cynicalbastard

Or possibly floats…

Polar bears are drowning and turning cannibal because of the melting ice floes.

The campaign to get them each a yacht starts here. Then we’d have a polar bear flotilla.

has visited the Guardian, who reprint almost in full a press release from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Women get paid less per hour than men.

Shock.

Given that this is about hourly wage rates across the whole of the business world, this is about as shocking as suggesting that dead things tend to pong a bit. Why do women earn less on average than men? Because, generally, more women work in lower paid jobs than do men. And it tends to be men who dominate the professions and boardrooms where truly massive wages are paid.

Now, this might be a scandal in itself (if you accept the glass ceiling without accepting the glass coffin). And it might be a scandal that women and men doing the same jobs are paid at different rates (though there are some good reasons for that too), though that’s another issue entirely. But it’s no surprise.

It relies on the public’s general miasma of mind concerning statistics. And it relies on one of those stultifyingly weak, ‘and another thing…’ arguments.

It’s a truism on the web that journalists (and, by implication, most of the population) don’t understand the sciences. The old ‘two cultures’ of CP Snow gets dragged out with monotonous regularity.

Worstall concentrates often on the lack of understanding of economics. There’s numerous sites dedicated to the lack of understanding of statistics (including this one when it comes to DVR). And underlying it all is a view that hacks are arts graduates, who have to be lectured on elementary numbers.

Unfortunately, most hacks aren’t that much better at history, whether modern or ancient. Maybe I just notice it more given a history-reliant background (well, I did do economics too, but I try and forget about it). I don’t really blame the hacks in question, it’s just too easy to re-write PRs, fail to do any research and repeat vaguely remembered myths from school. And, while the TV fascination with the subject continues, it’s usually in terms of ‘celebrity family history’ or the even worse ‘celebrity egomaniac with a book to sell’ (see Starkey, Holmes, Crucikshank), rather than any attempt to provide us with a contextual overview of whence we all came.

Which leads me to Labour MP Gordon Marsden’s attack on school teaching of history, for its ‘Yo Sushi’ style. By which he means taking little bits, rather than looking at the overview.

I’m not sure why he thinks this is anything new. Any historical museum knows that Tudors, Victorians and WWII are sure bankers to base entire education programmes and interpretations around. Every year students will do those subjects while ignoring large swathes of the rest of our island history (never mind the history of Europe or the rest of the world–hey, you ever heard of any English ECW school course that puts it in the context of the Thirty Years’ War? Thought not…)

Most of us studied small or large chunks or bits without having any sort of overview.

And, while he recognises that the problem is one with Britishness, and defining it, there’s no solution offered beyond the usual Labourite nostrums. Of course, he quotes the requisite trendy-lefty notion that we should study how waves of immigration contributed to Britain since the sixteenth century. But that’s just another chunk (albeit a useful one), replacing one type of prescriptive schooling with another.

Underlying it all we have to look at how history has been used and abused, as image, ideology and excuse, throughout, uhhr, history. Which might explain why the journalists who refer to it insist on repeating the same cliches and simplifications again and again. History, after all, he postmodernises, doesn’t exist outside of books and TV programmes and half-remembered facts. It’s all a myth. Now that’s a school course that would get them leaving in droves.

Okay, so I work in the culture industry. Well, something to do with culture anyway. I always feel a little bit inferior to my friends who are social workers working with the most difficult of our fellow citizens, my friends who work for the emergency services, those who cook for a living, or produce web designs, etc. They might not be that well paid, but they can proclaim their professions at parties with pride, whereas I’m always just a little diffident.

Still, I used to be a music and arts journalist, so at least I’m doing something a little more relevant/helpful to society. And at least I’m not a politician.

on to this one, but it made me laugh a lot. The latest Toy-Fu cartoon at Blue Cat.

Well, except for Lennox, and Muhammad who is the closest thing to a Saint the US has at the moment (whatever he did to Foreman).

But the current crop don’t make for much. Okay, Fraudley’s worthy of praise for earning millions without ever getting into a fight.

But female boxers? Well, they come in four types–daughters of famous male boxers (Laila Ali), ex-Z list celebrities (Tonya Harding), corner-street bruisers (no names mentioned) or glamour girls.

