Where we went on our holidays

Anyone drawing conclusions about the state of the nation from this photo could be seriously wrong. It has been booked by a young couple for their honeymoon!

By their names ye shall know them

The Beeb reports

Earlier this month ministers announced a "listening exercise" to review their NHS reforms for England amid mounting criticism.

Critics have dismissed the two-month consultation as a PR stunt.

But Sir Stephen Bubb, who will report for the review on choice and competition, says he is not "biddable".

I don't know Sir Stephen Bubble from Adam or Eve for that matter. I suspect he is a smoothie chops, an Oxford man, who can be relied upon to give the appearance of not rocking the boat with all the finesse of rocking a babbie's cradle.

As Tommy Beecham might have said:-

Very singular Mr Bubb, very singular!

Guerrillas in the midst

So. (have you noticed the penchant for scientific, techie or technical persons to start an explanation with - So? (So. What is that word penchant doing here?... Ed.))
I know it is Holy Week and all good Christians are supposed to be po-faced. Live a little!
A post from Mr Shaxson's excellent website Treasure Islands should give persons of good heart a small lift and the linked video a sliver of hope for the future. If not then listen to the music. Nice one!
And now a word to our sponsors:-

Pay your taxes you gouging gobs****s!

OK. Back to sackcloth and ashes.

( I'm still worried about that word penchant... Ed.)

Get it now!

Advertisement!
While it's good and hot, get it now!
Try before you buy - at Stormsteg
Then buy at http://www.stormsteg.nu/
A small sensation here.

Find more Stormsteg songs at Myspace Music

Full disclosure:-The author of this blog may be known to one or more of Stormsteg but he thinks it's great stuff.

So have you bought it yet?

Prepare to be moved - on!

Never mind what it is advertising! You won't remember anyway.

A very powerful message.

However, being a cynical old bugger if

- Ian Drunken Smith were to pass by he would add up the contents of the tin and deduct it from benefits;

- Gideon Osborne sauntered by he would issue a tax demand for undeclared income;

- Rubber Man Cameroon wheeled by he would give him a card, not in Braille, saying this document entitles you to 5 seconds of my most heartfelt sympathy and smile as the personal photographer captured the moment; of course one of his two man security detail would then retrieve the card after 4 seconds;

- St Vincent de Cable would praise the man for his enterprise and inquire if he had registered as a Soul Trader;

- Clarke the Lark would pad up to him in his hush puppies, blow cigar smoke in his face, and say

"Right. Blind Lemon McTavish, you're nicked!"

Thanks to Mr Murphy for the link.

It's that time of year.

Being deeply conservative, I have made few changes to this blog over the years. However, increasing exasperation and fury with those whose greed causes such suffering and disconnection in the world. I have included Mr Murphy's excellent blog Tax Research UK in my blogroll, or list of links to the right of this post. Let us be thankful for small Murphys as I'm sure his mum has cause to say!

If you are at a loss for what to do on the 29th April; lock yourself in a room with lashings of tea or whatever your poison is; read, mark and inwardly digest Treasure Islands.

Short Supply

John Julius Norwich caught my ear recently reading from his book The Popes. I can't claim to have read it and I'm sure the extract on Radio 4 did not do it justice. Nevertheless, a claim from John Paul 1 touched my funny bone. On page 445 he is quoted (without source) speaking of the Vatican:-

Also , I have noticed two things that appear to be in very short supply: honesty and a good cup of coffee.

Always difficult that- a good cup of coffee!

Library Card or Credit Card?

Not a rant in my usual style about how evil capitalists are out to destroy public libraries, eat babies and be cruel to children and other small animals; they are but that is a story told well enough elsewhere.

Instead a real spirit lifter. Karen claims in a post on the Voices For the Library website.

My library card is probably as valuable as a credit card.

If you don't believe her have a look. Now I bet you didn't know librarians did that sort of thing or provided those sorts of services.

'Right on the bubble' (as Primo Levi said: P48, The Wrench, borrowed from Suffolk County Libraries, god bless 'em)

Voices For the Library looks like a very well organised and presented campaign.
If I was Gauleiter Pickles I would be afraid, very afraid. Once the librarians are agin you,

yer doomt, doomt I telt yer.

He will become a minor misspelt footnote in the political history of the early part of this century.

Those words again.

I came across the word theodicy in a review in the LRB (31/3/11, Lord Have Mercy , James Shapiro) of Plague Writing in Early Modern England, by Earnest Gilman. (Smart boy wanted! ...Ed.) In my defence I had never knowingly seen it before and so blundled on for a few paragraphs happy in the belief that the word indicated the idiocy of those who believe in god. Whether by divine intervention or a passing acquaintance with my own limitations the niggle started that I had not quite got that right.
As always, in a spirit of humble scholarship I consulted with my good friends Mr Collins

the branch of theology concerned with defending the attributes of God against objections resulting from physical and moral evil

and Mr Chambers

a vindication of the justice of God in establishing a world in which evil exists.

Ooops. I've done it again.

Even the canting folk of Oxford and Messers Stewart, Coleridge and White quoted in the OED offered me no mercy

...vindication of the divine attributes, esp. justice and holiness, in respect to the existence of evil; a writing, doctrine, or theory intended to ‘justify the ways of God to men’.

So nailed with the wrong word for the right reason!

I blogged previously about teaching with Terry Burke many years ago in a Salford secondary modern school. He asked a small child, weren't they all, what he thought a theodolite was. Despite it being a science lesson and dealing with measurement, surveying instruments etc. and being shown a picture of the bloody thing, the child demonstrated the benefits of a good catholic education.

An instrument for measuring God

He intoned.
Amen!!

Watcha!

The wonderful Lopa Kothari had some lovely stuff for us last night on World on 3, the unplugged studio session was amazing!

Watch Watcha here or thereabouts when the iPlayer fades as indeed it must and all good things turn to dust!

(Don't get carried away, just because it rhymes doesn't mean it's poetry! ...Ed.)

Good Havens!

Don't laugh at this ( re) post by Mr Murphy although it was 1 April some gombeen man is probably working out the details, even as we chortle.

Remember! In Space no one can hear you scream, with delight. Greed is the creed.

Tom Hunter

The Essay on Radio 3 had a 15 minute slot from Tom Hunter who lives and works in Hackney.
If that link is removed link to his website and the photo below!

Woman Reading Possession Order