Posted 7:51 AM by Paul
The Undiscovered Country

We went to the theatre last might and had a fantastic evening. Hamlet in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Albery on St. Martin’s Lane is a big occasion. We met up first in bar just off Trafalgar Square. London looked beautiful all lit up for Christmas, twinkling in the cold night air. Heather also looked beautiful and I felt a bit manky in comparison. We had a couple of drinks and some spring rolls. It was a treat just to sit and talk, free of work and without the kids for a few hours.

The previous might I had been out with Chris and Steve to a Spanish restaurant and drunk too much. A client who is exhibiting at an event I am organising bought me lunch and we shared a bottle of wine, which got me going all over again. If not exactly dissolute, I felt a bit louche when I met Heather, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Coming into the grand old Albery Theatre,which was built in the last century, you could feel the excitement and the history. Photographs of Laurence Olivier in Richard III, Hamlet and King Lear adorned the walls of the theatre bar. There was a real sense of anticipation in the air. Up in the bar we sat on the same table as Patrick Stewart, a man known to millions as Captain Picard of Star Trek and a fine Shakespearean actor as well. It is a strange feeling sitting next to someone extremely famous because you are ostentatiously avoiding all eye contact in order to to allow them a bit of privacy. In a way, you are a lot ruder than you would be to a regular person. He met up with a younger woman. A girlfriend? Possibly. Possibly not.

It reminded me that most of the actors I know are still really passionate about the theatre. It is a love affair not a job. Patrick Stewart could have afforded to arrive at the last minute at a side entrance in a limo and have the best seats in the house. Instead he was meeting a girl in a crowded theatre bar and taking his seat in the Grand Circle. The most expensive seats are £30. Perhaps he was doing this out of respect for the younger actors. It must be a bit disconcerting if you spot a living legend on the second row when you are half way through you opening soliloquy. My old friend Ian who trained at RADA and enjoyed a load of success in the 1990s in a big soap opera has the same passion. If he sees a great play he is uplifted and can talk about every detail of the show for hours. He will eulogise or criticise aspects of a performance I would never notice.

Listening up there in the dark of the Grand Circle to Hamlet reminded me just how many set phrases and sayings that are now staples of the English language come from this one play. It must be difficult to say lines like “…neither a borrower nor a lender be” which are now clichés with any kind of conviction. One line that did stick in mind was the description of Death as “the undiscovered country” It made me think about my mother and father.

The production of Hamlet was disappointing. The actor who played The Dane was too handsome in a blonde upper class English sort of way. His vowels were full and his consonants clipped. He didn’t so much descend into madness as start off barmy and get a bit barmier. There seemed to be a few people on stage who found it difficult to walk and act at the same time. It was all a bit stiff with none of the vitality and sensuality that you get in a great ensemble piece. The white faced mime ghost looked like he had been trained by Lindsay Kemp. He was also way too young.

The staging and costume designers hadn’t quite made up their mind if they were doing an expressionistic or naturalistic piece. The King and Queen showed none of the creepy lascivious sensuality that I had loved when I saw the play at the Edinburgh Festival in the mid 1980s. You felt like they were having sex on the old King’s grave before he was cold. The Queen on that occasion was played by Jean Marsh who incidentally played Rose, the head maid in Upstairs Downstairs. My friend Ian played Rosenkrantz. I left at the interval because I had to do some illegal fly posting for a left wing comedy gig I was promoting. I kept up this tradition in 2004 by leaving at once more at the interval. I have never seen the second half of Hamlet.

It was my suggestion but Heather (and clearly most of the audience if the overheard intermission comments were anything to go by) felt the same way about the production. We don’t have a lot of time together and we decided to end the evening at a bar together talking about the future and the past. We also had to be back home by 11.00 to relieve our wonderful babysitter Kimberly. When we got home Alice was in a lovely mood. She had told Kimberley that Hamlet was a play about a dwarf who cycles from Peckham to Brixton. She can be very funny. They had made Christmas decorations and watched the DVD of School of Rock starring Jack Black. Emily was fast asleep.

We ended the night eating chocolate and watching U2 on the Jonathon Ross Show. Like Patrick Stewart, they are multi-millionaires but are still passionate about what they do. They still have that air of being people rather than personalities.

A great night and a great time to be living in London and not the undiscovered country.

Posted 7:35 AM by Paul
Bad News From the USA

Carol sent me the information below all accessed from public service radio in the USA and not far out conspiracy websites. DEpressing for us and more dpressing if like Carol you are American.

BBC Reveals NYC Tests HIV Drugs on Kids A nine-month-long BBC investigation has revealed that thecity of New York has been forcing HIV positive childrenunder its supervision to be used as human guinea pigs intests for experimental HIV drug trials, in some casesagainst their will.

All of the children in the program areunder the legal guidance of the city's child welfaredepartment, the Administration for Children's Services.Most were living either in foster care or independent homesrun on behalf of the local authorities, Almost all thechildren are believed to be African-American or Latino. OneNew York social worker told the BBC she had never beeninformed that the drugs she was administering to childrenwere experimental and highly toxic. Jacklyn Hoerger said,"We were told that if they were vomiting, if they losttheir ability to walk, if they were having diarrhea, ifthey were dying, then all of this was because of their HIVinfection." In fact it was the drugs that were causing manyof the problems. The BBC identified pharmaceutical giantGlaxoSmithKline as one of the companies that provided drugsfor the tests.

Ala. Legislator Proposes Banning Books w/ Gay Characters In Alabama, Republican state legislator Gerald Allen hasintroduced a bill that would ban all novels with gaycharacters from public libraries, including universities.If the bill passes, Allen said books containing gaycharacters will have to be removed from library shelves anddestroyed. One book that would have to be destroyed is"Sisters" a 1981 lesbian romance novel written by LynneCheney, the wife of Dick Cheney.

Gov't Defends Using Evidence Gained By Torture. Also at the court proceeding, the government claimed it hasthe right to use evidence gained by torture in decidingwhether to detain people at Guantanamo Bay. Statementsproduced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S.courts for about 70 years

Posted 3:36 PM by Paul
American Music

Tonight three things happened which reminded me of the greatness of American music

- Alice was practising Gospel in her room. She doesn't really like to sing much, but she has been chosen to do a couple of parts in the Peckham Goes Gospel show this Christmas. She is a little nervous and was learning her parts and playing the CD which had been loaned by her school. It sounded so inspirational that it could almost make you want to be a Christian again. The music lifted you up. She is singing with her classmate Samir. Samir is a Muslim

- The new Eminem video was played on TV. It is a corrosive track about the price blue collar America is paying for the Iraq War. The visuals are straight out of a graphic novel. Maus meets 8 Mile. The message is as strong and uncompromising as anything by Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie. I have heard it once. I don't know the name of the track but I won't forget it. When it was over Heather and I looked at each and exchanged a look which said " Good God we don't like the msuic but we have just seen and heard something extraordinary" He wasn't singing about his crib or his ride or his Hos. He didn't claim to be a Playa Pimp. He was was giving us a narrative about modern America. The final sentiment for Bush was " Strap on an AK47 and go to Iraq if you want to impress your dad". It will be dismissed and ridiculed. As were Muhamed Ali and Bob Dylan. I am buying the album

- BBC4 showed an a documentary about the Beach Boys long lost Smile album which was resurrected at a live concert at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2004, not three miles from where I live. It was a reminder of the brilliance of the music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Heroes and Williams, California Girls, Surfs Up, Good Vibrations. Choral masterpieces.

Alot of words are written about cultural imperialism contending that American Culture is dominant purely becuase of the power of marketing and the dollar. Much of American Music is dominant because it is the Best.

