Death of a Party

The death of the party
Came as no surprise
Why did w[h]e bother?
[He] Should have stayed away

Labour are going to be absolutely wiped out in England next year and the country soon afterward.

U2

U2 at the Don Valley stadium were very good and the set was fantastic.  I like their latest music, but for an old git like me there is nothing like the back catalogue.  Unforgettable Fire was the highlight on Thursday and the album is being re-released on its 25th anniversary in October.  The Unforgettable Fire tour was the first time I got to see U2, at the very wet Longest Day at MK Bowl in 1985.  A quarter of a century later and I’m still watching U2 in stadia – the music of my lifetime.  They have so much material I guess it is difficult for them to please everyone at concerts now – how about Two Hearts Beat as One all over again?

Sir Bobby …

Hugely saddened to hear about the death of Sir Bobby Robson.

I was born and raised in Suffolk, so am a proper tractor boy, and lifetime Ipswich fan.  Robson’s Ipswich squad from the late 1970’s, when I was an impressionable lad, were a legendary team.  I can remember collecting all the special editions of the national and regional papers after they won the FA Cup in 1978 (I was 11).  Sir Bobby has as strong an affection in the hearts of Town supporters as he does with United.

Robson was walking in Alf Ramsey’s footsteps when he took on the England job.  Sir Alf managed Town before going on to win the World Cup with England in ‘66.  There were a few of us who thought history would be repeated in 1990, with Robson as manager, and the old enemy to beat in the Semi.  But it wasn’t to be.

Since 1992 I’ve lived in County Durham and of course Sir Bobby returned home and managed United.  Even so, now that I have a son of my own, I have to confess that he has an Ipswich Town strip, not the black and white stripe.

Ipswich and Suffolk will today be as sad a place as the Tyne after news of Bobby Robson’s death.  There is a small patch of Suffolk relocated to County Durham just as saddened by this news.  Some nice comments on the itfc website.  This photo’ reminds me of my youth, happy times and the man.  RIP Bobby.

ebooks and the Terminator

Featured on Radio 2 today, and taken up in the Guardian, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is promoting ebooks in order to save $350M.

I couldn’t understand most of the listener comments on the radio show.  Sounded at best Luddites and worst rather belittling to the State of California’s governor.  California is the epicentre of the global software / tech industry.  Arnold will have been advised by some of the very best minds in the sector.  His opinion’s on this matter should be taken seriously.

Personally, the critics are failing to recognise what a 3rd / 4th generation ‘mobile library’ is likely to be able to do.  Google’s Wave launched recently with some terrific context sensitive spell check and real-time translation.  How about context sensitive reference suggestions, based on the full contents of your library?  Or recording all your reading statistics – from time spent per page, to where you dip into a particular book, or books read this year.

The price of the devices will drop, as will the price of books.  Access will improve with the long-tail better able to be supported.  I will be able to create a vast amount of space in my house too!  I can see nothing but good things from digitising books – the software will evolve until we wonder how we ever tolerated the physical for so long.

Sure, some will continue to wish to cuddle-up with a physical book.  Nothing will prevent a Californian student purchasing the physical.  This is simply about choices.  Freedom of choice also applies to the publishers, so when something is only available in digital format don’t go bleating on about that either.  Many technical books, particularly in IT, are already available both in pdf and physical format.  The digital copy is often available pre-publication, since the authors are often keen to collect information about all the errors prior to publishing the physical version.  Want the very latest version, go digital, since even more bugs will have been ironed out.

The UK needs to follow Arnold’s lead.  Certainly, we too could do with saving a few quid in public spend.

C&G

When was the last time you went into a branch for financial services?  A digital product in a digital age.  C&G branches are closing just as Zavvi had to close.  Santander’s rebranding will see significant closures of their branches too.  If I was working in the branch division of a financial services company I’d be looking to change what I did before I was forced to.

