"I drink therefore I am"

On 8/6/11 I will have been tea total for a year, not a drop has passed my lips!
I have lost a lot of weight, saved a lot of money and  generally feel a lot healthier. All this sounds great but there is one big drawback my social life is non-existent, I don't see any of my old drinking buddies and basically go out on my own, except for the odd occasion when I go out with my wife when we can find a babysitter!
When I meet my old drinking buddies on the street they usually greet me with "how are you?" as if I'm ill then the conversation becomes very stilted and then we quickly go our own ways.
I'm not blaming them they invest a lot of time and effort into their drinking and don't want someone like me upsetting their equilibrium, but for gods sake I've known some of them for years and been through a lot with them.
It's a very strange situation but not one unheard of in the field of alcohol counselling, my counsellor, an existential psychotherapist no less!, calls it the Mitwelt dimension!!! I just call it being dumped!

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.” Confucius

Lakshmi Mittal - worth £17.5b - accused of employing slave labour and having horrendous health and safety conditions in his mines (91 miners have died), bribery, 'cash for influence' in the 'Mittal Affair' and environmental pollution.
Roman Abramovich - worth £10b - accused of blackmail, bribery, theft, loan fraud, share dillution and breaching anti-monopoly rules.
Leonard Blavatnik - worth £6.2b - accused of racial discrimination, 'Lyondell' scandal and links with Russian organised crime.
Gopi and Sri Hinduja - worth £6b - the 'Bofors Scandal', cash for passports affair and accused of supplying army vehicles to the Sudanese Government breaching arms export legislation.

Etc , etc, etc , etc........

All the above appear in the latest edition of the Sunday Times Rich List and are all UK citizens, doesn't it make you proud to be British?

Tesco - latest special offers!

Nestle Truffle Eggs - 59p each or two for £1.20!
Market Value Smoked Mackerel £3.79kg - Normal Smoked Mackerel £3.79kg!

Limited offers get them while you can!

Proposals by the DCLG to cut socio-economic indicators

On the Department for Communities and Local Government website there is a consultation document outlining proposals to cease publication of a number of statistical data sets, they include:

* Housing and Planning Statistics and key facts
* Electronic Survey of Empty Homes
* Local Area Council Tax Dwellings
* Register of Licensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

* Commercial and industrial floor space and RV statistics

* Economic Deprivation Index

* Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)

* Child Well-being Index

* Citizenship Survey (all parts)

There is also an implied threat to the next 'indices of deprivation'.

Isn't it funny that the majority of the data sets are in one way or another indicators of poverty and deprivation? Are the condems trying to do away with data and statistics that show the impact and outcomes of their policies in a bad light?

New financial threat on the horizon?

A business worth £735bn a year could be the next bubble waiting to burst according to an article in today's Guardian. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) allow investors to buy shares in a market without actually ever owning the product, pure speculation!
There will be some who argue that it creates wealth for the country, but were is this wealth and why isn't it being used to clear the deficit? This is nothing but naked greed and creates massive wealth for the individuals involved while at the same time playing roulette with food prices, our pensions and future livelihoods!

When is the Government going to rein these cowboys in? Stupid question they have too many vested interests!

Descriptive London street names

Bread Street
Fig Tree Court
Fish Street Hill
Haymarket
Gropecunt Lane!!!!

Gropecunt Lane ran south from Cheapside, with Popkirtle Lane (literally pop-girdle as in tear your clothes off) on one side and Bordhawe Lane (Bordhawe means brothel) on the other. The groping of cunts was apparently the lowest form of prostitution where aged hags would charge a pittance for a punter to put his hand up their skirts and grope them. The street is no longer there but it ran roughly north to south just to the east of present-day Queen Street between Cheapside and Queen Victoria Street.
No wonder the Victorians changed its name!

Thank god for Jesshops!!

Established in 1923 Jesshops Bakers have 3 shops in London, the one I frequent most is the one in trendy Exmouth Market. No paninis or Californian sourdough sandwiches that cost upwards of a fiver and no skinny lattes or expensive cups of orange pekoe, just crusty rolls, pasties and big mugs of tea at very low prices!
Yae cannae wack it!