Posted 4:10 PM by Paul

United States of the Ukraine

It is a very serious situation, but there is something deeply comic about the White House lecturing another country on the accuracy and probity of its elections. As I write, Ohio has not yet declared and there is still no Mayor of San Diego. They are still counting. It descends into absurdity when the reasons given for doubts about Ukrainian democracy are that

- The winners had much more money than the losers.
- The winners had privileged access to the media.

Have these people sense of irony?

That said, it is clear that the goings on the Eastern Ukraine make the disenfranchisement of Black American voters in Florida look like small beer. It was, as they say in South London, SCAME. The Russian backed party rigged it so that they would win. Any sensible person thinks that at the very least the election should be re-run purely on the basis that a turn out of 102% is statistically unlikely. Although, I am sure that software engineers for a Texan touch screen voting machine supplier could give us a good reason why this was well within the margins of statistical error.

So, as I write 100,,000 people are on the streets of Kiev blockading the Government offices crying “We were robbed!” If I were Ukrainian I would probably be with them. Particularly now that they are handing out free food and bright orange clothing. Day by day the Opposition’s demands get more confident. They are now insisting that the PM is not only made to admit he that he rigged the election but that he should resign. Long Live People Power! Or maybe not.

400 kilometres to the East in the industrial heartlands 100,000 people are in the streets complaining that the sophisticated Western Ukrainians are just bad losers. Ring any bells? Some would say they have a point. Because if the Ukraine were to operate an Electoral College system based on which candidate won most regions, the pro-Russian ex-Communist would have won…even though he polled 500,000 fewer votes.

So now, dressed in Sky Blue the hard liners are threatening to secede and maybe even re-join Russia. The Orange Opposition has cried cry foul and are even demanding that anyone suggesting such blasphemy should be charged with treason

Two ideologies are in conflict. One pro-free market and one centralist. Broadly speaking two religious outlooks are also in conflict. One Uniate Catholic and one Russian Orthodox.

Also two huge marketing machines are battling it out for share of media time and public opinion. The Opposition (cynics say backed by a US Marketing Services Giant) latched on to the power of branding and unifying symbols very early on. Swathed in orange and waving banners they were joyously televisual. The ex-Commies hit back a few days later with a swathe of Sky Blue and banners of their own. The Communists are not new to the trade. In fact they are one of the pioneers of modern branding theory. If the proletariat had been made to read Das Kapital before storming the Winter Palace, the Russian Revolution would have never happened. Instead Lenin and Trotsky reduced 20 years of philosophical critique to four words and a symbol. PEACE-BREAD-WORK-FREEDOM and the Hammer and Sickle. The brand may be devalued but once upon a time the Red Banner was a brand right up there with the Golden Arches and Coca-Cola.

My desperate hope for the future is that in all of this turmoil no one is killed and if they are to separate, they do it peacefully. It is not worth one drop of blood. Not one orphaned child

And what of the past? What if Gore had martial led millions of Democrats to take to the streets? He could have included some of those Black Floridians who showed up to vote and found that they were not in to list. What if they had lobbied the Supreme Count in December 2000 and halted Washington all dressed in Democratic Blue chanting " Count Every Vote!"

Dream on buddy. Dream on.

Posted 7:25 AM by Paul
Ex-Servicemen

I read a short piece on Page 7 of the Guardian today reporting that four Ghurkas working for a UK securirty company called Global Strategy had been a killed in Iraq. A mortar had been lobbed into the Green Zone where they were working. A further seven Gurkas were seriously injured. They were all ex-British Army. Four loyal servants of the British Crown dead and just a cursory mention in a broadsheet.

Posted 1:22 AM by Paul
What's in a Name?

During the 1980s people on the Looney Left warned that the Labour Party had a secret plan. They were going to turn themselves into a British Democratic Party. This didn't worry me too much, providing that it was the right part, that's the Left, of the Democrats. But the Lefties were wrong. The plan was to turn Labour into the Republican Party. You have got to hand it to them. It's an audacious plan.

Peter Hain, a big hitter in the Labour Party and spoken in some circles as a future leader had a clear message for voters yesterday when he was interviewed on the radio.

You will be safe under Labour. The Liberals and Conservatives oppose our plans to fight terrorism and crime.

Not so much a warning as a threat. Vote Liberal Democrat and you may die. Setting aside the fact that fears of getting mugged on your way home from Safeways and blown to smithereens by a hi-jacked plane are different issues, Hain's claim is startling. Startling because it is straight out of the Karl Rove playbook.

I met Peter Hain years ago when I was a Labour councuillor. He spoke passionately and eloquently at a public meeting I organised in opposition to the proposed privatisation of the Post Office. It was the last year of the Conservative Government and I thought,

" Great. We are in good shape with democratic socialists like him who speak common sense coming to positions of power. We can sleep easy in our beds. There will be no total sell-out when we get elected. "

Now Hain is very much in power, the Post Office is about to be privatised and he is using the rhetoric of Condoleeza Rice.

But maybe none of this should worry us. Party alliances are in flux across the world. . The Left .v. Right face off that dates from the French Revolution does not really hold any more. New fault lines are opening up. It has happend in othe parts of the world already.

In the late 80s I went to Nicaragua to act as an interpreter for a group of Labour Members of the European Parlimrent. I was intested to discover that the Liberals were a far right party with the Red Flag as its symbol and the Conservatives were moderate Social Demcorats who had supported the Sandinistas. The Communist Party of Nicaragua hated the Sandinistas and had joined the CIA financed co-alition to succesfully oust them from power.

So what's in a name? Nothing.

Freeing ourselves form the old party labels might even be liberating.

Posted 3:27 PM by Paul
Conference Speak

Today I went to a conference on training in the construction industry which was attended by a Government minister. He is an intelligent man who spoke well and it was a pleasure to hear him talking abut the value of training and self improvement for its own sake as well as the economic benefits.

The same man two years ago had banged the lectern and asserted "the age of learning for learning's sake is over!" I wish Socrates has been with me in Oldham to hear this twaddle. He may have nutted the Minister shouting "stitch that you brain dead Spartan!". However, the anti -intellectual proclamation got rapturous applause from a hall full of small businessmen.

" Don't any of these people collect stamps or read about the Zulu Wars? " I wondered to myself as I downed the third glass of free wine. But I suppose he knew what his audience wanted to here. Everything was down to the balance sheet.

But today's conference also had it's fair share of nonesense. Below are a few of the words and phrases I would either ban or tax heavily.

• It's all about partnership
• Agenda for change
• We need a step change in [ insert nonesense ]
• Engineering out the problems
• There are no easy solutions
• There are no more jobs for life [ errr. unless like me you have a safe seat in Parliament ]
• We have just set up a working party to scope out the issues

At some point in the near future a politician is going to reclaim the English language from consultant double speak and reap the reward at the ballot box.

P.S Amongst other things Alice is getting The White Stripes Live at Blackpool on DVD and tonight we talked about going to see them play live. Problem is that I would not be allowed to dance as this would be just too embarrassing.

Posted 3:05 PM by Paul
Good Game

The world is in flames, and what are my friends doing? Playing a stupid on-line game where you have to guide a drunken man back home from the office Christmas Party with the use of your mouse!!!! Which given the circumstances is just as well and a sure sign of their sanity. Have a try yourself. It's great fun.

http://www.wagenschenke.ch/index2.htm

But two things trouble me deeply about this game.

1. Why are the instructions in German when the website URL is Czech. Is there something we should know?

2. Why does the struggling drunk look like me 10 years ago?

The record apparently is 53 seconds. The game was sent to me by Martin the Swede a lovely man who works for the Swedish car industry and likes a Bloody Mary. He has been to the fiesta in Pamplona for the last three hundred years and knows a thing or two about pickled herrings and bull fighting.

