Having read in the Times Literary Supplement about chick maceration (the decimation of baby chicks by feeding them live into grinders) makes me seriously question whether I can go on eating eggs.

What further horrors has the world of factory farming got to reveal?

It's one thing after another.

Article by Vikram Dodd on the front page of the Guardian

Disappointing article by Vikram Dodd on the front page of the Guardian today.

By giving credence to the claim that the Metropolitan Police are "institutionally racist" without investigating the charge dispassionately Vikram Dodd is just indulging in lazy journalism.  It makes no difference that he was repeating an accusation made by Doreen Lawrence.  He has a duty to compare and contrast the stop and search statistics he quoted, and balance them against the London crime figures by ethnic origin.

Otherwise the Guardian risks being relegated to the status of a sensationalist newspaper (intriguing perhaps, but without value).

Giving extended coverage to the views of Doreen Lawrence also presents difficulties.  Obviously one can sympathise with a mother who has lost a child.  But we should not expect someone suffering extreme grief over an extended period of time to look at the world rationally - any more than Mohammed Fayed was rational over the death of his son, or the parents of Stuart Lubbock were rational over the death of their son.

Certainly we should not allow emotion to decide public policy (which is where the 1997 political reaction that led to the MacPherson Inquiry and its aftermath made so many fundamental mistakes).

It is possible that the murderers of Stephen Lawrence were uniquely evil monsters created by the inherent racism of the British state (the MacPherson report singled out the Civil Service, local governments, the National Health Service, schools, and the judicial system) and that this requires a total cultural revolution to purge British society of "racists" at every level.

Equally it is possible that the tragic death of Stephen Lawrence was just another stabbing, among hundreds of other tragic stabbings, in a complex and pernicious pattern of gangs and gang-related crime that permeates London housing estates.

By allowing emotion to sway the arguments we risk going off at tangents and therefore not tracing the crime to its root cause.

I am also not happy at the way politicians jump on the Stephen Lawrence bandwagon - whether it is Diane Abbott and her Twitter posts or Jack Straw (on the Today programme talking to James Naughtie) shooting his mouth off about "racism" in football.

"Dogs of British imperialists"

A leading academic at "Peking" University (not Beijing, even though the report appeared in the Guardian) has accused the population of Hong Kong as "dogs of British imperialists". 

This is flattering to the United Kingdom in a number of ways. 

1  It assumes we still have some kind of hegemonic imperial influece in the Far East, whereas in reality those days are long gone.

2  Two thirds of the population of Hong Kong do not feel any affinity with Mainland China, which indicates they prefer the old colonial set-up which ended in 1997 (being exploited and oppressed by the arrogant colonial British is preferable to the "liberty" and "freedom" of independence - someone should tell Alex Salmond this!).

3  In the days when China was genuinely communist the United Kingdom was routinely described as "top hat imperialist running dogs" but this new accusation indicates we now have running dogs of our own, which presumably is a promotion of some sort.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/24/chinese-professor-hong-kong-dogs

Melanie Phillips

Question Time yesterday included Melanie Phillips on the panel. 

Melanie Phillips is a writer for the Daily Mail newspaper and won the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 1996.

She is routinely attacked and characterised as a strident (to the point of hysteria) apologist for the extreme right.

But last night I thought she argued coherently and was logical and across all the questions (four or five - Iran, drugs, benefits culture etc) she made a lot of sense.

They need to refocus by placing the customer at the centre of their attention

I don't often go into Tescos, but on a recent visit I noticed that the checkout assistant no longer hands you a receipt when you have handed over your money.

Instead you have to take the receipt from a dispenser at the end of the checkout.

Why have the stupid idiots done this?

They should be seeking to maximise interaction with the checkout assistant, who is representing Tesco and MUST say a proper "thank you" (and perhaps smile if they feel like it) when a customer has just spent £80 or £100 on their weekly shop.

Now the assistant just expects you to go away at the end of the transaction and by the time you take your receipt they are already directing their attention to the next in the queue.

Tesco recently reported a fall in sales and its worst performance in twenty years - they need to refocus by placing the customer at the centre of their attention.

Coriolanus

On Monday I went to see the film Coriolanus at the Odeon in Tottenham Court Road.

I have never seen the play, so was not sure what to expect.  The film is directed by Ralph Fiennes who also stars as Caius Martius Coriolanus.  It is a very professional piece, credible and engrossing throughout.