Tricky word 'Librarian'!

Twice recently, for official reasons, I have been asked to give my occupation and on both occasions the person asking could not spell Librarian! thank god i'm not a Paediatric Physiotherapist!
I find this especially worrying as both were Police Officers!
If you look at the latest guidance on the eligibility to become a police constable, educational attainment and standards is not mentioned at all, in fact the Home Office Police Recruitment website states;
"there is no formal educational requirement, but you will have to pass written tests"
Now don't get me wrong I am not in any way suggesting that our 'majesty's finest' are educationally subnormal I am only expressing my concern about a possible drop in standards?

Camden's flawed Library consultation

Camden Council is currently consulting library users and residents about the future of the library service, unfortunately there seems to be a digital divide! If you complete the paper version you can leave the boxes unticked relating to what cuts you want, or don't, but on the online version you can't, in order to progress you have to tick a box!

"A spokesperson for Camden Council told Fitzrovia News “We have commissioned a market research company to support the consultation, provide topline analysis and verify the outcomes at a cost of £25,000″. - money well spent?

There is a petition to save Camden’s library service at http://www.petition.co.uk/save-camden-libraries

New Reader Libraries!

The Reader Organisation, a literacy charity from the north east, is currently trying to push the idea of creating new 'community' libraries, or as they call them 'New Reader Libraries'.
"First, we are advocating a national network of New Reader Libraries. New Reader Libraries are going to be like a real home, crossed with a great school, crossed with a fabulous café. People are the main thing, people and the things people need.
There will be laptops and desktops and possibly even a home-cinema-size screen, and a PA system for dance night and disco. But mainly it will be books, chairs, sofas, corners, lamps, tables, people and food." - sounds like something Jamie Oliver would think up!
Anyway they claim to be supporting the campaign to save libraries but at the same time seem to be totally undermining this by advocating the creation of new 'libraries' run by themselves and volunteers and by asking people to sign an e-petition in support of this (90 signatories in 8 days, that's all the staff and their friends and families taken care off then!)
"Up and down the country, libraries are being marked for closure; 800 may be shut by the end of the year. No one supports the cuts and there have been protests aplenty. Now it is time for a change.
The Reader Organisation wants to create New Reader Libraries, with people and reading at the heart of them."
The word opportunistic springs to mind!

The City of London; a state within a state?

I attended a lecture at the LSE recently that dealt with the City of London and its network of tax havens, absolutely fascinating and very topical!

The two speakers were Nicholas Shaxson, the author of  "Treasure Islands: tax havens and the men who stole the world" and Maurice Glasman, recently appointed Labour Peer and Reader in Political Theory at London Metropolitan University. and their basic premise is that the 'city' is basically an un-democratic 'state within a state', a bit like the Vatican I suppose?, which flouts regualtions and rules and feeds itself through a network of tax havens (Hong Kong, Bermuda etc). Tax havens allow the city to make huge amounts of money through tax avoidance and using loopholes in legislation. They are secretive and unregulated.

London's slave labour!

I was up and out very early the other morning and on the streets and buses were the vast army of African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Latin and South American  and East European office cleaners, domestics, shop workers etc who tend to go unnoticed and uncared for in our society. According to research done in 2007 there where approx 80,000 contract cleaners working at Canary Wharf alone, and although the majority earned the minimum wage and above they were still being paid under the London Living Wage of £7.05 per hour! (it is now £7.85) This exploitation, and the lack of representation, was the main reason that 'Living Wage' Campaign was set up in 2001 and since that time they have won over £40m in additional income for workers and have basically highlighted the plight of migrant workers in London.

The nicest electrical power substation in town!

Situated just off Duke Street, in the Mayfair area of London, sits Brown Hart Gardens, a 10000 square foot, grade II listed public garden on top of an electricity substation. Originally Duke Street Gardens the site was leased by the Duke of Westminster in 1902 to the Westminster electricity Supply Co. who then built a substation on the site but with a raised public garden on top. The Board of the Grosvenor Estate, the owners of the site, were not overly keen on the idea at the time but after "continuing complaints about the nuisance from 'disorderly boys', 'verminous women' and 'tramps'" in the gardens they soon changed their minds! It is also claimed that this is the only place in London where quarrelling is specifically forbidden by law! (perfect place to take the missus perhaps?)