For female boxing still hasn’t quite rid itself of the foxy boxing tag, at least in the UK. And it’s hard to take seriously as a boxer someone who makes most of their money from associated merchandising featuring them standing in very little clothing and pouting (and we wouldn’t want Danny Williams to be doing that, would we?).

And, if they are both good looking and excellent technical boxers, it’s even harder to take them seriously politically (I know, that’s my preconception, but I bet you shared it).

So step forward Mia St John. Excellent boxer, world champion, rather tough, stunningly beautiful, playboy centrefold, and…explicitly discussing the war in Iraq.

Her blog features latest reading; beauty mags? boxing biogs? Nah, Kennie Andersons’ ‘Land of Hypocrisy’ and Steven Vincent’s ‘In the Red Zone’. Short thoughts on Palestine too. In recent entries, you get the feeling her PRs are trying to keep her off the politics though…

She quotes MacArthur–

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a
continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave
national emergency.
Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous
foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly
rally behind it.”

Respect is due…

Not around a lot, working me arse off.

Oh, and I can either blog or finish my dissertation on, uhhr, blogging. Not both.

Its 6-30, so it must be time to abuse Sir Ian Blair, who has just told us that the scale of the terrorist threat to the UK has increased immeasurably since 7th July.

Hmm. A few points occur. Firstly, it gives the lie to his namesake’s story that the war in Iraq has made us all safer. As if anybody still believed that.

However, what really gets the attention is the implication that pre-7/7, the Police had no idea what was going on. Only now have they realised there’s a major threat from terrorism. What were they doing beforehand? Surely the people responsible for our safety who seem to have had a complete breakdown in intelligence should be disciplined? Who, at the end of the day, was responsible for this cataclysmic level of ignorance?

Patently not the leaders of the Police then. Maybe we should be grateful to the terrorists o 7/7 for making themselves known in such a way. It’s obvious the police wouldn’t have noticed them otherwise.

Not sure what happened there, but apologies to anyone who noticed the outtage.

Gave me time to wander around the interweb a bit, and hang out at the Bad Plus site. The Bad Plus are one of the best young power-jazz acts in the world, most noticeable for an eclectic range of covers (heart of Glass, something by Aphex, Smells Like Teen Spirit).

They’re also on Sony and suffered from the recent rootkit debacle. It was a strange list of acts that Sony inflicted this DRM on, mostly seeming to be jazz (Blaket, Armstrong, Mulligan) rather than the most-piratable targets.

The Plus also blog, and blog properly, rather than the written-by-a-junior-PR style you’d expect from a Sony-signed act. Therein, various ruminations on music, books, touring and especially the contributions of Charlie Haden to American (and world) music. THis cynicalbastard likes Charlie Haden.

Actually, one question.

The cover of the Jerry Springer clearly shows the opera is called, Jerry Springer The Opera (incidentally the Woolies online price is £3 cheaper than amazon, maybe they’re trying to clear their stocks?). Yet both bloggerheads and Chicken Yog refer to it as Jerry Springer: The Opera. The BBC has done likewise.

From whence did this colon come? I can’t possibly support buying a product where random punctuation marks appear.

And as an xian (*yawn*, won’t be saying that again for a while), I’d just like to support the decision of Woolworths and Sainsburys to stop stocking Jerry Springer: The Opera because of the campaign of the very serious people at Christian Voice.

Nah, only kidding. What a bunch of fuckwits. CV’s understanding of xianity can be written on the head of a pin. If anyone seriously believes anything like ‘god’ cares about such shit (beyond the enjoyment of a good laugh–Christ was, after all, a humourist), they need to, uhhr, get their heads examined.

So, no Woolworths or Sainsburys for me–not a hard decision as I won’t have been in either for a year or so (okay, the former to get out of the rain in Ilkley, but not to buy. )

Okay, not original, and can’t remember to whom the credit goes.

Heard Cameron’s first major interview as leader on Today this morning. Initial thoughts–

a) He’ll have changed his voice within six months. It needs to deepen–sounds too insecure.

b) Also within six months he’ll have dropped into some version of estuary for at least one interview. It’s not that he sounds cut-glass posh, rather banker-posh.

c) He needs serious work on his brief, and on developing the stock non-answers. He was very good and clear on the relationship to the European Party, less so on other issues. He sounded like he was too eager to follow the interviewer’s lead. It’s refreshing to hear someone trying to answer the questions, but after a few months of that it will sound like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

d) Appointing people like Goldsmith is brave. Almost courageous. Will the mass of the party allow him to turn it where he wants to go? His launch was sublime from a marketing POV. But will that give him extra powers in the battle for the soul of the party?

e) John Gummer? William Hague? Come on. I’ve never understood the reverence for the latter. Even as a Yorkshireman.