Posted 2:22 PM by Paul
Jacques Come to Town

Chirac was in London last week and made the most of the fact that events have proved him right. In fact he took the Mickey out of the Government at every opportunity. In a very eloquent French way Jacques reminded us all that he was right all along about Bush’s intentions in Iraq and his inability to fight a successful war and then win the Peace without Arab support. He was clearly enjoying himself.

It’s a funny old world. Who would have thought that Jacques Chirac would have become a hero of the European Left? It seems like only yesterday that we were cheering as Mitterand defeated him twice to herald a new era of French Social Democracy. Except that it wasn’t. France went broke and all those rumours about the Socialist President being a Nazi collaborator turned out to be true. You couldn’t make it up. Just before he died someone even got hold of a photo of him in the uniform of the Petainist Youth Movement. He managed to keep that one quiet for 50 years. At the time Mitterand’s victory seemed to be the only positive news in the otherwise right wing unremitting landscape of the Reagan Thatcher years. My friend Jim was working on Wall Street at the time and he called me with the news that the New York Post had covered the news with the headline REDS TAKE PARIS.

Then there was the scandal of the contaminated blood which gave people AIDS and the Elf Oil bribery scandal. It was a reminder to us all that a large part of politics is about how political entrepreneurs use political parties as vehicles for their own self aggrandisement. The party machine becomes a machine for collecting votes and distributing favours. Ideology doesn’t come in to it.

Compared to nasty Francois naughty Jacques seems relatively clean.

But beyond all the political manoeuvring and point scoring, Chirac made a series of broad philosophical points that made sense.

Nations subjugated to colonialism in the recent past would be quick to see what we call democratisation as imposed Westernisation. Despite what Blair might say about the US being the only superpower we in fact live in a multi –polar world. Disagreements should at least in theory be worked out by a multi- lateral approach. No one has a monopoly on wisdom. Compared to Chirac’s broad sweep many Labour politicians’ geo-political world view comes over like a mediocre under grad paper. They constantly seem to be trying to convince you of their globalist free market credentials in an attempt to lay the ghost of their Marxist past. It feels like over compensation

Critics say that this is idle wishful thinking on the part of an old fraud. In fact Chirac is stating the facts. The USA has the most weapons and could blow us all up 100 times over but its economic power is waning. Some of its high value as well as its menial jobs are moving to China and India, two powers which comprise around a third of the world’s population. Only 10% of the Chinese population could be termed middle class, but that is 120 million people. Nearly half the population of the USA. Europe for all its problems is soon to be a bigger market for goods and services not just because it has a much larger population but because it will soon be richer. The USA will always be powerful, but it is no longer the only show in town. Perhaps power and wealth are moving back to where they were 1000 years ago – the East

Chirac’s analysis annoys many people including my old friend Noel Chandler who was holding forth on the subject over a pizza in Soho last week. For some British people supporting the USA on every single occasion is now the litmus test of our nationhood. France is seen as being ungrateful after the sacrifices made by the US forces on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. No one should ever forget those young men. That is true.

We also need a bit of perspective. Five divisions landed on D-Day. Two were British. Two were American and one was from Canada, a country with a 10th of the population of the USA. But we hear very little about the boys from Toronto and Montreal who lost their lives. The Russians had over 30 divisions in the field against the Nazis in the summer of 1944. They still regard D-Day as a bit of a side show. Helpful, but not the real war. Also there has to eventually be a statute of limitations placed on national debts of gratitude. Without the French, the USA would not have beaten the British in 1776. At what point did Washington stop thanking Paris? Probably before 1836.

Do I trust Chirac? Of course not, but I am not sure that I trust any of them in a way I might have trusted FDR, Churchill or Atllee.

Chirac does at least seem to have an idea about the way the world is moving.

Posted 8:47 AM by Paul
49% of Americans are Cool

Lest we forget they are definitely not all crazy.

Exhibit A

http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml

Very funny and unlike a lot of anti-Bush stuff that is up in cyberspace it does not take itself too seriously. The creator of this game also posts the hate mail he/she has received from bitter crazy right wingers. An excellent tactic.

Exhibit B

The Onion. The glory of America can be sampled every week by signing up to their weekly updates at www.onion.com My friend Steve Corrigan put me on to this just after September 11th. It cheered him and a lot of other New Yorkers up a great deal. If you can laugh directly after the horror you are on the mend. It reminded me of what my mum and dad told me about making jokes about the Bilitz even though whole streets had just been bombed out.

Historical note to the American Right. This was before you guys decided to help out. FDR tried hard to help in 1940 and 41, but the Republican Party did its level best to leave us to the Nazis.

Besides a brilliantly funny piece in the Onion about how the Very Poor of America had rallied round once again to ensure that the Very Wealthy continued to control of the White House it hit on a key dynamic of the election. Something we might all refer to as The Sting Syndrome. Let me explain.

Sting is quite clearly a brilliant and successful musician. He has sold millions of records and raised awareness of the plight of indigenous Amazonian tribes who are being wiped out by illegal loggers. he is a very clever bloke. But there is something so unbearable smug about him that he makes you want to get out the chain saw and launch into a few 300 year old mahagony trees. Just to wipe the smile off his face. You know Sting is right but you want to oppose him.

Thus it is with many US Liberals. Even when they have no power and little influence they give the impression that they rule the roost. I am sure that a small but significant percentage of the US electorate voted for Bush just to wipe the smile off the face of NYC intelligencia. Thye just couldn't bear to see them crowing on TV on November 3rd.

Bush and co. have pulled off the brilliant masterstroke of having most of the power, most of the money and most of the media and still appear to be the underdog. The clear thinking patriots against the Liberal Elite with all their nuance and fancy arguments.

It must go down as one of the greatest deceptions of all time.

Posted 2:54 PM by Paul
Post Election Post Mortem

Readers of this blog ( all three of you) will be surprised that I have failed to pass comment on the election of George Bush for a second term. There are reasons for my absense from the Blogosphere

• I was crying
• I was acting as a therapeutic e-counsellor to distressed Americans, particularly Democrats in the Southern States who were getting homophobic insults for having a Kerry bumper sticker
• I was working on a creative pitch for McCains Home Fries - This is not a joke
• I thought I would wait a while until I had something to contribute rather than just pour out bile into already polluted cyber space

So here are some my thoughts on the the past two weeks.

The Debates. Kerry won 3-0 but it did not matter one jot. US electoral politics is now about culture, values and emotion not intellect and ideology. I repeat. Will Smith for 2008!

Gay Marriage. Make it compulsory

Tony Blair. Has taken to wearing a lot of make up when on TV. And what's with that awful pink shirt, orange TV make up and bouffant hair? Is he turning into the Child Catcher?

France. Now officially the opposition to Bush. The state funeral send off from Paris accorded to former revolutionary icon and corrupt minor despot Yasser Arafat was a big two fingers to Washington. Did they have a reason for according him full military honours? Or were they just having a laugh at Bush's expense? Blair's pleas to Germany and France that now is the time to build bridges with the Bush administration appear to have been ignored. What a surprise. The idea that Tony has any influence with anyone outside his own cabinet is one of the abiding conceits of modern British politics. Bush is just humouring him and Chirac clearly thinks he is a light-weight.

Falluja. They keep talking about an action by Iraqi troops supported by the US. But strangely we have seen no images of swarthy men with moustaches taking burnt out buildings or going in to Mosques. Unless they are the rebels that is. Just guys who look like they are straight out of the Waltons. It is like history on rewind. Does anyone remember Vietnamistaion? The South Vietnamese troops lasted a few weeks before they gave up. If the US want to hold Iraq they will have to fund an occupation for 20 years. There is no budget plan option on this one.

