents the industrialisation of architecture in the same way that machine guns and conscription represent the industrialisation of war and totalitarian faiths such as Marxism and Fascism represent the industrialisation of politics.  Industrialised architecture means commitment to a social ideal of maximum utility (maximum beauty, maximum efficiency, maximum control over every aspect of the designed life).

This is fine if you want to live a life designed by someone else, but even the most ardent enthusiast must eventually tire of it.

It would be like being patted until you bruise.

Allow "top" police officers to be recruited directly

Above:  Lucy Manning, ITV News, highlighted the story on her Twitter microblog earlier today.

Main story on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning was the proposal to allow "top" police officers to be recruited directly instead of working their way up through the ranks.

I am not keen on this idea.  Either it will result in an "officer class" emerging, made up of public school Oxbridge types, and yet another institution will become alienated from ordinary people.  Or it will become an exercise in diversity window dressing, with random people inserted into senior and responsible positions for no other reason than that they match an arbitrary diversity template (one thinks of Bonnie Greer on the Trustees of the British Museum).

I am also concerned that we seem to be introducing throughout public life a policy of positive discrimination without this appearing explicitly in any manifesto or having been voted for by the people.

In a front page article in the Guardian the argument for positive discrimination was forcefully made on Monday:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/27/law-police-diversity

The article included an extremely provocative quote by Peter Fahy from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) saying that "policing... needs to be legitimate within the community".

Presumably this is the policing-with-consent insisted on by David Lammy MP (and many others) for BME communities in London and other major cities.

Since the Guardian and Peter Fahy have raised the issue of legitimacy, do they mind if I ask what legitimacy exists to justify large-scale inflow of BME migrants into British cities in the first place?  A very provocative question to ask I know, but calling for migrant legitimacy is perhaps no more provocative than calling for police legitimacy.  And was it not always going to be the case that illegitimate migration would eventually lead to this policing disconnect?

Immigration as a growth strategy

Rather disingenuous blog post by Jonathan Portes, Director, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, on the subject of immigration being good for growth:  Immigration as a growth strategy  (http://notthetreasuryview.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/immigration-as-growth-strategy.html ).

Jonathan Portes tells us:

"So the changes to skilled migration introduced by the government - a set of new burdensome and bureaucratic rules and regulations, including a quota on skilled migrants - are new labour market regulations. Indeed, in contrast to almost all other such regulations, which are at least designed with an eye to ensuring that the benefits to employers and employees outweigh the costs, these changes were designed expressly to make it more difficult for businesses to employ the workers they want. As a consequence, they will reduce growth and make us poorer."

This is a half-truth.  If a company is unable to import workers from abroad one of three things will happen:  the company will stagnate and fail; or the company will relocate overseas; or the company will be forced to train and develop their own skilled staff from the pool of labour immediately available to them (perhaps using some of the money that would normally go to Directors' salaries, bonuses, and dividends to shareholders).  I suggest that the third option would be the more likely course of action, and the outcome that has most benefit to the whole population of the United Kingdom.

Indeed, perhaps Mr Portes and his organisation could give some thought to the possible correlation between the absolute collapse (over the last twenty years) in company training schemes, the stratospheric rise in director remunerations, and the ability to import cheap fully-trained personnel from abroad.

And in reference to his more general point that growth comes from immigration, how does he explain the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century which happened spontaneously in what the left sneeringly describes as a "monoculture" ?

Brian Cox? - what a load of old rubbish.

Understanding the B demographic 15

Police tactics in some areas, designed to prevent anti-social activity, has been interpreted by the demographic as harassment.

Fashions adopted by the demographic can sometimes be viewed by outsiders as intimidating, and so reinforces their alienation.

"Gangs" are often no more than associations of friends, with no overtly criminal intentions.

Is graffiti art vandalism or a valid form of cultural expression?

The police are in an impossible position as often the local community is insisting that they carry out "zero tolerance" tactics that are seen by the demographic as harassment.

Social housing - 2

The transfer of social housing to housing associations has removed the direct link between local political consent for social housing and the management of the estates.

