The Grayson Perry Who Are You? exhibition.

While I was in the National Portrait Gallery I had a look round the Grayson Perry Who Are You? exhibition.

It was meant to be seditious "fun", interposing Grayson Perry artworks among the great art of the past.

You can see what Grayson Perry was intending:

All this historic art shit is no better than my shit as I have proved by putting my art in with them.  You fucking gormless chavs are just impressed by the frame not the art.  You could put an unmade bed in an art gallery, call it art, and the fucking punters wouldn't know the difference.

I am paraphrasing Mr Perry of course, but it is how I imagine he speaks.

And of course, it is just a variation on the Emperor's New Clothes joke.

Mr Perry is a bully, but we must not let him bully us.

We are completely entitled to like accessible art if we want to - it is OUR National Portrait Gallery, not Grayson Perry's.

Ms Bennett expressed herself in a clumsy way

Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, has come under a lot of criticism for her comments about international consumption:  http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21637420-green-party-growing-force-british-politics-if-only-it-was-more-world-green

She does however have a point.  It is not possible for every person in the world to have the same consumerist lifestyle as the average person in the United Kingdom.  Even to give every household in the world access to basic electricity would involve power generation that would poison all of us.

Furthermore, it is not possible for the average person in the United Kingdom to maintain a relatively high standard of living when faced with globalised competition.  The elites (all societies and including the readers of the Economist) will be alright.  But the ordinary people are going to lose as the protective barriers (trade, nationality, migration etc) are removed to satisfy globalisation ideology.

And although Ms Bennett expressed herself in a clumsy way, the poor in India are perhaps better equipped to cope with what is going to happen as they have the compensation of a fatalist philosophy.

James Bloodworth in the New Statesman about the lack of social mobility

A rather empty article by James Bloodworth in the New Statesman about the lack of social mobility in British Society:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/12/forget-immigration-big-issue-2015-should-be-death-social-mobility

Although he describes the problem competently enough, he fails to analyse it convincingly.

For instance:  "...the political class has acquiesced in the slow death of social mobility for one very simple reason: the vastly unequal outcomes they almost all accept as de rigueur render all notions of "equality of opportunity" null and void."  If he were familiar with Exodus by Professor Paul Collier he would know that research indicates increasing rates of immigration and "diversity" erode trust between and within communities.  Therefore in a society where there is no trust it is unsurprising (if despicable) that the political class only looks after their own.

Also "...wealth concentrates when the returns on capital are higher than economic growth" (here Bloodworth is quoting Piketty).  In the United Kingdom ordinary people have been able to accumulate capital assets through private house purchase.  It is not the hoarding of capital assets by the elite that has destroyed social mobility - it has been the collapse of incomes due to the reckless expansion of the labour market that has made the accumulation of capital assets (both property and shares) increasingly unaffordable by most C1, C2 and D households.

This holiday does go on.

I am now drinking flat champagne (technically flat, although it is still fizzy despite being one of the bottles opened on Christmas Day).

As if anyone is going to believe Mervyn King is an impartial commentator:  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/29/labour-government-not-responsible-crash-bank-england-governor-mervyn-king

He and Gordon Brown worked hand in glove.

They crashed the economy together.

This is a Labour former Home Secretary talking:  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6216773/david-blunkett-labour-immigration-mistakes.html?CMP=spklr-125803398-Editorial-FBPAGE-The%20Sun%20-%20thesun-20141228-Features

Network Rail is ALREADY nationalised

I hope all those lefties who want renationalisation for ideological reasons were paying attention to the closure of Kings Cross station and the chaos at Finsbury Park.

Network Rail is ALREADY nationalised, and yet it produced a fiasco such as we have seen in the last few days.

There may be valid social and logistical reasons why the railway network should be publicly owned, but please do not argue that efficiency is going to improve.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30614195

"Cold Christmas pudding put in a blender with cream and brandy butter makes a very nutritional smoothie".

Daily Telegraph Women's Editor Emma Barnett is a privileged media toff

Emma Barnett (Women’s Editor for the Daily Telegraph) is by all accounts a privileged and educated person ("She writes news, comment and features across the channel and the newspaper. An award-winning radio presenter, from October 2014 she will present a weekly Sunday show on BBC Radio 5Live. Emma also makes Radio 4 documentaries, guest presents Woman's Hour and sometimes appears on the telly.").

Therefore is seems unusual that she should write such a wilfully ignorant article:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11307743/I-took-on-a-racist-and-he-threw-his-hot-chocolate-at-me.html

For all her obvious education Ms Barnett does not seem to have received any instruction in the Classics, otherwise she would be familiar with the phrase In vino veritas.

The drunken young man whose "racist" views she found so offensive was simply telling her what he really thinks.  Loosened by alcohol from usual constraints and inhibitions he voices what is in his mind.  Freed by drink from fear of repercussions he acts in the way he wants to act - which includes verbal and physical violence towards the classes of people he sees as tormenting him.

If Emma Barnett knew more white working class men she would know that what this young person said was remarkably mild and absolutely representative of their views towards immigrants and privileged media toffs (for in his eyes Daily Telegraph Women's Editor Emma Barnett is a privileged media toff).

Of course, all violence must be regretted.  The violence of the thrown hot chocolate must be condemned.  But equally the passive-aggressive violence of the toffee-nosed media do-gooder (as Ms Barnett must have presented herself) should also be condemned.