November 3rd A lot of commentators have talked about the visceral hatred between the two Americas. I have seen enough of that via e-mail and on the web. What is less commented on is the visceral sadness, not just because of a good candidate beaten but because of the end of an era. The end of a notion of America. Faith has triumphed over reason. I commented in an e-mail to about 30 people that I never shared the hope of my Democrat friends that Kerry would win. Esti - a New York Jewish woman replied that she also was certain of a Bush victory. I paraphrase her words -

" The Christian right is in the ascendant and the America that many Democrats talk about no longer exists. That America. Our America... is long gone"

It was like she was talking abut the death of parent. Tom Turley a man in his 30s who has travelled the world working for USAid and is by no means a left wing radical summed up the social divide and the political malaise when he wrote to me about life in Denver. In the motorway intersections small camps of the destitute are beginning to spring up. Cards outside their shanties proclaim that they have gone bust due to not being able to pay their hospital bills. But one man in rags run out into the road shouting after a car with a Kerry bumber sticker

" That John Kerry! He is stabbing our troops in the back!!"

The Dollar. A soft currency used to buy oil and hamburgers. If the deficit grows any bigger and foreign investors keep refusing to buy US Treasury Bonds the green back will soon be on a par with the Turkish Lira.

Fingerprinting All Visitors to the US. Bush's plan to push the US tourist industry into total crisis.

" I know kids! Lets go to Florida. When you arrive at immigration they make you feel like a criminal. You have the added fun of wondering if you will be allowed in to the USA when the software has a bad day and they suspect that mum is Osama in drag."

I suspect that this in in fact a covert French plan to boost visitor numbers to the Dordogne. However, with the dollar plunging the USA is now a very cheap holiday destination. Perhaps we will all put up with feeling like we are entering San Quentin in order to take advantage of dirt cheap hotels and theme parks with short queues and cheap burgers.

The Black Watch. I will come on to that later

Posted 2:23 AM by Paul
Ohio

It has just been announced that the Federal courts have allowed a Republican appeal to allow their scrutinisers inside polling stations to "check voters' eligibility" In the UK this is called voter harassment and carries a prison sentence. The job of scrutiny is for officials not for party workers. Try and do it in Spain and you would be beaten senseless.

My fear (and my predictions have been lousy over the last few weeks - no decisive invasion of Falluja and Rove did not use the Black Watch deployment to demonstrate the strength of the coalition) is that the polls in parts of Ohio will descend into violence. But it shows that Bush's people are scared that they will lose the state. If they lose Ohio they will almost certainly be out of office. Kerry can lose it and still win. In fact he can lose Ohio and Florida and still win if he takes West Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire.

Both candidates are still on the stump, in stark contrast to 2000 when Bush went home to Texas on the Sunday before polling day. His people had told him he was 4-6% ahead, when in fact he was 0.5% behind. At least the US electorate are making him work for a living.

And, if as I suspect, Bush just wins? Move to a South Sea island but not Pitcairn.

One thing is certain. If he wins with a minority vote he will still act as if he carried the election on a landslide

Posted 5:13 AM by Paul
Halloween 2004

My objections to Halloween were nothing to do with it promoting Satan worship. They were related to it promoting American cultural imperialism. I put the popularity of Halloween down to the popularity of Happy Days in the late 70s. Before that, this time of year saw British kids hanging out on street corners begging money with the cry "Spare a Penny for the Guy Sir? ".

For any Americans who do not know, this quaint custom was tied to Guy Fawkes (or Bonfire)Night on November 5th. This is the the anniversary of when Guy, a dissident Catholic tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. He was burnt at the stake and as children we marked the event by throwing his effigy on to bonfires and letting off or sometimes throwing fireworks. My elder brother Dave and I used to make a tidy sum every Autumn begging in this way. We spent most of the money on fireworks and fish and chips.

In those simpler times guying was nothing unusual. It was not seen as a sign of poor parenting to let your kids out into the night to beg money from strangers. In the 1960s there were a couple of kids with a Guy Faulkes on most street corners, particularly outside pubs in working class areas. November 5th was nearly an important as Chistmas for me. I was desperately sad when David was in hospital on November 5th due to a viral infection in his brain. It was just not the same without my big brother. But he got better and we had a couple of good bonfire nights in later years. Mum always used to make a special cake called Parkin and baked potatoes with sausages.

So, when Halloween won the battle fo the hearts and minds of Britain's youth, I was a little resentful. Bloody Yanks. They get everywhere. Is nothing sacred? But I got over that nonesense when Heather:

- Reminded me that is is FUN
- Beat me lightly with her Minny Mouse ears

She was right. The kids have just finished carving the pumpkin and laying out their scary clothes for trick or treating tonight. Emily is dressing as a black cat and Alice as a witch.

In keeping with the season Osama Bin Ladebn has just released a new video, warning of further attacks on the USA and, for the first time, claiming direct responsibility for the attacks of September 11th. Osama. We guessed it was you all along. So that was the October Surprise. Not a revelation about Kerry's war record or Bush's drinking and womanising, but a video from a would be theocratic dictator. It was probably designed to tip the election in Bush's favour.

No one knows what effect it will have. 20% had voted before it was released and most people have already made up their minds. On the one hand, it reminds voters that the boogey man is still at large despite Bush's proud boasts about having him on the run. On the other hand it stresses the mortal danger the home land is in at the hands of Dr.Evil. I would like to think that the former would be true.

However I can't help thinking that a decisive sliver of the electorate will get into the voting booth with every intention of voting Kerry but at the last minute stay with the devil they know at a time of war. A war created by that devil for the expressed intention of holding on to the power that slipped from his father's grasp.

Happy Haloween

Posted 3:03 AM by Paul
Culture Wars

Cyberspace has been buzzing with invective as the hostage crisis deepens and the chaos gets more chaotic in Iraq. Most of it has been predictable and sanctimonious, particularly mine. However, there is one person who stands out above the rest. Go to www.tomatonation.com to read one Brooklyn woman's take on the elections and the fight for the country she loves. It is a timely reminder of who the good guys and the bad guys are in this election. She is also very very funny. Please read her work.

It also reminded you that at at times like this you should follow your instincts. It really is a no- brainer. It's like asking who do you prefer? The Clash or Cliff Richard. Garth Brooks or Bruce? Blair or Clinton. No contest. In the mid 80s I helped run a youth camapaign for Labour which involved well known muscians going on tour to encourage young people to become engaged in politics, register to vote and get rid of Thathcer. It has virtually no effect on the result of the subsequent election but years later people told me how much it raised their morale. They were not alone. The bands were happy to give up their time to support Labour. Now I can't really think of a single credible artist who would cross the road to shake Blair's hand. It is wierd how things have turned out.

My friend Jesse Graham (another of the Pamplona crowd) added to the quality of the deabte wwith a great summation of the election campaign so far from his home just outside LA. It has real passion and at times despair. He is a new American who came to Calfifornia from Ireland via London and like many newly nationalised Americans Jesse loves his new country deeply and takes none of its freedoms for granted.

Jesse writes

At the tail end of what seems to have been the longest election race on record - a summing up of what has struck home. I wouldn't call it neutral. But I would say it deals in facts - the following statements:Of the two most popular pundits in the country, one (Rush Limbaugh) is a pain pill junkie (a class of human being he has vociferously condemned). The other (Bill O'Reilly) is currently accused of (not consensual adultery but) sustained persistent sexual harrassment. These two men preach to a larger audience than any other media person in the country. Black is white.