PFI has further complicated issues (instead of allowing councils to finance new social housing by borrowing against the asset value of the estates they previously owned) - New Labour should be held responsible for this development.

The transfer of council housing to housing associations has resulted in control over social housing being exercised by unelected (and perhaps easily manipulated) quangos.

It is the New Labour policy of transferring council estates to housing associations that has resulted in significant erosion of the national stock of social housing.

Destruction of thousands of ancient manuscripts

Very saddened by the news that the crisis in Mali has resulted in the destruction of thousands of ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu (report by Alex Crawford for Sky News http://news.sky.com/story/1044015/mali-french-troops-advance-in-timbuktu ).

This has of course happened before. 

During the chaos that engulfed Bosnia, there were attempts to destroy the records of the Muslim people who lived in Sarajevo, presumably in an attempt to deny Muslim people ever lived there.

In 1922 the IRA burned all the Protestant parish registers in the Four Courts - virtually all the parish registers on the island of Ireland, most dating back to the 16th century.  Presumably this was an attempt to deny that "Anglo-Irish" people ever lived in Ireland (the population was once half a million, or 14% of the total).  The IRA has never apologised for this act of cultural cleansing, or indeed the ethnic cleansing that accompanied it. 

Historian Caroline Shenton warns what happens when attempts are made to edit the past.

Steve Bell interrupting and shouting-down Stephen Pollard

Steve Bell came across as a bully on the Today programme this morning in a discussion with Stephen Pollard (editor of the Jewish Chronicle). 

The discussion (about anti-semitism) was dominated by Steve Bell interrupting and shouting-down Stephen Pollard so that he was hardly able to speak. 

And is not bullying the single most characteristic feature of a Steve Bell cartoon?

Ridiculous fripperies like pensions

I hope Paul Mason is going to mention the fact that free movement of cheap labour has meant that employers no longer have to attract employees by providing a good final-salary pension scheme - they can now just stream people in from abroad, work them to death, and replace them with new ones when the existing workforce starts getting truculent or asking for a living wage or for ridiculous fripperies like pensions.

No idea what "223" means.

Social housing - 1

Social housing is a relatively direct and straightforward way to instill ideological values into a demographic (particularly a failed demographic such as the so-called "underclass").

Margaret Thatcher carried out the process in reverse when she allowed social housing tenants to become property-owners at a subsidised cost.

Social housing represents an under-utilised mechanism to reform individuals and families.

"If you wish to control a section of society control their housing" - VS.

The stock market is booming because of inflation

Does Cathy Newman (Channel 4 News) really have to ask this question?

The stock market is booming because of inflation.  The mind-boggling sums of money released into western economies by "QE" (started in the United Kingdom by Gordon Brown let us not forget) are being used to inflate the prices of assets - all assets including shares.  Presumably this will also mean a house price bubble, especially as it will be impossible to control the money supply by putting up interest rates (if they did that there would be very large scale house repossessions which would mean the end of any government in power at the time).

As Margot Channing would advise:  fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

The erosion of trust

Very perceptive article by Gary Younge in today's Guardian about the erosion of trust vis-a-vis the elite vs the rest of us:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/27/we-ought-to-care-beyonce-faked-it

The old-fashioned term for this is corruption.  Everything has been corrupted and degraded, so that authenticity and honestly are now remarkable.  This is not, however, the first society that has become rotten (rotten from within like a very beautiful piece of ripe fruit that preserves intact a brittle outer skin of glossy perfection but inside has degraded into a corrupt sweet mush that is being devoured by parasites).

Talking about the corruption of the foodchain with horsemeat Gary Younge says:  "British consumers were given contaminated meat courtesy of foreign farmers, pliant retailers and lax regulations."

And as I read this I thought of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson telling us we may as well get used to eating GM food as it is already in the food chain (and his department has done nothing about it and, it would seem, does not intend to do anything about it apart from lecture us on how wrong we are to choose what we will eat and what we will not eat).

"Equality" In Sport

Interested in the "Equality" In Sport organisation.

Is this a way of producing BME sporting celebrities to front-up any discussion on "diversity" and justify the previous government's policy of multi-culturalism?

