Wanted for Questioning...

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man

What kind of title is this?
"Cometh the Hour, Cometh the man"?

Let me tell you this, cometh the hour, cometh the end.

When the nation of Brits has sat in its decay long enough, immigrants taking benefits and sending them home, while government are allowed to stab industry just one more time, then one more time each day, taxing and bleeding the future until it has no more life in it, cometh the hour.

When the companies that set up here to get into Europe for access to the EU, finally all bugger of to Asia to save 80% of their costs, leaving the self-centred self-serving nexus of Westminster to feed off the remaining tax coffers to its civil servants and courtiers, cometh the hour.


When the whining and pining public, reduced to anarchy, bully and victim because the society whose rules they adhered to had broken down because the last law to penalise the common man or the last bit of freedom they had broke the fleabitten camels back, cometh the hour.

Cometh the man? Fuck off! There will be no-one to raise the flag and save the wreck from sinking.

Wherefore Art Thou ART?

When we think about art, where are we going? Are we

• trying to look at things afresh within a familiar framework?


• discovering a new insight thanks to an alien interpretation of the familiar?


• probing our own psyches to discover fundamentals about our own perspectives?


• beating a drum to those who live around us, either for support or subversion of the those structures around us?


• marrying what we know of our reality with what we can only speculate or wonder about?


• making comment or observation?


• establishing precedents to shape the future?


• build the defining visions of where our system wants us to be?


• saying 'I love you' or 'I worship you' or 'This is you'?


• giving free reign to expression without any intent or target?

I guess art has been all of these things, and conversely each of these things has a detractor who would say that this is not art, but is irrelevant or a mugger pretending to be art.

This the kind of blog that is not a researched essay with reference to everyone else's collected wisdom, and anyone reading this will have to guess what is me and what isn't in what I am writing, I am not trying to figure that out myself.

For the sake of my 10¢ I have this blog, and there are so many 10¢ out there...

... so I guesss I had better get to the point! But not until I have juxtaposed another list of statements...

1. H.G. Wells is a barely appreciated author in the United Kingdom, yet he was a very active, prominent political writer. Go check out the Wikipedia summary. I believe Jules Verne is far more celebrated in his own land.
   
2. For 400 years (yes, 400 years, that, by the way is double the 200 being 'celebrated' by the establishment this year) Christopher Marlowe was demonised as a conjuror of devils or marginalised as a twee precursor of Shakespeare.
3. TS Eliot was taken seriously.
4. Kipling is largely ignored in schools.
5. Britain has no industry.
6. Submarines built out of tyres are considered controversial.
7. The Church of England has no say in national affairs, yet every prime minister claims s/he worships God. British people generally I believe have no real feeling that their own parliament serves their own interests at all. Yet Muslims in this country have a parliament that represents their interests. Click on the link and see for yourself.
8. There is no industry in the United Kingdom any more, and the government seems to want to socially engineer the SUBJECTS (not citizens) of this country into filling the unskilled service work that remains (lets all be call centre operatives, and then give up our jobs to foreign cheaper centres), while cheap labour comes in from Europe and former colonies to perform the (often skilled) manual tasks that we are no longer trained to do. It seems these workers are the new 'niggers and navvies' that this scept/red/ic isle has used throughout the ages to build its structures: workers it then ignores in the reckoning of its own greatness. Difference is these guys have the choice of going back home. Or maybe I have gotten it wrong? I don't think so. Cool Britannia was stillborn, Long Live Same Old Same Old.
9. Have you ever noticed that the island Britain looks like a Hogarthian stooped seated old hag?
   

So where is the radical art that might bring the book to our faces and make us think critically about our native land, when even the shape of the land mass mocks its history?

Tweetie birds on poles, formaldehyde beasties? Another Place, much as I like it, only achieves a radical interpretation in the mind of the beholder.

Versus Picasso, Goya, Da Vinci, Mozart, Soyinka. Like I said, 400 years since we as a nation even tried.

But Let's not forget, when do we as a nation even bother to think of art?

Its all very well having Alan Yentob, Brian Sewell, Melvyn Bragg, but what is going on when the very media that produces programs by them only discusses art in the public domain beyond 'art programs' in the vein of a mad hatter's look at what the Laputians are up to.

Is my own lack of faith a product of this environment?

Last List before I stop: I think I am getting confused and developing a bipolar approach to the whole subject:

1. Does this country fail to educate us adequately in the capabilities of our own brains?


2. Brilliant though our artists may be, their relevance to our predicaments here is somewhat encoded.


3. Britain does not want to use the intellectual capacity of its subjects beyond the sustenance of its own status quo.

I know this entry is confused - I am confused. I am sure I will revisit it and tidy it up, again!

Boys, you need to get spanked!