A list has been circulating the internet recently showing how many members of Congress have served in the military and their party affiliation. The Republicans, reflecting their leader, are surprisingly absent from the record. The Democrats, reflecting their candidate, are surprisingly present.This is a country where a man who has lost his limbs in the service of his country is attacked for lack of patriotism. A country where a senator who spent five years in a POW camp has doubt cast on his record and soundness. This is a country where 2 candidates are running for president. One went to Vietnam, was wounded, got medals for bravery in direct combat. One was in the National Guard and absent much of the time. His vice president took five deferments to avoid militay service. Yet somehow the man who experienced war directly is derided as unsound, naive and not as fit to manage a war as those that avoided direct involvement. Black is white

Kerry came back from Vietnam and spoke against the war. He has been attacked for this - as giving aid to the enemy. Who has earned the right to comment on a war if not the men who were in it? Maybe noone ever has the right to speak against a war. Even if later it is agreed it was a mistake. Where does George Bush stand on Vietnam? Does he think it was a good thing? What does he believe it accomplished - for the Vietnamese or the Americans - or anybody? Presumably if Kerry is against the war in Vietnam, Bush is for it.Statement: George Bush Senior was the most qualified person to enter the White House ever. Look at the record. Head of the CIA, Ambassador to China, Ambassador to the UN, Vice President. By contrast his son is the most unqualified man to inhabit the Oval Office. Until past 40 he had no job he succeeded at except being a glorified cheerleader for a sports team. Every position on a board was a favor to his father. A man so deeply incurious and ignorant about the world outside America's borders that "geographically challenged" would be letting him down easy.In an aside to demonstrate the detachment from reality of not only Bush but the people around him - look at the vicepresidential debate where Cheney took Edwards to task for never being present in the Senate where he, Cheney presided "nearly every week". In fact, according to Cheney, this was the first time he and Edwards had ever met. A photo in the media the following day showed Cheney and Edwards seated side by side at a function - and it was pointed out that Edwards had been in the Senate considerably more times than Cheney whose "nearly every week" amounted to 4 occasions in the current year. Black is white.

It has probably struck most people in this country that we have lost jobs for the first time since Hoover and the Great Depression. That's a fact. We have less jobs. Gas has doubled - more than doubled. And in a breathtakingly cynical twist of the original legislation's intent, gas guzzling SUV's and Hummers actually get the tax break. Fact.We had a surplus. We are now trillions in debt. Fact.Let's leave Halliburton and its kickbacks. Let's leave the emergency suspensions of how to treat prisoners (trust your government and you get Abu Ghraib). Let's leave Iraq and missed opportunities in Afghanistan. Let's leave Enron. Let's leave all those aside. We have heard them all.Let's talk of taxcuts - briefly. Here is how it works - as Warren Buffet will be the first to tell you. The average American gets his $300 check. The rich minority get a serious chunk of change. What do you do with yours? Invest it? What the rich do is lend their windfall back to the government - and they get paid interest on it. You pay that interest. It's double dip. See how it works? Black is white.

The President is an unswerving man with a head resistant to any unwelcome information. He speaks with all the authority of ignorance. We need not rehearse all his verbal missteps - there are enough websites around with that information. He does not need input, advice or welcome debate or dissent. A man who has been used to appearing before screened and adoring crowds, he found the first debate to be a shower of cold water as he briefly had to engage with the real world of dissent. In the end none of this is important to George Bush because the voice of God speaks in his inner ear. In the real world we put people who hear "voices" on medication. As I type this, I am listening to the news. Margaret Hassan is pleading for her life in Baghdad. Tom Delay is subpoenaed about the abuse of his Homeland Security authority to attack his political opponents. In Nevada lawsuits are being filed over the voter registration company that has been destroying Democratic registration records. Other variants of election rigging are being reported all over the country. Foreign observers are going to be present across the states for election day as though we were a banana republic that can't be trusted to have an honest and democratic election. We probably can't.As I have listened to the sound bites from the debates and the campaign stops, the meaningless generalities, promises that things "are getting better all the time", I find a phrase of Chesterton's ringing over and over in my ear implacably - "and all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men" I think we deserve everything we have coming. And everything that we have coming depends on how we vote.

---------------------------------------

So I wrote back to Jesse copying in to all of his address book. My piece was self righteous as ever and not very well written but it sums up how I felt at that moment


From the UK a few things really stand out clearly. Please pass this on to anyone who is wavering or thinking of staying at home.

Bush is despised here in a way that Reagan never was. Opposition to Ronny broke down pretty much along party lines. Leftists like me hated him (but laughed at his jokes - he was funny) UK Conservatives thought he was great. They loved the Ronny & Maggy Show. The only person to support Bush publicly in the UK is Blair.

A recent poll showed the British electorate favouring Kerry by 74-26 %. He even had a majority of UK voters who described themselves as Conservatives. A recent feature in the Guardian newspaper featured writers who normally favour the Right pleading with Americans to "Give Us Back the Country that We Love." and vote Bush out. The most eleoquent and passionate was from John le Carre the spy writer, a natural Conservative and doubty fighter againsit Communism from the 50s onwards. Why is this? Simple. Bush (and more importantly the people who pull his strings) are seen as very dangerous. Not just in terms of their habit of invading countries and trying to impose puppet regimes but for financial reasons. They will bankrupt us all. The US is now running a budget deficit of 4.9% of GDP. This is more than Greece. It can't go on for ever. The Neo-Cons want to run up a massive deficit and get the rest of the world to pay. We say no way. It is about culture not political ideology. Two differrent Americas. One we love. The other scares the living hell out of us.

The only reason that Blair is still in power in the UK is that electorate hate the Conservative Party even more than they hate him. The gap between Kerry and Bush is closing fast but I fear not enough. Some voters do not want to ditch their leader in time of war. That is why Bush is stepping up the bombing of Falluja. He needs a war. But whatever happens next week Progressive Americans should be proud and re-join the battle for their country immediately This time last year The NeoCons were predicting a Nixon-McGovern style wipe out with a huge majority in the House. This will not happen. Be proud and don't tear yourself apart.

I can't wait for Clinton to get out on the stump. Nothing redeems a flawed genius more than a brush with death. Maybe he can help win Arkansas and W.Virginia back for the forces of truth.

For me Kerry is not progressive enough but as my dear departed Mother used to say to me "Paul, half a loaf is btter than none." So please don't follow the lazy analysis spread by the far right to minimise the Progressive vote for change - that they are both the same. They are not. So please guys. We love America. We stood in long lines across our land in the pouring rain on Septmber 12th, Black and White Muslim as well as Christian - tears of rage in our eyes to sign the books of condolence . We are begging you. Get out and do the right thing next week and encourage everyone you know to do the same.Rid your great country of the men who are bringing America to her knees.

--------------------------

Emotional and santimonious stuff but all of the replies were supportive; promises to get out and vote to Save the World etc. All bar one that is from Sam Peckinpah's son. He claimed that Blair was supporting Bush because he was A Man (obviously he wouldn't be supporting him he were girly man) who keeps his word. Oh well you can't win 'em all.

And my prediction? Bush to win following a succesful assault on Falluja and some very interesting manipulation of voter registeration. They will stop at nothing.

Editors Note: I was wrong about the Falluja assault. It did not happen by election day










Inbox

Posted 8:23 AM by Paul
What A Bunch of Mugs

The Labour Government has announced that they would be sending around 650 members of the Black Watch to one of the most unstable parts of Iraq. A place where the local population has been enraged and radicalised by the heavy handed tactics of the US Army. The PM says that they will be home by Christmas. Some of them will . In boxes.