"Equality" used in this context has a politicised meaning.

http://www.equalityinsport.org/

Is it possible that taxpayers money has been used, without legitimate and democratic authorisation, to fund covert positive discrimination?

Scamp by Roland Camberton

Have just finished reading Scamp by Roland Camberton.

It is an hilarious novel about a left-wing bohemian waster living in post-war Bloomsbury - attempting to found a lefty magazine (Scamp); cadging money from innocents; seducing women.

It is also a very moral work, and all the anti-social tricks Ivan Ginsberg plays on other people are played on him, only more so.

The book also leaves you in no doubt as to the superiority of life in the countryside as opposed to the iniquity of the city.

But it is the gallery of minor characters (dozens of them) that are the chief treasure of the novel - Camberton describes them so well that you feel as if you have known them all your life.

Was he really praising David Cameron?

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read Nick Cohen's article in the Observer today.  Was he really praising David Cameron?  Was he really saying he is a better Prime Minister than either Blair or Brown?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/27/right-focused-capitalism-flaws

I'm afraid I cannot take Boris Johnson seriously.

He seems destined to be another Heseltine.

And I despise Heseltine and the way he behaved.

If I could only overcome all this procrastination - the past week at work

Monday

The internet was a distraction this morning, and I spent too much time idling.  Replying to e-mails took up what remained of the pre-lunch period.  When Gary brought round the post I received a magazine with an article by me in it, and I was so pleased at how it looked that I sent a copy to several friends.

Therefore it was after lunch that I got any real work done.

Especially I managed to make progress with the new website, although it entailed a telephone conversation with IT at Head Office that lasted forty-five minutes.

And towards the end of the day a strange thing happened in that all the projects that seemed to be causing me stress in recent weeks were reduced to manageable proportions.

I even managed to get the communications budget for 2013 drafted and e-mailed to Director Vijay Singh and Deputy Director Marcia Walsh.

Tuesday

The server down all morning which was a relief as it meant I could get on with my work without any distractions.  I drank coffee and looked through some more questionnaires that came in.  "Are these real people" Marcia Walsh asked me.

In the afternoon temp Alison (chatty, Scottish, artistic, sensitive), who had worked at the Institute for nearly four months, left - I was sorry to see her go. 

In the afternoon I did a little work on the e-mail survey process although I am not convinced that e-mails are as accurate as paper surveys (they are quicker to send out and get back, and the data is a lot easier to process, but the results often seem superficial and do not tally with other indicators).

The cold weather unbearable.

Wednesday

Euphoria in the office when I arrived.  Vijay Singh beaming with pleasure and over-flowing with goodwill towards everyone.  No-one did any work, and the whole day was spent talking through scenarios and visualising "what if" outcomes.

In the afternoon Vijay Singh received an e-mail from Alec Nussbaum in Head Office and circulated it to all staff in the Institute:




"Credit due to you Vijay. You have been consistent on this subject since I have known you (30 years this year!!) Though you might have some explaining to do about the attached photo."

Thursday

Why am I so lazy?  My life would be so much easier if I could only overcome all this procrastination and get things done.  Do it now is the message on the paperweight on my desk - a message I entirely ignore.

Friday

A new supervisor for the Admin team - Gladys Y.  Several people took an immediate dislike to her.  The Admin team cut back to just two people now.

I wrote two articles and sent them off without any revisions. 

Long meeting with Tim Watts about development of various "solutions" papers.  He is supposed to be an ideas man, but I was the one who was making all of the suggestions.  The meeting was such hard work that I felt exhausted at the end of it.

Realisation that I had not booked a key speaker for one of the sessions at the Institute's AGM in April.  How could I have overlooked this?  I rushed about at the end of the day trying to track him down and ask him over the 'phone, but he was permanently in meetings.

Katwala: What’s driving immigration concern?

Very silly report from British Future puzzling about why areas that have relatively low levels of immigration seem to register high levels of concern about on-going mass migrations of people.