WHich way is he going to go? Libertarian, small state-ish? Surely not with the flat tax nonsense? Will we see a solution that suits Britain, or a version of Blairism–US solutions made to fit. At least he’s not posed with his kids outside church and proclaimed moral values so far.

Okay, so this blog didn’t get nominated for Justin’s new list over at T’Sharpener. I’m not offended (mind the pool of tears).

Just wanted to note a couple of ones that did that are worth checking out. At least for the few of you that won’t already have seen the whole list and worked their way through it.

First up is pickled politics, which I’ve mentioned before. Excellent round up of Brit Asian and general SOuth Asian news and views. Excellent writing, mixing high-brow with popular culture.

And then there’s the World Weary Detective, ‘between you and the underclass’, the blog of a London Detective. Sits alongside coppersblog and of course the excellent Random Acts of Reality as news from the frontline of the emergency services.

Now what we really need is a way of bringing together all these reports with others from dealers and criminals to give a proper view of what’s really happening in our city streets.

I can remember 99. Watching the Cup final, willing Man U. on. Even in Leeds we were (secretly) doing it. But tonight, there’s nothing but schadenfreude. Getting rid of Beckham was a mistake. Keane, even worse. It’s not only City fans laughing (I can hear them across the rooftops of Manchester), it’s everyone.

Time for the Scottish drunkard to go. Mr. Sacchi? I think there’s a vacancy waiting to be filled.

Two of my more esteemed peers have been blogging on xianity over the last couple of days. Garry at curious hamster has been relating the story of Media Watch and their latest attempt to stop Jerry Springer: The Opera being performed. Meanwhile, that nice Mr. N. Monkey has been criticising a Polly article about the Narnia film (available from torrentspy should you not want to bother going to the cinema), and has had some very astute comments in response.

Let’s start with the obvious. I go to church. Not every Sunday, but not Easter and xmas either. Me and t’beloved make it every three weeks or so. I got baptised earlier this year. I’m a proud anglican. Some of my friends (including the host of this site) are, let’s say, not so happy about that. Not because I’ve become in any sense ‘born again’ (as you can tell from previous posts). But because of the fears and misunderstandings surrounding the christian religion. Which have come out in the analysis provided by both of the above-mentioned posts.

So, I’m answering them somewhat obliquely, and mostly answering the points raised in the comments to Nosemonkey’s post (especially a typically brilliant post from rachel from north London). Firstly, the decision I took to get baptised was because I finally decided that xianity wasn’t a choice on a landscape for me, it WAS the landscape. To be a yorkshireman, a European, I shouldn’t be playing with religions from the Far East. Within xianity, there is as much spirituality, as much mysticism as you can get from any of the mystery religions. And, this is the religioon of my fore-fathers/mothers. And therefore is part of me.

Which brings me to Problem No 1: White liberals who criticise xianity for being ‘airy-fairy’ and then go off into the realms of mystical religions where the whole basis is gnomic sentiments deisgned not to make sense ( try reading some Zen koans sometime).

xianity can be mystical. Read The Imitation of Christ. A stunning book with as much beauty and spirituality as the Hagakure or the I Ching any day. Hey, read the Gospel of John. Similarly.

Within xianity, you can be a mystic, you can be a realist, you can be, hey, yes it’s true, effectively an atheist.

At least as far as the ‘average’ person would understand you. Which brings me to Problem no.2, ‘Fluffy Christianity’, which is the subject of Rachel’s comment. What is taught in Sunday schools, and what is understood by most even quite intellectual members of society is a form of xianity that bears little relationship to ‘high’ theology. Noticeably, the Bishop of Durham writes ‘fluffy’ books as ‘Tom’ Wright and ‘high theology’ as NT Wright (and for anyone interested in religion, I recommend the latter). Within high theology, the ‘death of God’ movement has been mainstream in the past thirty years. It is possible, as I do, to not believe in an after-life, to not believe in a ’second coming’ (and to question whether this was ever believed until the mid-third century), and to still believe that Christ’s message offers the best way of understanding and touching God/Love/agape.

