Sunflower harvest

The annual sunflower harvest is underway in the county.  I found these towering but spindly examples on the edge of a field.  I think they had been left because the flowers were too small.

Potted sunflowers decorating the church porch before morning service.  Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are an American plant, brought to England in the 16th century as part of the bounty (and booty) of the New World.  Basically they are giant daisies.

Did you know William Blake wrote a poem about the sunflower? 

Modernist sensibility

The influence of hedonistic post-Great War modernist sensibility can be seen in the new video for Reconnected's Time of Our Lives, to be released in October.

No idea who the director is, but it was filmed in Ibiza.

Presumably at the same sub-Bauhaus villa that Lady Gaga used for her equally hedonistic video for Poker Face.

Obviously Pugin would tell you (if he were able to) that gothic is the only moral form of architecture.

Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement

Review by Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement of Edith Hall's new book on the cultural history of Iphegenia in Tauris.

Like everything by Marina Warner, it is worth reading several times.

I know this is 2013.

Nevertheless I was surprised (I nearly said shocked, but that would not be the right word) to see the BBC presenter at the Last Night of the Proms in an evening dress with bare shoulders.

Lord Reith would have made her wear a stole.

Involving Head Office in an investigation - the past week at work

Monday

Since Callum Smith became Director there seems to be less and less for me to do.  And looking about the office others also appear to be scrabbling about to look busy.  But perhaps it is just the long summer that has created this lull in activity.

The server down again, so no e-mails came into my In-box today.

At last I got to grips with a powerpoint presentation, and although it took most of the day to do I was pleased with the result.

Publication proofs to check in the afternoon.

Marcia Walsh (Deputy Director) unexpectedly absent, so that everyone wondered where she was until late afternoon and she rang Katie in accounts and true to her reputation as the office gossip Katie blurted out to everyone what had happened:  "Marcia's daughter split up with her boyfriend in a big row in the street last night and the police were called and Marcia was arrested!"

Tuesday

For some reason I woke up at 4 am and could not get back to sleep properly, so by the time I get to the office I was already weary and wanting an easy day.

One of the aspects of not having any major campaigns at the moment is that many staff do not have enough to do, and so a low-level bickering emerges.

Encouraging signs of activity on the internet shop - sales of publications are up.

I took the afternoon as holiday and drove to see a client I do freelance work for occasionally.  

Wednesday

It was not terribly warm in the office when I arrived, and I wondered when the heating will be turned on.

Callum Smith was in today, so things seemed busier, but although I like him a lot I am forced to concede that he is not a leader.  Vijay Singh was impossible to work with, but at least he knew what he wanted to do.  Callum Smith just seems to wait for orders from Alec Nussbaum.

In the afternoon I sent out an e-mail campaign.  Normally we do these through Head Office, but this one was so sensitive that Callum Smith asked me to do it personally.  I used DotMailer, taking ages to work out how to use it.

Thursday

Beautiful fog, like rippling sheets of white silk hanging across the landscape, the sun behind the fog making it glisten.

Pleased that an article I have written has appeared in a magazine we have long wanted to get into.

A visit from security personnel which was unusual as the office address is supposed to be confidential.

Friday

An attack on the Institute's computers, not it seems a very sophisticated one.  Callum Smith just wanted everything put right, but Marcia Walsh insisted on involving Head Office in an investigation.  "It was launched on the 9th" she told us.

I borrowed a laptop and wrote letters (we can't send e-mails until the investigation has been completed).

Gary (Library Room assistant) on holiday and nobody had thought to buy the newspapers, so I walked across to the little parade and got them.  And the rest of the day consisted of reading newspapers.  When 5 o'clock arrived I was one of the first to leave.

Congratulations to Tony Abbott.

Your victory is our victory.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter

Are we able to celebrate the Unite union's "vindication" in the Falkirk debacle?

I'm afraid not.

Not until the report has been published.

Otherwise we only have the Labour party's assurances that there was no jiggery pokery.

"We the Labour party have looked into the behaviour of the Labour party and have concluded that the Labour party is entirely innocent".

Doesn't quite ring true does it.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter.  Not only have journalists been called fascists and prospective parliamentary candidates accused of sleeping their way to the top.  The police have been called in to investigate - and this expenditure of public money makes it a legitimate matter of concern to us all.