Katwala: What’s driving immigration concern?:
 http://www.britishfuture.org/blog/katwala-whats-driving-immigration-concern/

If British Future bothered to do surveys professionally (ie ask the same question a number of different times in different formats instead of just recording the first answer they are given) they would understand that "white flight" (to use a crude and imprecise expression) will be radicalising the areas that the "fleeing" people move into.

Anyone who has lived through an episode of mass migration will not easily forget the experience.  This often entails finding that within a few years the area you might have been born in, lived in all your life and call home (in the most meaningful sense of that word) has become a completely strange environment, sometimes resembling a location in a deprived part of the developing world.  Friends and family move away, local services and amenities no longer work properly, house prices fall (and for working class families a house is probably their one asset that they have almost killed themselves to obtain).

For elderly working class people who cannot move this experience is exceptionally cruel.

Of course, for middle class people it's delightful to have in the next suburb cheapo servants (I'm thinking Baroness Scotland here), exotic restaurants, somewhere to go slumming so that they can prove how liberal and diverse they are.

And the Labour party is ecstatic when mass migration happens as it means yet more safe wards where the community elders will deliver a bloc vote.

But for the people who have been crowded out of their settled homes the experience is not so nice, and they are hardly likely to forget or forgive what happened.

Which is why BME and Eastern European community leaders should apologise for mass migration.

Referring to David Cameron's speech on Europe, I am intrigued by the phrase "with all my heart and with all my soul".

Has any other recent Prime Minister acknowledged the existence of the immortal human soul?

Is the Tyrell Corporation planning to move into The Shard?

The more I see of The Shard the more I am reminded of the gigantic monolithic structures in Blade Runner.

Is the Tyrell Corporation planning to move into The Shard?

A monument to Labour's dehumanising contempt for ordinary people crushed by the corporate elite.

Watching the reactions on Twitter to Question Time this evening the left seems to get very agitated when national borrowing and debt is compared to "maxing out the nation's credit card".

If it was a crass analogy they would simply ignore it.

The fact that they are spurred to a reaction suggests they fear the analogy.

Which is useful to know.

Ask yourself - are these the actions of a pro-European?

So far David Cameron has:

1 Taken the Conservatives out of the pro-federalist European Democrats grouping in the European Parliament ignoring howls of rage from Anglea Merkel and defection of one Conservative MEP to the Liberals (forget who it was).

2 Used the national veto at a European summit - the first time the veto has been used EVER, by anyone.

3 Announced yesterday that he wanted (and will facilitate) an In - Out referendum on British membership of the EU.

Ask yourself - are these the actions of a pro-European?

Therefore I would argue that it is perfectly reasonable to envisage David Cameron leading the "Out" campaign in the European referendum.

However before this can happen the economic case for leaving needs to be made absolutely clear and coherent and endorsed by eminent economists.  Ordinary people have to see, in understandable terms, that they will be better off Out, and this argument needs to be underpinned by unshakable economic theory.  The Conservatives will have to develop all this - Labour "outers" are not capable of economic analysis and UKIP are just howling at the moon.

A clue that a "No" outcome may be officially planned is that there simply isn't time to negotiate comprehensive new terms between the United Kingdom and the EU by 2017.

But obviously this needs to be done step by step, and proving at every stage that we have been reasonable and patient and it is only EU intransigence that has led to the inevitable course of action.

As the little girl says at the end of Mika's Grace Kelly:  "We are leaving".

Is it possible that our memories are being saved in the water in our brains?

I am completely agnostic about homeopathy.  I have no idea whether it works or not.  I know farmers give it to animals and it seems to work, so it cannot solely be due to the placebo effect.

But I am interested in the claim that homeopaths make that water has a "memory".

Scientists are not sure how the human brain stores memories.

As the human brain is 70% water, is it possible that our memories are being saved in the water in our brains? (and presumably when the brain becomes dehydrated we should expect to see memory loss).

This is just an idle thought I am throwing out into the world.

I don't want anyone to go off and start experimenting on animals or anything.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2267120/Homeopathy-rubbish-shouldnt-available-NHS-says-chief-medical-officer.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Farm shops

Very interesting discussion on the Today programme this morning about childhood obesity.