Embarrassingly, I was born in England, Yorkshire, in fact (which gives me at least something to salvage - thankfully when it all gets too much so that even being a Yorkshireman isn't enough, I can retreat back to my Scottish or French parentage, and take what comfort I can from that), so I from time to time have no choice but to ponder what it is to be English.

And what it is at the moment, is to have a prima donna pack of dizzy deborahs running around a daisy field calling themselves professional footballers, making the art of football look like a real embarassment.

Is English football so bad, and the English so feckless, that the only reason the premiership can be called so is down to the myriad of foreign TALENT - and we must call it talent, in contrast to the pack of BOOBIES that haunted Israel for 90 minutes yesterday, Saturday 24th March 2007, during a predictably unwatchable Euro 2008 qualification international game?

So predictably unwatchable, I DIDN'T WATCH!

There is generally no doubt that they can all play football, and we have even seen evidence of that in the premiership, so who lobotomises them every time they put on an England shirt?

I have a theory.

They get paid too much and the media make them think they are little gods, when in reality they are a bunch of lads who can't believe their luck that they get paid insane pots full of cash only found previously at the end of rainbows or in Leprechauns' lairs, and so predictably behave up like lost brats with no sense of what they have to do to earn it.

I get tired of listening to my dad saying how the game today is not the game he played
65 years ago, when he played against the likes of Danny Blanchflower and Bill Shankley was up and coming.

I get tired of it, but maybe that is because I can't believe something, in a universe ruled by evolution (unless you are a crazy religious intelligent designist with a penchant for making round pegs fit into square holes) can actually regress and not evolve. It doesn't seem to fit the laws of nature.

So I guess I must apologise to my dad and his generation, who indeed seem to know something we don't.

Dad, I am sorry, (English) footballers of today haven't got the heart, do not display the skill, and don't know how to play football.

The should all be put over a collective paternal knee and spanked until they weep, and no play acting.

Yes, the little brats should have their pocket money taken away and given gruel and chores until they realise they do not know it all and should learn their place, and their trade.

I will leave someone else to blog about Steve McClaret, Trier Venbabbles, the Swedish 1 (what was his name), the insane amounts of money the FA get from SKY, and whether there is corruption in football.

For now, I am going to build a list of:

Things the Older Generation of Footballers Can't Understand about
The Way Footballers Play Today.

I would really appreciate comments on this one, from players of the past, or their scribing blogger listeners/relatives/students, but I can start without you...

A Sombre Reflection

Brittle Steps in Mists

Walking with lies all around you,
Expecting faith and getting death,
Brittle steps in mists of foggy winter
Along the river.

Waters cold and feeling icy,
Expecting cleansing getting ill,
Frozen kicks in swirls of murky winter
Along the river.

Judgements live to bind and gag you,
From Guilty Parties in the crowd,
Confused mind in thorns of twisted landscape
Along the river.

Drinking ghouls forget to feel life,
Expecting nothing, getting it,
Placid souls in boats of silent mourning
Upon the river.

The End of Houses of Parliament Sauce, Mr Bond

You may or may not have read a scurrilous article about the shame of MPs heating costs and their inclination to preach to everyone else.

Well, Heinz have decided HP Sauce (which OF COURSE stands for Houses of Parliament, hence the picture on the bottle), invented in this country and consumed mostly in this country, shouldn't be made in this country any more.

They are moving it to Holland (Click for report), where I suppose they will add their 'potato salad' cooking flair to the product. Then ship it back here to where all the HP addicts live.

Actually, if you look at the effort they put into the HP Foods website after they took HP Foods over, you might be inclined to say "Probably should have seen that coming, about on day 2 of the takeover negotiations, if there were any.

Is nothing sacred. What would Jack Sprat say?

Incredibly though, we did get Aston Martin back from Ford Motor Company.

Seems it has been making money while Ford in general has not, and so it was a sellable asset. Even then I understand they did a 1/2 price deal on it!!

Oh well. Hurrah!

Oh yeah, and you can get Casino Royale on DVD Now. Hip Hurrah!

A Philosophical Pause...

There are so many things you don’t want in life, and so many things you end up having that are on that list.

Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking co-operation is a way forward in this world.

It is not.

Co-operation in itself is a sentence of purgatory, the length of which is determined by the time you give yourself up to it.

I am not saying all systems are wrong, and all the things people want to do with their lives, and need other people’s compliance on, are bad, and that the world is in a constant state of self gratification and simultaneous frustration, though if you try looking at it that way, you will certainly see it. There are however a lot of tides out there that will take you away from sure: you have to be a strong swimmer, or climb aboard a passing vessel, to get to your firm footing if you find yourself in the wrong current.

In a heavy sea a big ship needs a strong captain.

Even in a light sea, a solitary swimmer needs a clear mind.

Did the advertisers Really Mean This?

This advert appears currently in the London Underground, on the other side of the tube line.