King of the Old Gits!

Sitting on the bus yesterday I heard from behind me an old man's voice "fuck off" "shut up" "Yeah yeah we know", I turned around expecting him to be sitting next to someone, his wife or friend? But he wasn't he was shouting at the automated voice telling passengers what the next stop is!

Cafe owner appointed new Governor of the Bank of England!

Had my usual breakfast, two eggs on crusty toast with mushrooms and a tea, this morning in my usual cafe. Went up to the counter to pay the £3.30 and was told by the owner "prices have gone up mate, it's £4 now", when i remonstrated with him about the price hike he shrugged his shoulders and said "commodity markets, mate!"

He uses the cheapest battery eggs, cheapest bread, bog standard (not wild) mushrooms, industrial strength margarine and wholesalers special teabags, what about overheads i hear you say, well its not bloody Claridges!!!

Doing a 'Reggie Perrin'!

Browsing through the books in my local charity shop I came upon an interesting title 'Places to hide in England, Scotland & Wales' by Dixie Wills, the same man who brought you the classic 'The Z to Z of Great Britain', a gazeteer of places in the UK beginning with the letter Z!
'Places to hide....' reviews hiding places for when "facing up to your problems is just not an option", from a thorny bush in Dorset to behind the goals in a park in Blair Atholl!

When I receive my redundancy notice I might just take his advice and do a 'Reggie Perrin'!

Subway Noway!

Subway, the US based, franchised 'sandwich'  fast-food chain is now officially the world's top seller, overtaking McDonalds. In the UK and Ireland the company hopes to expand to 2,010 restaurants by some time in 2011.(Wikipedia)


 I will admit that I have never tried one, so I am basing this post purely on bias and bile, but for gods sake they sell stodgy baguettes with unhealthy fillings such as 'meatball marinara', a 6incher with 511 calories, 20.9 grams of fat and 3.3 grams of salt, they also offer 12" and 18" monstrosities!

 They do offer veggie and light options, and a 'Kids Pak', which strangely enough doesn't include a veggie option!! (I am trying to be balanced, honestly!) They have been criticised for the high levels of corn syrup in their bread products and for using plant fertilizer to make their bread brown!
All in all it sounds bloody awful and  I will definitely not be adding to their sales figures!

Frozen Bubble and Squeak Cakes

I recently ordered 'bubble and squeak' in a cafe, and was served up 'frozen bubble and squeak cakes', how incredibly lazy! I remember seeing them sold under the name Ross but that company has apparently been bought up and the only ones I can find available now are made by 'Aunt Bessie'.
Any self-respecting cafe should always have a pan of homemade 'bubble' on the go, as does 'Maria's' in Borough Market, I mean how hard is it? But unfortunately we come back to one of my previous arguments about London cafes nowadays, the majority of establishments seem now to be Turkish or Kurdish owned and the quality of the breakfasts served by the majority of them is atrocious, they tend to use the cheapest ingredients with no pride or thought given to taste or authenticity.
Bring back proper 'bubble and squeak'!

Statutory Burdens!

The Condems are currently reviewing statutory duties placed on local government, they have identified 1294 that may be burdensome or no longer needed, and guess what the 1964 Libraries Act is in their sights! They are not trying to remove them from the statute books before any of the legal cases against them reach court, are they?

Department for Culture Media and Sport


Libraries

DCMS_026

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 1(2)

Duty: To provide information and facilities for the inspection of library

premises, stocks, records, as the Secretary of State requires.

Function: Necessary for Secretary of State to fulfil (requirement) to

superintend library service (see s1 of PLAMA 1964)



DCMS_027

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 7

Duty: To provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. In

fulfilling this duty, must have particular regard to the matters in s7(2)



Function: Secure provision of local library services



DCMS_028

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 11

Duty: Supplemental provisions as to transfers of officers, assets and

liabilities

Function: Provisions provide, for example, continuity of employment for

transferring employees. This secures consistency across library transfers

etc and in line with other local authority employment legislation

The shame of Wisconsin!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014461414_wisconsin11.html - The Anti-Union Bill has been passed by the Wisconsin Assembly. Lets hope this galvanises pro-union support in the US and other battles are won, if not then the Koch Brothers, The Tea Party and Fox News will be allowed to tighten their strangle hold on popular public opinion.