In particular Vanessa Redgrave is magnificent as Volumnia.  When you consider she is in her mid-70s, she has the energy, charisma and authority of someone in her thirties.  This was a very great performance.

The film was set in contemporary times, but this did not intrude on the interpretation.  In any case, in all his plays Shakespeare is exploring the human condition in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, and almost all the themes of Coliolanus (family, loyalty, patria, honour, political manipulation, the right of the majority to be wrong etc) are relevant to the United Kingdom today.  Everything about the film is assured.

Coriolanus is two hours long, and before going into the cinema I wondered if I could endure it.  Shakespeare done badly can be unendurable.  But from the first moment I was entirely absorbed in the drama.

There is a good review in this week's Times Literary Supplement.

Am watching Press Preview on Sky News.  Both Zoe Williams and Iain Dale think Alex Salmond's proposed referendum question is "leading".  Perhaps the Electoral Commission will intervene and insist on a neutral question.

SNP consultation paper on a referendum for Scottish independence

Above:  this year we are trying a vegetarian haggis (bought from Sainsburys) plus a bottle of Bells whisky.

Today is Burns Night - an annual celebration of the life and work of the poet Robert Burns.

This year the day has been hijacked by the Scottish National Party who have chosen to use today to launch the SNP consultation paper on a referendum for Scottish independence (they supposedly plan to hold the actual referendum on the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn 1314 although it is not clear they will be allowed to affiliate a historic anniversary for electoral purposes, especially as it would mean holding the election on a Sunday).

Therefore I think it is important for ordinary people throughout the United Kingdom to reclaim Burns Night from the SNP - great artists and poets are the inheritance of all humanity should not be retrospectively co-opted into nationalist programmes.

Probably any referendum will just be confined to Scotland, and people in the rest of the United Kingdom will not be involved (not even people who were born in Scotland).

However the ordinary people in the rest of the United Kingdom can go over the heads of the SNP and talk directly (via Facebook, blogs, Twitter etc) to the ordinary people of Scotland.

Therefore as someone who is entirely English my Burns Night message to the people of Scotland is: don't leave us.  Stay with us in the United Kingdom.  Let us continue to share our common island home and (I sincerely hope) share our common Parliament at Westminster.

Alex Salmond interviewed on Newsnight

Have just watched Alex Salmond interviewed on Newsnight by Jeremy Paxman.

Why is this person so popular in Scotland?  It is inexplicable.  Or perhaps he is not popular, the other party leaders were so dire they made him look good (all the other main parties now have new leaders so perhaps the position will change).

Throughout the interview he was sarcastic and flippant and said "Jeremy" in almost every single sentence - presumably an attempt to patronise.

Echoes 2

Above:  Alfred Moore's Midsummer normally in the Russell-Cotes Museum in Bournemouth (one of my favourite museums).  Young woman in a white robe and orange cloak sits on a heavy wooden throne, head wreathed with flowers.  She is attended by two women wearing white robes and orange cloaks.

The image is available:  http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Moore_Albert_Midsummer.jpg 

Above:  still from Lana Del Rey's official video of Born To Die.  Young woman in a white robe (no orange cloak) sits on a heavy wooden throne, head wreathed with flowers.  She is attended by two tigers, white and orange stripes.

Official video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bag1gUxuU0g&ob=av2n

The best way to absorb magnesium

I have a family history of heart disease and so have to be careful about my health.

Someone advised me that putting Epsom Salts in a hot bath is good for you - not just for the heart but for all sorts of health issues.

So I bought some tubs of Epsom Salts (99p each) and put them in a bath and laid in the water for about fifteen minutes.  It's supposed to be the best way to absorb magnesium, which many people are deficient in.  Certainly made me feel very relaxed.

You would never get this advice from the NHS - any treatment the drug companies can't make a profit from they are not interested in.

Two superb photographs by Tom Jenkins in the sports section of yesterday's Guardian.  He has a knack of isolating elements so that they convey personality.  The first picture made you look at the eyebrows of a soccer player; the second drew attention to the light on the hairs on a rugby player's arm (as well as outlining his profile with a subtle nimbus).

I waited and waited

After lunch a drive to a village on the flat plains.

Windy day, but the air balmy and mild.

I had been to the church before, some years ago, and had obtained the key from the village stores.  This time however the girl behind the counter looked at me blankly and had to ask someone "out the back".  A middle aged woman directed me to the churchwarden's house, a confusing complicated route along local lanes.