You can't therefore easily express your confusion on it in situ, so thanks to the miracle of camera phones, I lifted it for enhancement.

I think my confusion is fair.

I can usually tell when the advertising agency is having a laugh with their client, but in this case I dunno.

Do GRANT & THORNTON intend they be an ant that has somehow gone off the rails and believes itself to be a queen, or a stallion of a pack? Wouldn 't that imply

DANGER! DANGER!
DON'T GO THERE PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMER!!
LOWLY ACCOUNTANT HAS SERIOUSLY LOST THE PLOT,
AND STARTED CHANTING SIX LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BETTER

Or perhaps the agency has decided Grant Thornton can't see they are having the mickey taken, and so have subtly undermined their intention of wanting to appear as the most dutiful innovative ant there ever was.

C'mon, there is no such thing as a leader ant better than the rest. If you squash 1, another ends up at the front of the queue, 'leading'. Oh dear. That isn't a very good message is it?

Or perhaps agency and firm just don't care enough about making sure the message is water tight and consistent, in which case why would you want to use the services of either?

Dodgy Petrol

I don't know about any one else, but I have already noticed that petrol has slipped upwards a couple of pence in the oil company stations during this time of trouble over Morrisons/Tesco petrol and silicon contamination as it now appears to be. Immaculate timing?

But hey, while no-one has noticed, lets tell everyone prices might have to go up because of demand...


... MEAN WHILE Although oil prices have crept up this month, had anyone noticed a fall in price in the past few months - $64/barrel in December to $52 mid-January. How long does this take to feed through, and what is the latest price rise down to, if not opportunism?

Network Rail Owns Up

Richard Branson has praised Network Rail for owning up as responsible for the Cumbria train crash that has so many similarities to Potters Bar, adding perhaps thy should listen more to the rail companies who bear the front line risk of carrying passengers over potentially hazardous maintenance. One suggestion involvede more localised management responsible for track maintenance, resulting in more intimate ownership of rail.

Makes sense to me, centrally controlled bureaucracy backed managment have been putting Brits to death since the R101 nad probably before.

I think I hinted at something like that in my last blog.

Network Rail took over 5 years ago, after the Potters Bar disaster, so it is not as though they haven't had time to get it right. Its a shame they can't fail an exam, rather than cause tragedy.

But anyway.

When you actually have a business to run, it seems, you seem to have more of an idea of what to do.

Train Saves Lives, Track Suspected

If you read about network Rail on their website page on, Network Rail History, it tells you,

In October 2002, Network Rail took over the running of Britain’s rail infrastructure
We were given a mandate by the Government to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the railway.

Whether this will be held as true may or may not be held to account in the light of the train crash in Cumbria, where first reports suggest a similar problem with points that caused the POTTERS BAR CRASH.

What is certain is that the Rolling Stock has ben haild as being responsible for a low casualty count.

Is it a coincidence that Virgin Rail is run by a business man and entrepreneur in the vein of great British business and industry giants, and the Rail Network is still under the shadow of being run by Government mandarins and Civil Servants, though it was de-nationalised some time ago?

Can I just also mention that this is the first thing you will see just now if you go to Virgin Trains website:

"25 February 2007, 10:00
Statement Issue No: 4
Statement from Virgin Trains

Serious incident in Cumbria

It is with deep regret that Virgin Trains can confirm that there has been one fatality in an accident that took place shortly after 20:00 on Friday 23 February 2007 near Lambrigg, north of Oxenholme in Cumbria.

The train involved was the 17:15 from London Euston to Glasgow Central, operated by Virgin Trains.

The first thoughts of everyone at Virgin Trains are with the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives or been injured in this terrible accident. We will do whatever we can to offer assistance in the days ahead.

The emergency services have issued the following number for friends or relatives concerned about anybody travelling on the train: 0800 056 0146 (from overseas call 00 44 20 7158 0198).

Further information about Virgin Trains services over the coming days will appear on our main site. Click the link above to go to our main site."

Below is a creenshot with Network Rail's frontpage report of the incident ringed in Green as the 'Latest News'. Click on it for a full size view


Draw your own conclusions on who regards the value of their customers and therefore responsiblity to them the most.

Hey Davey Dude, Don't Worry abaad'it

Who the hell cares if David Cameron used to smoke dope, or not?
Frankly, I thought blood sports were made illegal now, but no-one seems to have told the press.

They love to dish out dirt and pretend they have a moral point to make or some worthwhile agenda.

Most of the time they simply feed the whole publicity/propaganda machine until eventually we the public don't know up from down, wrong from right. The only people they really serve are themselves and the bureaucrats who will always remain untouched, unelected, and unnamed, who stay that way running the guts of this country while the people held up to us as the decision makers are hired, fired and gossipped about on the whim of the erstwhile Fleet Street Pack.