Leaving the humanitarian issue aside that our troops will be covering for an assult that will kill thousands more civilians it is the most stupid action of any British Government since we stumbled into World War One. Weren't our boys going to be "Home by Christmas" then too?

The Labour Party has been suckered into supporting George Bush's government two weeks before an election when his poll ratingsd were falling. God! How Karl Rove must be laughing. What a bunch of limey suckers. It will be scripted into Bush's stump speech within the hour. "Look-I told ya' We are not alone!" will be the refrain. So, if George just wins and takes the world to the edge the Parliamentary Labour Party can go to bed thinking. "It was us that won it for George".

I just feel really ashamed that I did my bit to help them get elected in 1997. I wish I hadn't bothered.

Posted 3:12 PM by Paul
The Grammar of Mass Destruction

The Iraq Survey Group finally released its findings. Tony Blair was out of the UK... saving Africa. Bush was in purdah preparing for the second debate. He didn't do very well in the first. The Iraq report confirmed that no weapons of mass destruction existed at the time of the invasion or directly before it. Neither did any weapons programmes exist. Saddam was not therefore in breach of UN sanctions. However, it was suggested that Saddam may have re-started his weapons programme if the UN had suspended sanctions.

This was siezed on my apologists for the war as justification enough.

So we went to war on the basis of a double conditional clause . Times have changed. You used to have to have proof before invading another country.

Other language has been steadily migrating.

After the end of major hostilities Blair and Bush claimed that Iraq was now a better place. Confronted by reality the language then changed. Iraq would be a better "eventually". Now all we are left with is a co-ordinated line to take orchestrated by the Communications departments of the White House and Downing which claims that "the future of Iraq will be better" An unprovable propsotion. Nobdy and can predict the future. Of course Iraq may be a much better place come 2132.

Amongst all of this poor Ken Bigley has been beheaded. It's a sad time and difficult to see anything positive in all of this.

Posted 2:23 PM by Paul
A Greater America

A friend from LA sent me the piece below. It is most eloquent piece I have ever read on the terrifying direction in which the USA is heading. A real cry from the heart. Please pass it on, particuarly to the misguided or disengenous who equate being anti Bush with being Anti-American

E.L. Doctorow on Bush

I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty one year olds who wanted to be what they could be.On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn.He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the thousand dead young men and women who wanted be what they could be.

They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and father or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life.... they come to his desk as a political liability which is why the press is no permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his "mission-accomplished" a disaster.

He does not regret that rather than controlling terrorism his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice. He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to those who knew those costs. He did not understand that you do not go to war when it is one of the options but when it is the only option; you go not because you want to but because you have to.Yet this president knew it would be difficult for Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign dictator. He knew that much.

This president and his supporters would seem to have a mind for only one thing -- to take power, to remain in power, and to use that power for the sake of themselves and their friends. A war will do that as well as anything. You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate.And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children. He is the President who does not feel. He does not feel for the families of the dead, he does not feel for the thirty five million of us who live in poverty, he does not feel for the forty percent who cannot afford health insurance, he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills -- it is amazing for how many people in this country this President does not feel.But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest one percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the safety regulations for coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a- half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class. And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it.But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this.

I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over he world most of the time.But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.

The President we get is the country we get. With each President the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail.How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.

E.L. Doctorow

Posted 7:49 AM by Paul
Selective Elections

God Bless the BBC - they have just picked up on little reported pronouncement by Donald Rumsfelt. Rummy was indicated that January elections in Iraq may only take place in areas where the security situation is stable. Or put into English, places where their guy will win. The US Embassy in Baghdad. Great stuff. Maybe they will extend the principle to the US Presidential elections in November and restrict the poll to Texas.

Posted 7:48 AM by Paul
The Iraq War Comes Home

If anyone looks back on this blog in a hundred years time they will think that there was only one topic of debate at the start of the 21st Century in the UK.

That's the way it is. Not even Vietnam dominated the news media in the way that events in Iraq now completely saturate TV, radio and the print media. But the British weren't involved directly in Vietnam. It was something over there. Something that the Americans were doing. Young British men and women did not die in the Mekong Delta thanks to a political elite - Conservative as well as Labour - that could spot a very bad idea when they saw one. 35 years later we were not so blessed. Our involvement in Iraq and non-involvement in Vietnam was certainly nothing to do with levels of political opposition.

Opposition to the invasion of Iraq is massive and widespread across age and social class. Opposition to Vietnam was smaller and limited largely to the young white middle class. 50,00 marched on Grosvenor Square in 1968. Two million marched in London in 2003. In 1969 I went on an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sheffield with my friend John Sutton, a member of the Young Communist League [ I never joined ] I was 13 and my voice had still not broken. I must have sounded comical chanting "Victory to the NLF - Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh" in a castratto whine. There was no more than 2,000 people there. 35 years later and 40,000 people were marching in my home town against a war that they knew was about to happen, despite Blair's protestations.

Iraq is also brought home to us on a daily basis by the horror of kidnap and beheading. As I write, Kenneth Bigley, a 62 year old Liverpudlian civil engineer, is in a cellar somewhere in Baghdad wondering when he will be tied down and have his head sawn from his shoulders. Two young Americans have already suffered the same fate. His family make appeals on TV and have even managed to get a leaflet distributed in Western Baghdad in Arabic pleading for his release so that he can come home to his 87 year old mother. It is an unimaginable horror for the 21st century but all of this was not only predictable but predicted by a wide range of people from across the political spectrum. Even normally phelgmatic Iraq specialists in the Foreign Office warned of the ensueing chaos a year before the invasion. I cannot remember a time when the British political class has been so deaf to reason.

A phone-in on the BBC has just finished. A young Muslim man described his sense of total impotence. He explained that Muslims had argued, marched and lobbied but no one listened. He denounced the murderers but remembered that Muslims had warned that if you created a vacuum in Iraq something even worse would fill it. They knew what was going to happen. This was followed by the Editor of Al-Jazeera explaining that his station had a moral duty to try and help secure Ken Bigley's releases because the death of any human being in such conditions was a tragedy. A similar level of common humanity is totally lacking in the way western media players talk about innocent Iraqi casualties of allied bombing. They are just collateral damage.

So, Iraq has reverted to the politics of the 9th Century thanks to the smart bombs and dumb politicians of the USA and the UK. The BBC has just announced that two Egyptian engineers working from a US mobile telephone company have just been kidnapped. They were seized in their office in broad day light. Hostage taking has become a daily occurence. It's a growth industry.

No one can seriously expect Bush or Blair to concede to the kidnappers demands. The kidnappers don't expect them to. But neither can Bush and Blair cannot offer security to foreigners in Iraq because all available forces are engaged in bombing Falluja or securing oil installations. The whole affair has brought home how completely impotent Blair has become. He is controlled by events in Iraq as the Iraqi insurgents manipulate the news agenda. His influence in Washinton is non existent because he has served his purpose and is now surplus to requirements. After Bush is re-elected Blair will be sidelined entirely as Bush tries to mend bridges with France and Germany. Blair was moved from war leader to care worn crisis manager. After Bush wins re-election in November he will be yesterday's man.

Ken Bigley's kidnappers will of course have access to CNN, Fox and BBC News 24 to check how the story is playing out across the world. They can choose their moment to strike the fatal blow based on when it makes the most impact. Terrorism as armed propaganda. I wouldn't be surprised if something barbaric happens in Baghdad to coincide with Labour Party conference, possibly just as Blair rises to speak next Tuesday.

Bush and Blair now have two options - neither of which they can countenance. Pull out or massively increase the number and level of engagement of their forces.