Eventually I arrived at a farmhouse, but the churchwarden and farmer was in the packhouse - more confusing directions down rough tracks to a collection of remote barns.

In a prefab cabin I found a young man in grey overalls and asked for the farmer.  He asked me to wait.  I waited and waited.

After about twenty minutes the farmer appeared, a short wiry man aged 65 or 70, grey hair and a largish nose (enlarged pores).  He was formally dressed in a light brown suit, white shirt and a tie.  However the suit was smeared with large black grease stains covering about fifty per cent of the cloth and so ingrained that they were obviously of some age - layers upon layers of grease.

I asked for the key and he asked why I wanted it.  I explained I was writing a book on the history of the area (not untrue, I do plan to write something eventually).  He asked whether I had been confirmed and when I said yes he went over to a desk (unbelievably untidy and heaped with papers) and from a drawer produced a big heavy key, about a foot long.

On Andrew Neil's Sunday Politics discussion of Ed Miliband's personal rating being only 4% among Labour supporters.  Chuka Umunna MP anodyne and ineffectual in response.  He should have pointed out that years away from an election the Labour party needs a policy wonk like Ed Miliband in charge developing ideas for 2015, not a rabble-rousing Neil Kinnock type who will make a lot of indignant noise then fall flat on his face.

It all seemed to go well - the past week at work

Monday 

The "highly confidential" excursion last week was a flop.  Friday morning I did some freelance work, then early afternoon drove to the northern home counties and booked into the hotel, meeting Keith Chandler (Senior Campaign Manager).  We seemed to have the hotel to ourselves.  Half-bored half-excited we walked around the ground floor rooms, not daring to go out into the gardens in case "the balloon goes up" (an expression Keith Chandler used frequently).  Director Vijay Singh arrived and fidgeted non-stop.  At 7.30 we had dinner, then waited around some more.

At 3am it became clear that the meeting was not going to go ahead, so we all went to bed.

I the morning when Keith Chandler and I met at breakfast we found that Vijay Singh had already left.  I asked Keith Chandler if this sort of expedition was typical.  He told me no.

When I got to the Institute Monday morning Vijay Singh was in his office all morning and not to be disturbed.  When we met at midday I half-expected a debrief about the failed presentation, but nothing was said.  When I asked Keith Chandler what had gone wrong he told me "best not to ask".

The team that had gone to the exhibition on Friday asked Keith Chandler where he had been.  He told them he had been ill.  I spent the day writing Campaign Plans.

Tuesday

Most of the morning a briefing from telephone research supervisor Abi Reed (large young woman, black hair, pugnacious manner).

In the afternoon a briefing with the archive team downstairs - I tried not to appear bored.

Long discussion in the afternoon about magistrates' courts and whether they work properly or not.

An unannounced visit from the large "sister organisation" the Institute works for.  Alec Nussbaum is supposedly a trouble-maker, always interfering in the Institute.  On this occasion he rifled through our campaign plans rubbishing our efforts in a way that was highly offensive ("I'm inwardly seething" Campaign Manager Callum Smith told me quietly).

When I went home I tried a new route - there were no traffic hold-ups, and the scenery was nicer, but I didn't get home any quicker.

Wednesday

In my new position at the Institute I have considerable purchasing powers.  I decided to hold a review of printers and designers the Institute uses, and invited Joey (a designer I worked with some years ago) to quote.  Although he is based in south London, the projects are sufficiently large for it to be worth his while to travel to the Institute.  He arrived this afternoon waddling into the office with his familiar bow-legged walk.  Returned from an overseas holiday so that his face was almost black (no exaggeration).  He talked about various football injuries he had experienced.

News that I had reviewed suppliers must have spread quickly, as the managing director of the main print and design company used for our reports came to see me in person later in the afternoon (I wonder who at the Institute had tipped him off).  I told him he would still receive commissions but would no longer be the sole supplier.  He hinted he might go over my head.

I had to hang around until well past 6pm before I could talk to Deputy Director Lois Cooper.  We discussed an article that is to be "placed" in a magazine.  Then I sat at my PC and drafted it, got approval from Lois Cooper, then sent it off.

 

Thursday

A whole day spent on databases - integral to the Institute's work.