For that’s the point. Inherent within xianity is tolerance, and understanding. And it is the only religion (except for made-up versions of paganism) that really allows that. Within the biblical tale is the story of Thomas, the doubter who was allowed to remain within the apostolic fold, was allowed to comment, but wasn’t burnt, wasn’t tortured. This, it seems to me, is a thread of freedom. And within protestantism, the idea that individuals can access God is vital. The birth of protestantism is about access to language, to the Bible in the vernacular, to the ability (yes, within an established church) to re-interpret a sacred text for today. Oh, and for access to God through a personal connection, without following rules. Protestantism offers freedom. Anglicanism even more so. It is no surprise that the great democracies of the world (whatever their faults) are all protestant. Look at the other great religions and one sees rules at every point–this is how one must be for access to God. This is how one must act for access to God. Anglicanism says, no, one mustn’t BE any particular way, one is still entitled to have a relationship with God. And that’s why Mediawatch have missed the point so supremely.

Which brings me to Problem 3 friends and liberal commentators who criticise something they’ve never studied, and have no idea about. People who would rather read the qu’ran than the Bible. Who have a vague memory of sunday school and nuns with rulers, and seek to condemn on that basis, who say ‘Christ was great, but Paul distorted everything.’

Have you read Paul? Until Paul, xianity was a superior and elitist sect of Judaism. Paul opened it to the Gentiles. Paul democratised it. Paul saw the possibilities.

But the misunderstanding of Paul is another of the liberal confusions over religion. It’s one of those ‘passed down’ myths, which doesn’t hold true. But the whole subject of the chattering classes having no grasp on history, any more than they do on maths or science, is going to be a recurring theme herein.

…tbc

By way of Mr. Worstall, a not-massively-publicised piece of the Chancellor’s statement, that the promised changes in pension regulations to allow money invested in property to gain tax relief, have been scrapped.

Given that these changes have been publicised for two years now, and have formed the reason for institutional investors to continue to buy (or plan-to-buy) flats, on the basis that the new money coming into the sector as a result of SIPPS investments will keep the whole thing buoyant, and in turn have led some stalled schemes to be relaunched, it could have an, uhhr, interesting effect on the housing market.

In places like Manchester, where the stock of city-centre flats is continuing to rise at an astonishing rate, the one thing all commentators have talked about in the last year is that the changes in SIPPS regulations will keep the demand bouyant. I’d suggest a period of, uhhr, substantial price re-adjustment.

I’ve just failed my driving test. Now you might be expecting a rant at the expense of a polyester encased examiner. But, no, twas entirely my own fault. My brain simply turned to mush. When the examiner has to point out that it might not be that great an idea to keep trying to set off with the handbrake on, it’s time to call a halt.

Given I could lop a couple of fingers off my left hand and still count on the remainder the number of times I’ve failed tests, exams and other such trials, I’m going to regard this entirely as a growth experience.

And try again. But not thrice. I follow WC Fields on this.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.

Let me start by reminding people that I’m a Christian. So I’m going to have to do penance for what I’m about to say (actually, one of the privileges of being a Protestant and not a heretic is, of course, I don;t have to).

By way of DK, Right For Scotland has a widely mentioned post about the underclass in Port Glasgow. For some reason, the writer seems to believe that the growth of this layabout, dope-smoking, expectorating, shellsuit encased group is to do with socialism. It’s about ’something-for-nothing’ culture and handouts and all that.

Course, that’s bollocks, and ahistorical bollocks at that. The underclass has always been with us. See Hogarth, see Dickens and Defoe, see Mayhew, see Fishman’s opus East End 1888. There have always been no-go areas, places where the gentry would require a swordstick or gun to protect themselves (hey, the shining point of Leeds, the Victoria Quarter with its Harvey Nicks and beautiful Victorian arcades was, 150 years ago, the centre for the slaughterhouses and all-night taverns, a place of depravity and vice akin to New York’s Five Points).

But, perhaps it’s got worse (or, as friend Lee points out to me, perhaps I’ve just got older). There’s no balance anymore. There’s no hope. While there was always an underclass, there too was a working class. And the latter no longer exists in the same way. With the destruction of industrial Britan, the old communities have died, and with them the support structures, the moral ‘poor but upright’ attitude, even the WEA autodidacts and the public libraries have fallen over. There’s no culture to keep these elements of society together.