And you thought that Rab C Nesbitt was fictional?

A wee Scottish man approaches library desk, reeking of booze, it's 11am "I need to copy these" he says thrusting a pile of papers in my face "Yes, fine" "Ah yer Scottish, where are you from" - a loaded question? - "Glasgow", I say and walk towards the photocopier, he stumbles after me deposits money in the coin box and hands me the papers. They are all sick notes!!!

Community engagement? or ("let's see what we can get away with")

Haringey council is proposing to cut the direct provision of  its out of schools services, you know things like breakfast clubs, after school clubs and holiday play schemes. 
Parents and other interested parties received a letter barely outlining the proposals three weeks ago and were asked to submit their responses by today, hardly long enough given that  guidelines set down by BERR state that 12 weeks is good practice! But then again Haringey don't seem to be very good at following guidelines, they also forgot to make the draft proposal and Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) available for consultation, tut tut!
Anyway they have now extended the 'consultation' until the 18/3/11 and will make the EIA available to me some time this week?
The worrying thing is that this is probably happening all over the country and all over the country authorities are probably getting away with it?

Do you really want to volunteer to work in a library?

I had an enquiry today "Do you have anything on the causes of terrorism?" "I'm sure we do, what kind of information are you looking for, is about a specific place or group?" "I've just told you it's about the causes of terrorism" "Yes I understand that, is it for a project, do you have a reading list?" "Just show me where the books are" So i take the person over to the appropriate shelf and show them several books that might be of interest, they spend 30 seconds glancing at them and then say "This is not what I want", and I say "you need to look at them a bit more, I'm sure that they will help you", and they say "I don't even like books I don't know what  I am doing here, and you are not being very helpful"
By this time I had taken an educated guess that this person didn't know what they were looking for and didn't understand the subject. So I take a different tack and lead them over to Britannica and explained about searching newspaper articles online for relevant information but by this point the person had lost interest and was getting quite hostile. I left them standing in the middle of the room. The whole infuriating episode lasted about 20 minutes.  Five minutes later they approached one of my colleagues and asked them for the very same information and said to them in a voice loud enough for me to hear "the other man wasn't very helpful"!!!!!
It took all my 20+ years experience not to throttle them.

Faversham Boatyards

Standard Quay in Faversham is one the 2 remaining boatyards where Thames Barges can be restored and built. This has been happening for over 300 years but plans are afoot to turn it into some kind of a heritage theme park, for more details see
http://standardquay.com/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/10/standard-guay-thames-barges
This is a beautiful part of England and should be left as it is!

The battle for Wisconsin!

The Unions, with significant public support, are mobilising in Wisconsin against Governor Walker's, a Republican, proposals to end collective bargaining rights and to basically 'bust' the unions. His ideological campaign is being partly funded by the Koch Brothers, billionaire right-wing 'Tea Party' supporters.
The unions are seeing this as the most important battle since 1981 when Reagan took on the air controllers and activists are pouring into the state from all over the US. Over 70,000 marched last Saturday and there are plans for demonstrations in all the state capitals.

This really rings alarm bells for me not just because of our own ideological battle with the Condems but because of the activities of LSSI, the US based private library company, in the UK, who are vehemently anti-union.

Bankers, ethics and Spearmint Rhino!!!

Ah! the cultural life of a banker, the Royal Ballet, an exhibition at the RA, or even maybe a recital at the Wigmore Halls?
No! we find them spending their ill-gotten gains in a jumped up knocking shop

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/20/banking-executive-pay-bonuses

Morally bereft, surely not?

Recession! What Recession?