Friday

I find myself drinking more coffee in this new job.  This is mainly because people keep offering to make me one, and it seems ungracious to refuse.  But I want to get back to drinking two litres of water a day.

At 3pm Callum Smith and myself presented a Campaign Plan to Director Vijay Singh.  This was a key moment for me, as most of the plan was my work.  It all seemed to go well, and the questions were interested ones rather than the critical pulling-apart that Vijay Singh is renowned for.

Echoes

Above:  I was interested to see this picture in The Guardian yesterday where one of their writers has recreated a painting by Van Gogh.  Not sure why this sort of thing has an effect on me, but it does.  You can see other echoes of great art elsewhere in the media.

Above:  for instance, a recent TV commercial for Benylyn cough mixture showed a man in bed with an incubus on his chest.  It seems to echo Henry Fuseli's painting The Nightmare.  It's very effective.

Above:  And the video for Aviici's Levels (a remix of Flo Rider's Good Feeling) shows an office worker pushing a rock up a mountain in an echo of Titian's Sisyphus in the Prado (copyright on this picture has expired).


Good Feeling is one of those songs that just goes round and round in my mind.  Not sure how it got there.  It's not the sort of thing I would choose to listen to.

The Levels video is fascinating (I think so anyway).  A bored office clerk in a sort of "living death in the Buying Department" existence begins to behave erratically and is eventually tasered by Security.  Hospitalised in a sort of Quincy MD facility, he vomits foam in the shape of a white flower.  Two hospital attendants become contaminated by this foam and infected by the disorder.  The infection spreads to a nurse who appears absolutely terrified (this is great acting!).  Senior consultants literally run for their lives along the drab 1970s corridors.

It's a classic!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ovdm2yX4MA&ob=av2e

John Bell is a "useful fool"

Very biased pro-independence Thought For The Day broadcast on Radio 4 this morning.  John Bell from the Iona Community told us (in very thinly veiled language) that the SNP's political programme was "holy", which suggests John Bell is a "useful fool" (in the Lenin sense).  There seems to be an unusual and unhealthy link between religion and the SNP, with Alex Salmond claiming divine endorsement for his policies (which lets him off the hook of having to justify them on rational grounds).

What is unacceptable is that the BBC should allow this sort of thing to go out in the middle of a referendum campaign (presumably they are going to balance this with a pro-Unionist Thought For The Day?).

Reading

Above:  have finished reading Howards End and have now started Disputed Land by Tim Pears.

For all the quasi-socialism and proto-feminism of Howards End, basically EM Forster seemed to be endorsing the permanence of farming families living in a sustainable relationship with the land.

Appalled by the state of Knole and have just sent them a donation.  Knole is inseparable (in my mind) from Vita Sackville-West's Knole and the Sackvilles (although the book is effectively a work of imaginative fiction).  How can the National Trust just let the place fall down?

What is wrong with the Labour Party?

Above:  policy chart drawn up by Tom Clark for the Guardian in June last year (if you click on the image you should be able to read the text).  I have often looked through this chart, as it places on a single sheet of paper all of Labour's policy options.  A matrix of this kind is essential to effective PR - to my mind Ed Miliband is being let down by his PR operation.

I am currently watching Channel 4 News (I'm hoping to see a report on the YouGov poll for Channel 4 News on the Scottish referendum).

Have just seen Jon Snow interview Ed Miliband who dismissed Jon Snow's sneers that he was in the power of the union "paymasters".  Ed Miliband seems to be coming under a lot of unreasonable criticism at the moment.  What is wrong with the Labour Party?  Do they seriously think that the party can have any effect on government policy so many years away from the election?  All they can do is plan for the future, concentrating on innovative and attractive policies in each of the areas of the above chart.  Anything else is just meaningless posturing that will count for nothing in 2015.

Royal Yacht

Currently watching the Press Preview on Sky News.

Kevin Maguire from the Daily Mirror has just made an attack on the purchase of a new Royal Yacht, in what seemed an old-fashioned spiteful politics-of-envy spasm.

The project is to be financed by private donations, and the numbers are not great:

Eight people donating ten million pounds each; or eighty people donating a million pounds each; or a million people donating £80 each.

I am happy to pledge £80 to the Royal Yacht fund (and this is not taking money away from other good causes - I already give £70 a month to charities in direct debits and a further £14 a month to CAF for ad hoc donations).

Thank you Kevin Maguire for annoying me sufficiently that I am now motivated to support this fund.