I think one initiative that would help would be to give farm shops (genuine farm shops, supplied by collectives of local farms and producers) incentives to open on High Streets - low rents, no taxes, refunded VAT.

Even the most urban areas are less than twenty miles from the countryside where food is produced.

This would help farmers by-pass the supermarkets; deliver low-cost fresh unprocessed food into High Street locations (helping to revive the High Street); and also re-establish the social connection between the food we eat and the farmers who produce it.

Note:  it is not really acceptable for Diane Abbott to disassociate herself from the inadequacies of the last Labour government as if it were all nothing to do with her.  She campaigned to elect that government, supported it with her votes through thirteen dreadful years, and in 2010 was STILL wanting that administration and those people to be sustained in power.  She could has resigned from the Labour whip and sat as an independent, but as she choose to stay with the Labour party she must answer questions about what Labour did in office.

If Suzanne Moore were to do this there would be a lot of ineffectual pushing and shoving (virtually), several people would drag her off, and someone would shout "leave her, she's not worth it".

I will do all I can

Listening to the Today programme this morning was genuinely exciting.

And it has been an extremely interesting day (with Newsnight still to come).

I feel so re-invigorated.  I feel ready to take on the world.  When 2015 arrives I will deliver leaflets, I will canvass houses, I will give money, I will clap and cheer speakers, I will engage with social media, I will campaign and campaign and campaign.

I will do all I can to ensure victory.

Positions on Europe decide elections

Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie tells us that Lord Ashcroft warns of indifference among the electorate on the issue of "Europe".

James Morris ("former Miliband speechwriter and... polling and strategy adviser to the Labour Party") cautions that there is no "academic" evidence that positions on Europe decide elections.

However there is plenty of evidence that unrestricted out-of-control immigration is a big issue with the electorate (particularly C2, D and E groups), as Gillian Duffy will confirm.

As leaving the EU will allow the British people to control (or indeed stop if they wish) unrestricted immigration, "Europe" is likely to be a bigger issue than either Lord Ashcroft or James Morris calculate (of course, there are other trade groupings which also facilitate mad levels of population movement, but a Westminster government in full control of the borders will be able to face this down).

What a great leader David Cameron is proving to be.

Out and into the world

Some Belgian nonentity on Newsnight saying that the United Kingdom is "sleep-walking towards the Exit" in Europe.

He needs to be advised that we are not sleep-walking at all - we are walking determinedly towards the Exit and we intend to slam the door after us.

Labour signing the Lisbon Treaty without a mandate was an arrogance too far.


*Guy Verhofstadt apparently - never heard of him before today.

Understanding the B demographic 14

The B demographic resents the older generations for their lack of practical achievement in roles of power (as opposed, I assume, to the window-dressing we see everywhere).

The demographic adopts an extreme libertarian standpoint when discussing drugs policy.

Part of the perceived bias of the police towards the demographic revolves around the issue of drugs - the demographic genuinely and sincerely does not believe possession and trading of drugs is wrong, and therefore regards the attitude of the police in suppressing drugs as simply a manifestation of their bias.

Sentences related to drugs offences are keenly discussed, and everyone is aware of the latest cases before the courts (even the most marginal ones).

Inter-gang hostility and violence is not seen as anti-social, but as a "normal" part of life - attempts to curb such violence are regarded with contempt.

Prison is talked about as if it were the continuation of everyday life but in a confined institution.

"Manhood" starts at ridiculously early ages in the demographic, and even very young teenagers are referred to as "men" (or self-refer themselves).

The lazy adjective "Dickensian".