LDV

I’m the second owner from new of an LDV van .  6 seats, former keeper the Royal Mail.  Dirt cheap on a 53 plate and the kids call it ‘Billy’.  That’s because Billy has a bit of character.  The sort of character currently appearing in Ashes to Ashes, motoring circa 1984.  Of the more interesting features is the way the foot-wells fill with water when driving in the rain.  When that happens the inside of the van becomes something akin to a Swedish sauna as heat from the transmission causes condensation to cling to all surfaces.  The feeble ventilation system cannot cope with keeping the screen clear when this happens.

We’ve been to a few far flung places in Billy – my partner uses it to lug antiques about and I use it to lug rubbish to the local tip.  Sometimes the same thing really.  And we use it for camping.  But Billy doesn’t get out much so he doesn’t reach his top speed of 50 mph very often.  I could possibly go quicker, but Billy just doesn’t feel that stable and he has about as much torque as a tin opener.  Still, we love him enough to run him into the ground over the next few years.

So to LDV the company.  They entered administration this week.  The quality of their vans might have improved over the past 5-years, but clearly they haven’t been able to compete in the late-noughties selling stuff from the late-80s.  RIP LDV.  We’ll get a Citroen or Renault next time, may even have a radio with noughties technology.

Holidays during term

Debate about parents taking their children out of school for holidays during school term has been given its annual airing.  Just in time for the holiday season and to make such parents feel guilty – yep, the state wants to make sure we feel ashamed enough to pay our penance.

I’m clear about where I sit on this matter.  The decision rests squarely on the shoulders of the parents.  The state can make rules and legislate to exhaustion, but I for one will put those rules into the cupboard of those to be routinely ignored (I’m needing a larger cupboard).

My son’s school will be closed for 2-days during election week.  In the first instance because it’s a polling station and in the second for a teacher training day.  Smacks of double-standards doesn’t it?  I’m not sure whether it is possible to organise a teacher training day to coincide with the use of the school as a polling station – clearly it would appear not.

But the whole concept of teacher training days, given that there are plenty of days during the year when the children are not at school, has always struck me as typical of public-sector waste.

Double-dip Recession

A possibility?  The end of the reduced rate of VAT (perhaps followed by an increase above the previous 17.5% level), a curtailing of public spend, rampant inflation triggered by quantitative easing, rising levels of unemployment, increasing tax take, a failure to sell government debt, looming energy crisis … these things and more could simply tip the economy into an even greater mess.  But I fail to see anyone in government anticipating a double-dip, or a sustained trough.

As I’ve said before, the medicine of previous months could kill the patient.  Unfortunately we cannot live alternative histories to see how a different strategy would have worked.

House of [the] Commons

Brendan Barber on spiked:

“We need to think seriously about the future of British politics, and we might start by demanding the abolition of the monarchy, the abolition of the House of Lords, the complete expulsion of the police from parliamentary affairs, the injection of some serious ideas into media debate, and a full-on discussion about how to make parliament more – not less – democratic, political, partisan, inspiring and independent.”

Second that, Brendan.  We need more not less democratic politics.  This also means looking carefully at our relationship with Europe – even less accountable to me and you, the commoners.

MPs’ expenses

This blog cast an eye over the prospect of revolution a few weeks ago.

That such a thing could become a reality has become unnervingly closer following the Telegraph’s disclosures of MPs’ expenses over recent days.  Writing in today’s Spectator, Fraser Nelson states “Britain’s democratic crisis requires not just reform, but a Glorious Revolution”.

People are increasingly frustrated by those paid by the taxpayer telling them what to do – whether they are MPs or the Health Authority mail dropping warnings of life threatening disease to the parents of a child 0.5kg over the ‘target’ weight.

As Fraser rightly points out “people want the power to do it for themselves”.  I would contend that the internet has given them the power already and they are taking it – this is undermining every profession and expert that ever held the title, including our MPs.

Interesting times.  Not only are we bankrupt financially, we are also politically bankrupt.  So far none of the mainstream parties seem to be up to the challenges that lay ahead.  The conditions for radicalism are maturing.  I fear that the BNP will have a breakthrough election in a couple of weeks.  Dangerous waters lay ahead.