And also is it not a question of trust among those people who aspire to be our political masters?

For all it's comical ineptitude and bad-tempered name calling the Falkirk incident is, as it stands, a form of cover-up.

There is no whitewash at the Falkirk Constituency Labour Party, we are being told.

I am not a crook, Len McClusky seems to be telling us.

Fine.

Prove it.

Publish the report.

Otherwise you risk going into the 2015 election with the Richard Nixon Endorsement for open and transparent government.

http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/09/falkirk 

The US did not "join in" until December 1941

President Obama is wrong to say when London was being bombed in the war the US joined in even though it was unpopular with the US population.

When London was being bombed in the Second World War the American ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, was sending back messages saying England was finished.

The US did not "join in" until December 1941, well after the Blitz was over.

We should not forget these things.

Inspiring

As a mild isolationist I was very cheered by this article in the Daily Express quoting Economic Secretary Sajid Javid:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/427357/Leaving-the-EU-is-nothing-to-be-afraid-of-minister-says

Also I enjoyed the front cover of this week's New Statesman.

I suppose they mean it as a rebuke but I find the image quite inspiring. 

In the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

After seeing the devastating report on female genital mutilation on Newsnight yesterday and earlier in the week I feel bound to re-ask the question:  in the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

Rape of young women is a heinous crime, except apparently when carried out by gangs of "vibrantly diverse" men in which case it can go on for years without much notice being taken.

Abortion on the grounds of sex selection is illegal except that doctors aborting female embryos (for no other reason than they are female) are not prosecuted. 

Female genital mutilation (which is apparently carried out on tiny children without anesthetic) is in theory illegal in the United Kingdom but in practice it is widespread and no-one in the criminal justice system much cares.

Of course lefty feminists will tell you that both multi-culturalism and feminism are equally valid and complementary and we need both to be truly "liberated".  In reality this is a load of hogwash.  Through the ideology of vibrantly diverse multiculturalism the United Kingdom is importing new forms of female oppression - and in any dispute multiculturalism will always trump feminism.

Self-important twerp

I used to think David Aaronovitch was a self-important twerp (in a newspaper seemingly staffed by self-important twerps).

Then I read this harsh article in today's Times and realised he is much nastier.

As a Conservative obviously I like to see lefties fall out with each other, but I think we are all demeaned by this sort of character attack.

David Aaronovitch was interviewed on Channel 4 News about half an hour ago and his body language was terrible. 

He could not hold the interviewer's eye but kept looking down and sideways as if he was deeply ashamed of himself.

I am very concerned at what is happening in Sinai and the impact on St Catherine's monastery.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/st-catherine-shutdown-monastery-sinai-unrest.html

UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe

The Guardian is no friend of the Coalition government, so when even they are saying the economy is recovering we should pay attention:  "Strong services data signals UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe.  PMI survey's all-sector reading hits 15-year high, with order books growing at fastest pace since Tony Blair became PM."  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/04/strong-services-pmi-uk-growth-europe

Happy days are here again, as the song goes.

The skies above are clear again.

The Labour Party's sunk again.

Happy days are here again.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism

The Today programme this morning discussed the gender abortion story:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23968107

Personally I think all abortion is wrong, and therefore the idea of killing embryos according to gender is no different to killing them according to race or disability or latent sexual orientation or eye-colour or whether the dna suggests they might have dimples or not.

It's all equally disgusting.

But let us for a moment try to enter the mind of pro-abortion lefties and try to understand what hierarchy they are putting on the legal murder of embryos.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism (for instance is it OK to kill girl embryos even though this is clearly discriminatory against women)?

Do issues of feminism trump race (for instance is it OK to ban immigrant communities from practising their vibrant multi-culturalism if it means killing girl embryos)?

Does the current option of abortion according to lifestyle choice (killing embryos because they are inconvenient to the mother) lend itself to facilitate the killing of embryos according to gender (for instance, can a vibrantly diverse mother kill her all her girl embryos, one after the other, by simply asserting that continuing with the pregnancies would cause injury to her mental health)?

182,000 abortions were funded by the NHS in 2011 (latest figures I can find) therefore we have a right to know what on earth our money is being used for.