Guardian writer Patrick Butler, referring to an article by a fellow Guardian writer Philip Inman, compares current United Kingdom "inequality" to the sort of extremes described by Charles Dickens.  Anyone who is familiar with the Patrick Butler Twitter microblog will find that he is fond of the adjective "Dickensian" (he has used it a number of times in the past few days).  Perhaps his hyperbole is just due to an ultra-keen macho-lefty desire to attack the Conservatives no matter how silly the metaphors used - conveniently forgetting that present-day inequality didn't happen overnight, it is a direct consequence of Labour's incredibly relaxed attitude to economic filthiness.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/19/super-rich-fight-poverty-oxfam?CMP=twt_gu

Kaya Genç in a review of the Owen Jones demography Chavs (published in the Los Angeles Review of Books) refers to Owen Jones as "the new Dickens in town".  Does Mr Genc feel that when writing for an American audience everything must be exaggerated to extremes so incredible that they cause the average reader to gasp with incredulity?  Or perhaps Mr Genc genuinely believes Owen Jones is "the new Dickens"? (which doesn't say much for his literary judgement).

http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1145&fulltext=1&media=

In an excellent article in the Observer (which I have re-read several times) DJ Taylor quotes Orwell's caustic reaction to JB Priestley's comparison with Charles Dickens, calling the analogy absurd.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/09/jb-priestley-adventures-of-the-tradesman-of-letters

Charles Dickens was one of the greatest writers of all times and all cultures.  He cannot be compared to any other writer and no other writer can be compared to him.  The social conditions he examined were unique to 19th century England and comparisons cannot be made, even obliquely, to present-day circumstances - to do so rightly deserves to be called absurd.

So perhaps we can all stop using the lazy adjective "Dickensian".

The way in which a society can transmit "character" from one generation to the next

Very thought-provoking article by Libby Purves in today's Times about the way in which a society can transmit "character" from one generation to the next.

Character means consistency of behaviour, and integrity means that all the elements of a personality are integrated one with another.

However I think Libby Purves is expecting too much if she is hoping that teachers are going to instill good characters into future generations.  Teachers are too often lacking in estimable character themselves (lazy, hypocritical, bullying, dishonest even with themselves, uncaring, self-important - I am basing this on the teachers I encountered at my own "bog-standard" comp).  Joan McVittie, Head of Woodside High School in White Hart Lane in north London, openly said on the Today programme in September 2011 that she ignored the law as it related to school assemblies, hardly an example of good character for the young people in her care.

Good character can primarily be transmitted in families, but traditional family structures are no longer as ubiquitous as they once were and the new forms of family life are often too transitory for children to be brought up consistently.

Good character can also be refined through the institutions (formal and informal, major and minor), but many (perhaps most) of these have become corrupt.

Society needs some kind of catharsis to purge it of corruption, bad character and lack of integrity (the Second World War was an accidental catharsis that established good character for the following forty or fifty years and echoes still today as the standard we wish people to aspire too).

Capital

At the chancel arch was a fabulous Saxon capital.  Is this meant to be a Corinthian capital?  If so, how did this classical motif come to be carved in such a remote place?

However the way the leaves curl at the ends indicate that the foliage might be meant to represent ferns which are common in the locality (ferns are some of the oldest plants on Earth and emerged about 55 million years ago).

Danny Alexander interviewed by Andrew Neil on Sunday Politics

I watched Shadow Foreign Secretary Danny Alexander interviewed by Andrew Neil on Sunday Politics earlier today.

It is puzzling why the current discussions about the possibility of a referendum on membership of the European Union make no mention of the European Elections in 2014.

If, as expected, UKIP does well in the Euro elections the pressure for an In-Out referendum may well become irresistible.  Labour may well find itself boxed in by its current pro-EU position.  Therefore the Prime Minister needs to keep open the prospect of an In-Out referendum as a way of outflanking Labour, nixing UKIP and achieving an outright majority in 2015.

The alarmist talk currently circulating about "uncertainty driving away investment" needs to be discounted.

The United Kingdom is still the fifth largest economy in the world, with a large and sophisticated consumer market.  If the United Kingdom were to leave the EU and the EU were to be so foolish as to put up trade barriers, all that will happen is that the part of the British market currently being satisfied by European imports will suddenly be up for grabs.  In that scenario non-EU companies will rush to invest here.

A good image is as valuable as a good narrative - the past week at work

Monday

The office was quiet today as our Director Vijay Singh has once again been summoned to Head Office.  As well as being quiet, the upstairs floor was cold.  I spent the morning trying to make some progress with various projects including drafting campaign letters (a task that has been hanging around for ages).