And, (getting on a favourite hobby horse), the impact of fast food and crap supermarkets on the sink estates have left a significant percentage of the population without access to fresh food (and the allotment culture dying too). And the wrong food leads to criminality.

So we have the sink estates, beneath which no one can fall. And a society of casual criminality, where the taking of drugs is as normal as having a cup of tea, and where sex starts at twelve. And beyond it, no one that really cares. The churches try their best, but they’re laughed at by the underclass and by the supposed moral guardians of the nation alike. While the inhabitants breed like rats. And start to spread into the cities and into the areas of the decent, hard-working, ‘gods-fearing’.

A few years ago, one of the major Social Work magazines had to suppress a piece of research demonstrating the increasing number of genetic defects caused by the ultra-fast breeding of the untermensch (and their pocket-sized paramours)–sleeping with each other in their tower blocks, at ever younger ages, they produced children who would breed with others on the same landing as soon as they got a chance. Resulting in what Fr. Mendel would have predicted.

And the evidence is, far from what the embarassed white middle-class researchers tell you, that class is connected to all sorts of things, including domestic violence (yes, you might experience it as a chief exec’s wife, but you’re more likely to as the concubine of a lifelong unemployed jerk-off), and criminality. Oh, there are reasons, but we’ve been trying to deal with them for two hundred and more years. Perhaps its time to say, ‘fuck this, there has to be a better way.’

Never mind that social exclusion or economic deprivation does patently lead to crime. We are where we are. This is where we have to start from. If there’s a ‘class’ that has no interest in playing by the rules, then you have to decide which side you’re on, and act accordingly. Bleeding hearts won’t stop your kids being mugged.

It’s simple. We used to need the underclass–they were useful to provide the labour in times of economic growth, and the wetware in times of war (almost constant, and THAT acted as a way of keeping their numbers down). We don’t anymore. Wars (at least on our side) are fought by cowards from planes two miles up in the sky. Economic growth means more computers and more slave-labour in Calcutta.

And with the increasing bankruptcy of a nation that can’t pay back those who have worked all their lives to support it, surely we have to look around and see which mouths are expendable?

Yet, no one will face up to the issues. We would be so much better off as a nation if they were allowed to wither and die. It’s simple, a few basic rules (feel free to add your own)–

If you have more than two children by the time you’re sixteen, you can receive benefit, but you have to accept sterilisation. And so do they.

We adopt the US standard of self-defence. If you come into my home, and I didn’t ask you in, I get to shoot you. Oh, and that includes if you’re a policeman without a warrant.

If you take drugs or alcohol and go into a fit, no, you don’t get hospital treatment. Likewise if you’re obese, or a smoker, or doing anything else that’s bad for you. UNless you have the money to be treated privately. Take some fucking responsibility for your actions!

If you hit your child in public, any member of the watching crowd has the right to beat you to a pulp.

And, of course, if you wear shell-suits and don’t wash, or leggings when you’re overweight (and, yes, it is your fucking fault), anyone has the right to set fire to you.

More seriously, it’s about time we started using a word that has rightly fallen into disfavour. Eugenics. See that Vicky Pollard? She’s dead, right. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah.

There was real worry for a moment there that Le Grand Frere wouldn’t come through for the British Government. THankfully they did, and last night the EU agreed that phone and e-mail data should be kept by telecoms companies for up to two years, should Police and other agencies want to access it.

Luckily, this can only be accessed for investigation into serious crimes. Less luckily, the defintion of serious crimes rests with individual states. The European Parliament have yet to vote on it. So, the Blair EU Presidency brings us lots of rhetoric but no action on poverty, a decreased rebate and no deal on CAP and more police powers. The rest of the continent now understands what Brits have been putting up with for eight years.

Strange how some journalists mean more to us than others. Anything by Polly Pot tends to be treated with contempt, of course. But Matthew Engel is the Editor of Wisden, and therefore feels almost like one of the family. Okay, not at John Peel level, favourite Uncle, but certainly well-liked cousin.

So his account of the death of his son from cancer, written with humour, grace and a lot of love, seemed somehow more significant than just words on a page. I’m not saying only the deaths of the children of sports journalists would affect me (though it can’t be ruled out), but some we get to know, some we get to like.

It certainly puts the tragedy of the England performance in Pakistan into perspective.