Isn't it good to know that some companies are making money out of the recession and its not just the usual culprits, pawnbrokers, money-lenders, bookies and banks etc !!!
Fried Chicken shops and the Lottery are both booming, one from the country's obsession with unhealthy, fatty and high salt content foods and the other by stripping money from working class communities.
According to an article in the Guardian recently, for every school in Tower Hamlets there are 42 Fried Chicken outlets and some children in the borough eat 16 takeaways a week. They also say that the borough is considered by nutrionalists to be an 'obesogenic environment', an unfortunate Americanism! Most outlets I know off have £1.99 deals directed mainly at school kids, which provide about as much nutritional benefit to developing minds and bodies as 'agent orange' does as a growth enhancer to plants!
And what do the Condems do to try and tackle the issue, they involve the big food companies in formulating public health policies relating to food quality and safety! A bit like asking Myra Hindley about childcare provision!
The National Lottery is also making a 'killing' out of working class communities, with the average amount being spent by individuals £5 per week, now this doesn't sound a lot but  if you say live in a community of 2,000, that's a lot of money every week, money that could be put in to opening a food bank or credit union.
Now that really would be the 'Big Society'!

The Morning Star's secret football training centre!

I'm off to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in August and as I usually do before travelling I looked on Google Maps to check out the terrain and to my amazement came across http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=kerala+KUMARAKOM&aq=&sll=9.995816,76.26812&sspn=0.038122,0.055017&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kumarakom,+Kottayam,+Kerala,+India&ll=8.104183,77.418337&spn=0.019162,0.027509&t=h&z=15
I wonder if this is the place that Camus trained to be a goalkeeper?

My Big Fat Stereotypical Wedding!

Gypsies and Irish Travellers in the UK are upset at the portrayal of their community/ies in the Channel4 programme 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding', they say it doesn't show a balanced view of their traditions and culture.
Well of course it doesn't!, it is just another example of the cheap sensationalistic 'freak show' tv that we all seem to crave nowadays!
I wouldn't watch 'Embarrasing Bodies' if i wanted a serious overview of  the current advances in medical science, would I?

The 20 bus to Debden (or "we're on the road to knowhere!)

I sometimes flick the pages of my London A-Z and what ever page my finger stops at that's were I head, I have ended up in Croydon, Pinner, Thamesmead etc. and now Debden.




Debden is an outpost of Loughton, a 1950's housing estate with very little going for it except for the 'De La Rue' print works which prints Bank of England banknotes and  TJ Kelly's Pie and Mash Shop. I, as you can imagine, made a quick exit and walked the five miles to Woodford Green, through some leafy countryside but mainly along busy A roads. Why? I hear you ask, well "because it's there"!

 

Hidden London - 'Soapsuds Island'



Aerial photograph of Kensal and North Kensington, 1938

 London really is an amazing city, you think you know it then you turn a corner!
'Kensal New Town' is wedged between the Grand Union Canal and Goldborne Road, with Kensal Green Cemetery to north and Trellick Tower to the south. Commonly known as 'Soapsuds Islands' in Victorian times due to the abundance of laundries in the area.
The area now is mostly made up of council housing and an interesting open space called the "Emslie Horniman's Pleasence' which contains the 'Voysey Garden', named after the architect who designed it.
A fascinating area with a real sense of itself!

Camden consults community!

Camden Council is cutting £1.6m from its library budget, this is two years after it cut the library workforce by 40%. They are consulting with library users and have given them access to selective data in order that they can come to an informed decision (sorry i would laugh but its too serious!), there is one slight problem, and i quote
"We are not consulting on whether to make these savings at all, or whether to make less savings from libraries"
the choices include decreasing library opening hours by 40%, closing the central library in Swiss Cottage, or closing some of the smaller branch libraries, what a choice!
This is the new style of community consultation, holding a sham consultation to try and legitimise a decision that has already been made!
Oh! and by the way Camden spent £1m on consultants last year and £3m on temporary staff!
I have only one thing to say to Camden's library users, and to library users everywhere, and that is "Boycott consultations they are not worth the paper they are written on"


.