But to be frank, if our country's decision makers have never had a lateral thought in their life, or lived 'outside of the box', then I think we are all seriously fucked unlesss we truck outa here en masse. Oh no we can't - before we get far enough away we will fall of the edge of the earth...

Why do the likes of Michael Portillo or Edwina Curry have to retire before they actually decide to experience the lives the were supposed to be affecting every day while in office?

David Old Son, I for 1 am behind you on this, as I suspect and pray are many other people.

More Motoring Mayhem

{Plods on a corner in Swansea}

A specialist force has been brought in to investigate the spate of letter bombs in recent weeks.

The police are buzzing around the DVLA buildings in Swansea all excited.


Do we have a disgruntled motorist?

Do we have an extremist group of green fingered rainbow warriors?
Do we have another form of guerilla war from some supranational body that has a grudge against the British?

Why on earth would anyone resent the Driving Enforcement bodies that apppear to have been hit?
Are motorists going to be in the cross hairs of the law for this, or are they the next victims?

The storms of 1987, and BBC's climate experiments

Back in 1987 there were bad storms that lashed the UK, unpredicted by the jolly British Meterological Office.

They were a shock to the weathermen, and we all believe that, as the nice weathermen can always be trusted.

Unfortunately, the weathermen in the USA saw it coming days before.

I had family on Holiday in Florida, who phoned the day before it happened, to see how we had fared with the storms. Over there they had been tracking its progress for some time.

A Storm we had no warning of.
A Storm our 'boffins' couldn't predict.

The British Broadcasting Company have just completed a climate change experiment, showing the disastrous consequences of living our lives the way we do.

Why?
When they couldn't even see it coming the next day 20 years ago?

I am not saying they are wrong. It is not for me to say that.
But why are they pushing it now?

Pushing the Boat Out

Now the people who saved a family's good from being washed back out to sea are apologising on BBC Breakfast to them.

Yes one last time, the salvage operation in Devon.

A family was identified whose goods were washed ashore in a container.
They should have been lost at sea.

But the British public are to BLAME for that not happening.

Of course this wholpe affair had nothing to do with the sshipping company whose boat couldn't make it down the channel.

How stupid do we have to become before the media stops trying to brainwash us?

Jaded Media

I heard the first sensible thing about the girl who was involved with the drama over insults in the Channel 4 reality program over bullying and abuse. The girl who had been made into a celebrity by the media previously.

On BBC breakfast, from a person who was representing thr 'Institute of Ideas' - an organisation I know nothing of, but will check up on now...

... The comment was simple - stupid though the girl is, she has been demonised and villified by the media in a way that shows the public commentators to be at least as vicious and manipulative as she had been, and moreso. Let's not forget, these are the same people that bore her up and gave her graces.

I have been at the receiving end of bullying, and race is just another hook to use, anything that externalises the victim from the group is an opportunity for a manipulator. There are many other forms of manipulation that are not bullying, and are no less ugly.

We learn some of these techniques as we grow up, and then as we develop awareness of our actions and their consequences, we drop them or nurture them according to our environment and attitude towards life and those around us. Anyon who denies this hasn't thought much about themselves, or was never a baby crying for food.

The point was further made that polititans and press alike use the general public to sustain themselves, while not hesitating to paint the public in a pretty ugly light as well, calling people scavengers and looters rather than beachcombers or salvagers, constantly referring to yob culture, and more often than not denigrating the public they use to keep them down (my interpretation). Evidence of nurtured manipulation techniques from the establishment that would claim to have us all behave like saints?

Oh well.

BBC says LOOTING, Sky says BEACHCOMBING, I say why not taste a little luck?

Why is it that the individual is always left with nothing? When a single person loses something, they can bet on it being lost, no matter how much it means to them. Then a shipping company, fully insured, comes along carrying insured goods. The insurance company will still retrieve some value from goods recovered, but they are still going to take a loss. The owners of ship and goods won't lose out, but still they want to leave the individuals with nothing.

Now it seems the BBC have gone back to caling people looters, when yesterday they were following SKY'S LEAD and calling them Beachcombers. I guess we can gather who the BBC speaks for.

Let's not forget the ship has already gotten into difficulties and needed a refit before, so the shipping company has some history there. And lets not also forget the way the insurance companies have behaved in the past, with the ruin of many Lloyds names. So what saintly party is having their goods protected there?

Now we are being told anyone coming down to the beach is a thief.

Once more this authoritarian counry and its media mouthpiece protect the rich and manipulate the public into thinking it has nothing to be happy about, even with a so-called socialist government in power.

I KNOW THIS LOOKS LIKE A RANT, but frankly, everything seems so focused on the authorities dictating how everything is done, we all really need to try end restore some balance to PRESERVE OUR DEMOCRACY!!