When is the government going to do something about "auto renewal" of car insurance polices?

Is this not inertia selling, which I understood to be illegal.

Zurich car insurance is a practitioner of this kind of sharp practice, and is ENTIRELY unhelpful when you try to discuss the issue.

Basically the insurance companies are saying "we will steal money from you unless you specifically tell us not to".

Luckily I managed to cancel the direct debit before any money left my account, but how many people have fallen victim to this scam?

Ref http://www.confused.com/car-insurance/articles/car-insurance-auto-renewals-your-rights

The immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website

Rather self-satisfied account of the immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website:  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mamata-nanda/british-jobs-for-british-_b_3777231.html

"In 1960s and 70s, many young highly qualified science and engineering graduates came from India in search of a job. They were welcome then" says Mamata Nanda.

Welcomed by whom may I ask?

Who exactly welcomed you to the United Kingdom and facilitated your employment here?

It certainly was not the general population who have always opposed, by a considerable majority, the arrival of the post-war immigrants.

Is it not a disgrace that democracy has been set aside to allow your sojourn here?

Are you not a tiny bit ashamed of yourself Mamata Nanda to push yourself into someone's home when you are clearly not wanted or welcome?

And would it be an unreasonable question to ask when you intend to leave?

The distillation of Thatcherism

Mitya Pearson does not seem to have done much research in this rather shallow article for Left Foot Forward:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/09/the-thatcherite-legacy-is-a-paradoxical-conservative-party/

The distillation of Thatcherism can be summed up in three words - free to choose.

Yes, we urge you to live within your means.  Yes we tell you moderate things are stable (mediocre firma should be written on John Major's gravestone).  Yes we want everyone to stand on their own two feet and support themselves (with a gentle shove for those a little slow in getting off their backside).

But at the end of the day you are free to choose.

You want to lie in bed until midday?  You are free to do this.  Just don't expect others to support you financially.

You want to max out your credit card and run up debts you don't intend to pay back?  You are free, within the law, to do this.  But don't be surprised if you lose your credit rating and institutions stop trusting you.

You want to vote in Labour councils and Labour governments that are totally incontinent when spending other people's money?  You are free to vote these people into office.  Just remember the gleeful note left by Liam Byrne telling us there was no more money left after thirteen years of Labour maladministration - these people will take all your hard-earned taxes, squander them on vanity projects and wasteful fol de rols and then laugh in your face.

There is no paradox in Thatcherism.

At the end of the day we value freedom above everything.

And if (as will happen from time to time) a Labour government comes along and blows out all the candles we will light them up again.


(candle quote from Betjeman).

Message to the GMB union

My message to the GMB union is COME AND JOIN US !

You can have an influence on government policy through the Conservatives just as much as through the Labour party (and let's be frank, they have been moving away from you for about twenty years now).

Conservatives At Work http://www.conservativesatwork.org.uk/

It would be an eye-catching initiative that would radically change the political landscape, rebalance the Conservative party (not that it really needs rebalancing) and bring trade union leaders back into Number 10 complete with beer and sandwiches.

So what if Labour has jilted you.

Affiliate to the Conservative Trade Unionists.

Think how satisfying it would be to slap down all those Blairites who have been tormenting you for years.

The Labour party is never going back to the way it was pre-Blair, so it's time to start thinking imaginatively.

Come and join us!

Owen Jones is not happy about the Lobbying Bill, telling us:  "Government may be forcing their Gagging Bill through, but it is an unacceptable attack on democracy that should be met with non-compliance".

Is "non-compliance" a mealy-mouthed way of encouraging people to break the law?

Is this incitement one wonders?

Perhaps Mr Jones should reword his tweet, or take it down altogether.

Much as I enjoy the theory that a negative vote in the British House of Commons influenced the American administration to "seek consultation" from Congress before a Syrian strike, is it not more likely that President Obama does not really want to get involved in Syria in the first place, and although for form's sake he needs to sound tough (Kerry saying this is a Munich moment) he would actually be quite grateful if the proposals get voted down and he is "forced" by "weak caviling cowards" to do nothing.

As Angela Brazil (that writer of pithy aphorisms disguised as schoolgirl wisdom) once said:  it is pleasant when duty and inclination coincide.