In the afternoon I continued with the supplements for various key reports.  This involves trawling through the questionnaires and looking for patterns in the data.  Several times when an insight occurred to me I rang down to Abi Reed in the Tele Surveys team and they rang up five or six respondents to test whether the hypothesis might be correct.

I rang Maria B at Head Office and got on with her quite well, although at all times I have to be careful what I say - she is one of Alec Nussbaum's attack dogs.

Before leaving for the day I proof-read the latest version of the Training Course Guide.  This meant staying until 5.30, but at least I had the relief of knowing the booklet was on the way to the printer.  I also looked at databases of volunteers, trying to work out who to send it to (probably we will send it to people who have requested our publications in the past, as that probably indicates sympathy with our aims and objectives).

Tuesday

Tedious and time-consuming task of sourcing images for the supplements.  A good image is as valuable as a good narrative.  Always I am torn between using stock images (which are immediately available, but often look a little unreal) and commissioning photography that is authentic, but takes ages to happen.

Despite the cold Gary from the downstairs reading room continues to go running in just a t-shirt and shorts at lunchtimes.

We became aware of various inflamed discussions on the internet criticising some of the projects the Institute has been involved with.  Vijay Singh called an emergency meeting to consider whether the criticism could be an "inside job".  We reached the conclusion that the opposition was not organised and nothing really to worry about.

The temps in Admin made so much noise I could hardly concentrate.

Wednesday

I spent the day refining the database for distribution of the Training Course Guide.  The intention is to pre-select volunteers we think are broadly sympathetic, invite them to a free training course and then use the occasion as a covert interview of their suitability.  Those who pass Vijay Singh's personal vetting (he is attending every course) will be offered membership of the Insitute, the subscription paid for one year by our backer.

As the AGM is in April we do not have much time to get all this organised.

A telephone call from Sweden about photographs for the supplements - it comes to something when Swedish scenarios look more British than the British do.

More of the flaming messages on the internet, the references just a little too particular to be dismissed as the usual hothead ventings.

Thursday

"We need to understand the trends that are controlling society" said Vijay Singh, greeting people as they arrived.

The first of the training days, held at a motel so bland and featureless I am unable to describe it adequately.  Ten people plus Abi Reed, Vijay Singh and myself.  The attendees were already known to the Institute, and as long as they are agreeable we have already decided they will be offered membership.  The training was delivered by Vijay Singh himself, in a little room off the main Reception area.  The window had a view of a hedge with, in the distance, the motorway and the traffic constantly moving past.  Despite the snow everyone managed to get there on time.  

At lunchtime we went through to the hotel's dining room, and our table was the only one that was occupied in the hour and a half we spent over the meal.

Instead of going on until 5pm we stopped at 4, which I think was a great relief to everyone.

Friday

Hardly anyone in the offices today.

I decided it was time to tackle the huge backlog of e-mails that has built up over the last few days.  I printed out the most urgent, about forty or so.  Then I worked through them one by one, mostly ringing people up to resolve things quickly.

Hints from Abi Reed that a key research project is going badly.

If it's good they will get landslide support, right?

Rather weasely editorial in the Independent today.

If immigration is so good, all the politicians have to do is put it in their manifestos and ask the electorate to vote for it.

If it's good they will get landslide support, right?

Except that immigration is good for big business which gets an endless supply of dirt-cheap throwaway workers.  And its good for the Labour party as it gets another million or so destitute outsiders it can sign up to their bloc vote gerrymandering.  But the rest of society is not so keen.

Stupid and ignorant remark by Mary Beard on last night's Question Time quoting a Boston Council report saying immigration in the town is beneficial - she obviously does not know that all public bodies have a statutory duty to report "diversity" in a positive way (in other words it would be against the law to say anything negative - which is why that law must be revoked so that people can discuss immigration honestly).

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/editorial-stop-all-the-demonising-of-new-eu-migrants-8456428.html

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift wears a subtle, but unmistakable, Union Jack t-shirt in her latest video I knew you were trouble  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y

The video was directed by Anthony Mandler and filmed in Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift, a the age of 24, has sold over twenty six million albums and seventy five million digital downloads.