Posted 7:36 AM by Paul
Cat Person

We came home late with the kids last night after a a pleasent evening at Nandos chicken joint - one piece of globalisation and corporate branding I am happy to live with. A hundred yards or so before we reached home Bart appeared from someone's garden. Bart is one of our cats. We got him from an abandoned cats refuge but we think he was born on the streets rather than being an abandoned pet and he is going back to his feral ways. He is hardly in the house and sometimes he arrives with a rat in his jaws. He doesn't like being picked up so we let him follow us home.

Just before we reached out front door a pit bull terrier shot across the road and tried to savage Bart. I shouted at the dog and thankfully Bart made it through a gap in the fence of the local garage. The dog could not follow and returned to the gang of teenagers who were looking after it. I wouldn't be surprised if they let the dog slip the leash.

I was haunted by dreams that Bart would not return. I even fretted a bit today and went out to look for him. Very odd. I used to hate cats and now one has become a surrogate wayward son.

I glowed when he came home this afternoon. I even fed him some tuna as a treat.

I am clearly gettting old and sentimental.

Posted 2:12 AM by Paul
Patriot Games

I caught the last 10 minutes of "The Patriot" starring Mel Gibson before I went to bed. I would reccomend it to anyone. It is a real hoot. Not because the English are characatured as child murderers (par for the course) but because of the positive depiction of the French.

If they filmed it in 2004 they oculd never get away with casting a Frenchman as Mel's great friend and comrade at arms in the fight for Liberty. I gather that the Frenchman had also lost children thanks to the war unleashed by the corrupt British - so the pair had an unbreakable bond. Despite the fact that huge swathes of the Brithish Army were staffed and commanded by Scots, Welsh and Irish the only accents on show were "plum in the mouth" Oxbridge English. This was topped off by the sub-plot of a freed slave who faught willingly with his former masters. One of his new white buddies says "I respect you." I half expected the black man to roll his eyes and cry out "Oh Gee Thank you Massa. Hallelujah." Of course Mel finshes off the dastardly Brit who killed his sons and sepite being ripped open with bayonets and shot he survives with no scars to show for his experience. They probably shot an ending where he died wrapped in the flag but the focus groups didn't like it so they gave the film a more upbeat ending.

Then the film strayed into the field of the Historically Correct by pointing out that the English had their escape to the sea blocked by the French Navy. The baddies surrended in a cowardly fashion. The USA owed its birth to France's desire to cause trouble for the Britain.

Maybe in future we will look back on 2003-and 2004 and thank France for its actions. Actions undoubtedly motivated to a large extent by self interest but the right actions all the same

Posted 2:03 PM by Paul
Golf Jihad

So it has come to this. Listening the golf on the radio.

But The Ryder Cup is not golf it is war and Europe has just blitzkrieged the USA at golf.

Golf - that strange game invented in Euro-Scotland.

Much as I love America and have many American friends there is something delicious about really stuffing it to the Yanks.

The moronic grunts of U-S-A from the stands [ Guys! take it easy we are not the Soviet Union ] are now drowned out by "Molly Malone" from wild Euro-Irishmen in absurd red wigs. As I listen to the last match, I can even hear the strains of the Marseillaise echoing across the greens of Michigan. Beaten by Old Euro-France. That must really hurt. Now Bush knows where he can stick his Freedom Fries.

As I write I can hear the ecstatic crowds in London demolishing McDonalds, burning Old Glory and jeering at overweight men in shorts with large cameras.

George Orwell commented that international sport was "war without the shooting". How ironic that a game played by multi-millionaires in slacks may herald the birth of a nation. A place called EuroGolf.

Posted 1:39 PM by Paul
Echoes of Vietnam

Ray's e-mail about Iraq certainly set in motion an avalanche of testomonies characterised by total despair. Old Amercian friends reffered to Bush and co. as "straight out of the Manchurian Candidate" lamenting the "irreperable damage Bush is doing to the USA. Damage which will take decades to heal" No one believes Kerry has a hope in hell of coming close, never mind winning. All of them fear for the future. The New Yorkers were the most pessimistic of all. The very same people who had suffered most were now being used by the White House to justify what they had planned all along. They must feel violated. Even the famed Jersey Girls who lost their husbands and lobbied for a full inquiry about 9-11 are being pilloried in the media as "Rock Stars of Grief" because some of them have had the temirity to come out against Bush.

Ray replied to one woman who felt that the real story of corruption and chaos in Iraq would only surface in 2005 and 2006, with memories of his own experiences as a young man in the early 70s. This is what he wrote.

I remember well having a wife and child and not wanting to be part of that war in Viet Nam and being drafted against my will when I was in good standing in law school because McNamara needed more fodder for his war, a war the bastard has publicly cried about as he made "mea culpas" in a book, interviews and speeches over thirty years after killing off almost sixty thousand young Americans and maiming another half million (Robert McNamara went on to serve as President of the World Bank, got even richer, and at age 88 this weekend he wed an Italian heirness - - a nice life for a man, like Kissinger, who belongs in prison with many others), and having had that experience of being drafted out of law school with a wife and baby, I feel my perspective is far different from that of those who were not forced to wear the uniform and kiss their wife and child good-bye at ain airpor to go off and train to fight and kill people far away.

I was lucky and drew a German assignment, missing the jungle war, but I was carefully considering going AWOL as I awaited the assignmen, going to Canada and Sweden, and I was talking to my young wife on a pay phone ever night near a trailer that sold giant beers and had a juke box that seemed to only play two songs - - Forgerty's "Bad Moon Rising" and Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay." I remember everything about that time and I do not want my nephews or the children of friends to experience such a time in their life. I was excused from basic training barracks on weekend afternoons to visit a friend I played high school football with a few years earlier, a kid who was walking point when he stepped on a mine. I remember it all well, and I don't want to compound this present mess by dragging more innocent young American kids into it.

Moments after Jimmy Carter took the oath, before he departed the platform, he signed the first document of his presidency, an ammesty for all those in Canada, Sweden, and elsewhere, and Carter was a military man. He understood the horror of the wrongs prior administrations visited on American kids.

Posted 3:30 PM by Paul
RIP Johny Ramone

Johny Ramone died today aged 55 after a long battle against cancer. He led one of the most influential bands of the 70s and 80s. As young men in a grim town in the North of England we loved their American enthusiasm and vitality. I remember the first time I heard their debut LP back in 1976. I just wanted to cheer with joy. It was the most exciting record I had ever heard. We always preferred them to the Sex Pistols who were always beligerent, negative and bitter.

You can hear the work of the Ramones every time you turn on the radio. Bands like Green Day and Blink 103 just take what the Ramones did and give it a slight twist. As is often the case with innovators The Ramones never made big money. However, they did finally get the credit they deserved. Pearl Jam and The Red Hot Chili Peppers recognised their debt to the Boys from the Bowry in a huge tribute concert earlier this year. Members of both bands were at his bedside when he died in LA earlier today.

Yes LA. Like millions of New Yorkers Johny Ramone had moved out West. But I suppose when you have cancer the Southern California weather is much kinder than 6th Avenue in a blizzard.

So for Johny, Joey and Dee Dee wherever you are or aren't, I would like you to know that thousands of middle aged men and women across the UK salute you tonight as they out reach for their copies of Blitzkreig Bop and Sheena is Punk Rocker with a tear in the eye.

You were part of the America that we loved. But lovers are lost but love is not.

Long live the Ramones.

Posted 4:38 AM by Paul
Shock and Awe

At some point I will get around to writing up the bare bones of the great holiday we had in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Les Landes and Biarritz. Holiday in Bilbao? Sounds like a contradiction in terms but we had a great night there during fiesta. It has certainly changed for the better since I spend a day there in 1982 queuing up for a temporary passport at the British Consulate. The bag containing my original documents had been destroyed up by a right wing Spanish splinter group who blew up a bar run by the Basque Nationalist Party. I had lost my bag at a fiesta when drunk and it had been handed in to the bar for safe keeping.