That Emma Barnett was thinking violent thoughts is revealed to us in her phrase:  "My temples throbbed as I felt unable to suppress the urge to silence him."

Thank goodness Emma Barnett does not have dictatorial powers otherwise the young man might have been silenced for good.

And do these words not sum up for us the immense disconnect in this country over immigration?  We have the words of the majority (crudely but sincerely expressed by the young man) contrasted with the media elite represented by Emma Barnett whose one urge was to silence him.  One can be appalled by this exchange on public transport, but one cannot deny the claim that the majority of working class people are not allowed to talk about immigration.

Of course it is possible that the working class majority in the United Kingdom will remain silenced on a permanent basis.

But it is equally possible that their anger will explode, in which case Emma Barnett might have worse things thrown at her than hot chocolate.

Jeremy Thorpe, when leader of the Liberal Party, protected Cyril Smith

A report on Channel 4 News this evening suggested that Jeremy Thorpe, when leader of the Liberal Party, protected Cyril Smith from investigation over his crimes against children.

All this needs to come out.

http://www.channel4.com/news/

Why is the investigation into Lord Janner not being reported in the mainstream media:  http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5424/lord-janner-faces-re-opened-police-probe-into-child-sex-abuse

There's not even an "innocent face" from Sally Bercow.

Objectionable to his own party

Kenneth Clarke appeared on the Andrew Marr show this morning followed later by Peter Mandelson.

And I wondered which one was most objectionable to his own party.

Certainly Ken Clarke should not be offered a peerage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

Assassination

On Dateline London Polly Toynbee raised an equivalence between a film fantasising about the assassination of the North Korean dictator and Hilary Mantel fantasising about the assassination of a Tory Prime Minister.

She fails to realise that there are enough oddballs who cannot differentiate between fiction and reality, and Hilary Mantel's fiction may well encourage someone to act on her (carefully mediated) suggestions.

If the assassination of Tories is fine to fantasise about, can we please legitimise fantasising about the assassination of left wing members of Parliament?

Just so it's fair.

Report on illegal immigration by Michael Crick on Channel 4 News

Rather fatuous report on illegal immigration by Michael Crick on Channel 4 News.  It had nothing new to say.  It just seemed to be a copy of what has previously been reported on Newsnight.

Illegal immigration is a crime and illegal immigrants caught in the United Kingdom should be subjected to very heavy sentences (ten years) - that would deter immigrants.

Then, to insult our intelligence, lefty Tom Copley appeared in a report on rented accommodation, telling us that the rented sector needed to have the same "protections" as the rest of Europe.

IF conditions in the United Kingdom are so bad WHY are countless thousands of illegal immigrants nearly killing themselves to leave Europe and get here?

http://www.channel4.com/news/

You could call all celebrities whores

We've had celebrity politicians, and celebrity chefs, and even celebrity priests.

Now we have celebrity whores:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30547066

Although I suppose you could call all celebrities whores, even the Rev Giles Fraser.

If ever someone looked guilty it was Lucy Powell MP

WONDERFUL interview of Lucy Powell (Vice-chair of Labour's 2015 General Election campaign) on Daily Politics on BBC2 just now.

She was very effectively skewered by Andrew Neil.

Refusing to answer the question made her look shifty and evasive.

Her entire response was to tell Andrew Neil to mind his own business (but his business is asking politicians awkward questions).

If ever someone looked guilty it was Lucy Powell MP, and you could tell she was barely able to keep her temper.

Wonderful television.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Cuban Health Paradox

Article by Margot Sanger-Katz in the New York Times on the supposed "Cuban Health Paradox":  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/upshot/can-cuba-escape-poverty-but-stay-healthy.html?rref=upshot&smid=tw-upshotnyt&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

There is not so much of a health paradox in Cuba.

It is by all accounts a poor country.  It has basic healthcare, but the materialist consumerism of the West is missing.  Therefore they have less lifestyle diseases caused by obesity, lack of exercise, urban stress.

The United Kingdom during the Second World War experienced severe rationing, and yet the population was far healthier than it is today.

Nick Timothy

I do not like the way Nick Timothy is being treated:  http://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2014/12/theresa-mays-special-adviser-has-been-removed-from-candidates-list-after-refusing-to-break-the-code-of-conduct-for-spads.html

Manipulation of the candidates' list is far too common in all parties (including UKIP).

It is time the Conservative Party devolved candidate selection down to constituency associations with no gerrymandering from Central Office.

Polycarbonate

I am fascinated by the potential of polycarbonate in architecture:  http://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/13/polycarbonate-house-massachusetts-manfredo-di-robilant-alessandro-armando/

But I wonder if any architect has designed a polycarbonate structure in the gothic style?

A house perhaps based on the Bishop West Chantry in Ely Cathedral (or the Bishop Alcock Chantry).

“If this carries on we risk civil disruption"

Important contribution to the political debate by Tony Booth:  http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/26/tony-booth-miliband-win-your-dreams-292914.html

“Reducing immigration would be the first thing,” says Booth, an unreconstructed socialist who, on every subject except Europe, is about as far-removed as it is possible to be from the ideology of Ukip. “I don’t believe Britain can accommodate 200,000 people every year,” he says. “If this carries on we risk civil disruption, and religion will come into it and all that bollocks. This is not about race. If you made the argument economic, I think more people might listen. But we haven’t got the balls to tell the EU to piss off.”