The 'Time Out Speaker's Corner'

In this weeks 'Time Out' 'books editor Chris Moss writes a vitriolic attack, "don't cry over library closures" on what he sees to be the middle class, liberal bandwagon of campaigning against library closures.
And I quote "What are libraries for? Well, from the scene at 'mine', they're for reading newspapers, keeping warm, fucking about on the internet, renting films, killing time and getting the kids out of the house"
"In the main, public libraries are a dust-ridden Victorian project lumbering into the twenty-first century that gives the impression that the underclass mind is being serviced, while the middle class lies in bed with its hardback and soft notions"
He also goes onto say that he couldn't find any good books on 'modernist architecture' or 'Brazil' and that the shelves were full of dross such as "Catherine Cookson and Agatha Christie", elitist moi?
Funnily enough he appears to be happy to see councils cut the public services he doesn't approve off, but he doesn't find it ironic that his council gave him "an allotment two weeks ago", obviously something he does approve off?
What a complete and utter twat!

High salt levels in afro-caribbean food

I cook a lot of Caribbean food at home, but i was shocked to read today about the levels of salt found in some popular Afro-Caribbean dishes served in cafes and restaurants.
Take one of the staples 'jerk chicken with rice and peas' salt levels of up to 7.6g were found, the recommended daily adult allowance is 6g!
I know from experience that some of the seasoning mixes used can be very salty and sometimes contain MSG as well.

Afro-Caribbean people in this country have some of the highest rates of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other related conditions so it looks as if some health education is needed, i cant see the cafes and restaurants taking the lead as they might be fearful off losing trade?

The ballad of Lord Wei!

Lord Wei, the youngest peer in Parliament and the Condems 'young gun' on 'Big Society' issues has had to give up volunteering three days a week because it is "incompatible with having a life".
"Much of Wei's work has focused on how to free ordinary people from the daily grind to give them more time to do voluntary work and involve themselves in their communities under the big society plans."
"Whitehall sources said that when he was invited to take the role he had expected it to be remunerated but was told only the night before that it was a voluntary post and there would be no salary." (Guardian)
You couldn't make this up if you tried!

The 'Linzer Biscuit'!

Greggs, in London, have started selling the 'Empire Biscuit', a layer of jam in between two sweet biscuits topped with icing and a glace cherry. Originally called a 'Linzer Biscuit' before the 1st WW and then 'Empire' after.

A tooth rotting delicacy in Scotland but little known down here. Wonderful stuff!



'Uncle Gunnysack' returns!

Has he come to admire the views or to catch up with some old friends or maybe he is the new 'Cultural Attache'?
No 'Baby Doc' Chevalier is back in Haiti to take political advantage of the carnage and chaos that he and his father, Papa Doc, and their murdering militia, the 'tonton macoute' laid the foundations for half a century ago.
He fled after an uprising in 1986 with millions of dollars and has been in exile ever since.
As the 'Mirror' put it today "Haitians needs 'Baby Doc' like a hole in the head"

Fair?

I listened to George Osborne being interviewed about the rise in VAT on Radio 4 the other day, he used the words fair or fairer a lot, not words that i would use about a rise that will hit poor families the hardest!

The Institute of Fiscal Studies reckons that the VAT rise will lop 1% off the after-tax incomes of the richest 10% and 2.25% of those of the poorest 10%, hardly fair!
A fairer alternative would be to tax land owners and increase the bank levy, but of course that would be hurting their own!

It's a mugs game!

The Quinlan brothers pulled of a coup with two horses at Lingfield on Thursday. Both horses heavily backed, even though they had been woefully out of form, and both won! The stewards investigated but no action was taken!
On Saturday another one of their horses, royal island, ran at Southwell, again well fancied! The horse was held at the back untill the last 2 furlongs where upon the jockey, with a double handful, switched it to the outside and eased it into 3rd place! He could easily have won but chose not to, obviously stable instructions!
The reason for doing this? Well there are two that i can think off , they are looking to bring its handicap mark down, and its price up, for the next race or someone attached to the stable had layed it (backed the horse to lose)

Over the years i have closely watched hundreds, if not thousands, of horse races and i can honestly say that i have only spotted this happening on a handful of occasions, but it does happen and it is dishonest and unfair to the everyday normal punter, it's hard enough to back a winner, especially on the all weather courses.