In Biarritz we met up with Ray and Melanie Mouton and had a great dinner down by the old fishing port. It was great to see them and share opinions and gossip. It also gave Ray and Mel the chance to get to know Alice and Emily much better. Ray despairs at what is happening in the US and send out an incendiary e-mail yesterday to a group of his contacts expressing his views. So over to you Ray.


My fellow travelers

You guys know I do not send collective mail to a group of you often and I assure you this E-mail will be brief as it only states the inexplicable obvious, I think. I am in "shock and awe" over all the stories supported by polling data that headline and contain evidence that Americans have totally tuned out the chaos, anarchy, rebellion (read: opposition to an invading army) in Iraq. Iraq is simply not on the radar screen of the average American (How can anyone ignore it?) Iraq obviously is not an important issue in the most important election in history.

Senator John Kerry is tongue tied on the issue, and the president stabs his finger in the air and pounds the podium with his fist, proclaiming Iraq to be America's finest hour in his Q.&A. sessions where those with vials of blood, proving their right wing DNA are admitted and in his outdoor rallies where protesters are swept away with the efficiency of a Gestapo operation. And I, one who ordinarily deplores the media role in the campaign, freely admit that the media is doing its job on Iraq. The lead stories in print and broadcasts daily bring Iraq to Americans and though the thing speaks for itself, the media buttresses the case by presenting the General who planned the invasion who explains Rumsfeld and company ignored the best available military advice regarding troop strength and tactics for occupation, and they bring the highest ranking Marine to the camera and print this week explaining the debacle created by the U.S. advance-retreat ploy at the outskirts of occupied cities. Do Americans only care about what happens within their borders? Do they view the people shooting at the army in Iraq as terrorists? Well, if there are terrorists in Iraq, they appeared after our arrival, after we plowed the political ground and made it a fertile place for such activity.

But, I don't think there are terrorists in Iraq, but rather Iraqis fighting >for their homeland. I hearken back to a conversation in July of '03 with Reuters photographer, Desmond Boylan, and three of his colleagues just after the four came out of Iraq. All of them had the same report, i.e., the units they were imbedded with encountered no real military opposition on the Baghdad (all the tanks they encountered were covered with canvas and had never been uncovered - - there was never any thought of using them in battles they would have lost). All of them said that everywhere they went - - Mosques, schools, hospitals, civic buildings etcetera - - there were stacks and stacks of weapons and ammunition of all kinds, and it was clear as one of them said, that the Iraqis intended to fight another day, another way. These photographers were waiting for the uprising that came later. If they knew it, obviously the U.S. military knew it.

I will sign off in shock and awe that Americans don't care about Iraq, that Bush is allowed to strike a Churchill-Patton like pose over Iraq and Kerry just >mumbles and mutters that "it's wrong."

The view from Les Pyrenees [ ed note: Top class restaurant in St. Jean Pied de Port where Ray lives ] is lovely if I just can discipline myself to be more American and tune out the greatest foreign policy/military blunder in the history of the western world.

Ray


So, I wote back to Ray and his American friends with the following


It is great to see that as old age approaches Ray is mellowing out and becoming more conservative. Handing down edicts from his mountain fastness. I am sure I spotted him on TV at the Republican Convention hanging out with Don King.

Or not.

For what it's worth my take on all of this is that Ray is right and below are a few obvious observations for you to ignore, read, be offeded by or whatever. I won't bore you all with any more of these ramblings.

Lack of Impact Iraq Disaster is Having in USA

Not really surprising when you think about it. It is so awful, so hopeless, that nobody wants to think about it. Iraq is the war equivalent of compassion fatigue when the screens are full of images of starvation from the Third World. You just want to turn off the TV and take the kids to see Shrek II.

It is a depressing fact that most of the poor US kids who are getting blown apart in Iraq (many are reservists or private contractors) are trailer park whites or urban blacks. They have very little political leverage. They are not swing voters. The whites will probably vote for Bush because they think that they have to rally round the flag. The blacks vote Democrat or do not vote or ,if they have a traffic violation, are banned from voting in Florida. That is why I doubt if

Bush will bring in the draft again. He cannot afford for eloquent white middle class kids to come back with terrible tales of incompetence and corruption. The political elite won't worry too much because their kids won't be going anywhere more dangerous than Tijuana. Gone are the days when powerful families like the Gores, the Bushs and the Kennedys expected the oldest boys to serve their country. The boys and girls of the new elite serve Mammon not Uncle Sam

The Resistance to Occupation

If you invade a country with whom you share no culture, religion or language a chunk of the population will resist with everything at their disposal. Nothing new in this. The rest will aid them or turn a blind eye. When the donkey cart with missiles under the straw arrives in front of your home you won't ask questions. You will just take the kids into the basement and pray. Every Iraqi knows that the Yanks and the Brits won't be there to protect them when the boys in hoods come knocking at the door. The "liberators" spend most of the time in their barracks - because they are ordered to do so. Things are bad. Tet offensive excepted - the Viet Kong did not get close to the centre of Saigon until the final stages of the war. The Iraqi insurgents already control whole swathes of the capital. US troops just don't go there. The next stage will be from the manual of Soviet resistance to the Germans. They will start siezing the arsenal of the enemy and turn it against them. Before anyone gets to angry at the analogy, we should remember that the Soviet Partisans were a ruthless bunch of killers. They executed thousands of collaborators and torched their villages.

Hunkering Down

A phrase used by several US and British apologists for this mess. As in " we have to just stick this out, hunker down and let the new Iraqi forces get bedded in so the re-construction can continue". Russia tried the same in Afghanistan. Whoops. The re-construction of Iraq has not even started. Electricity supplies in Baghdad are worse now that 6 months after the first Gulf War. We are making Saddam look good.

The forces of the new Iraq are a PR stunt. No serious commentator believes they are anything more than a token force. They don't even have the kid of hardware given to the short lived South Vietnamese Army. This is exactly where Osama Bin Laden wants the US. Presenting a target of opportunity without the political will to engage and protect Iraqis. This is what Al Quaida guessed would happen. Neither the President nor the Prime Minister can afford to pay the political price for the kind of military casualties that would flow from a real engagement on the ground with the enemy. A "clean" air war cannot deliver the political objectives. Every time a Black Hawk or a British jet blows up a house and decapitates a child another family joins the war against the foreigners.. The war has so far has gone strictly to plan for Osama and the Boys. Straight from the terrorist play book. They must be really happy. They attack the USA and murder 3,000 people with a bunch of Saudis and Egyptians and Bush and Blair attack the Iraqis - their principle enemy in the region. Perfect.

International Co-operation

This is the new buzz phrase. We are told that the French, Germans and Russians should "not fight yesterday's battles" and that we all need to "move on". Roughly translated this means, "Look the whole street is on fire can you help us put it out because errrr it's got a bit out of control. We didn't think it would turn out like this and we are kind of broke" Naturally most of Europe with Spain in the front rank is saying.

" Sorry guys, it's your problem. Check the UK Charter for details of the responsibilities of occupying powers."

EU support of an open ended expensive occupation would also cause a run against the Euro on the money markets. Financiers hate risks which cannot be predicted.

Money

Bush needed to occupy Iraq because he could not go to the polls in 2004 with Saddam in power and 9-11 un-avenged. But he needed someone to pick up a big share of the tab because of the historically huge deficits created by the tax cuts for Dick Cheney and the Frat Pack. Added to this is the little matter of OPECs suggestion that they may move to selling oil in Euros not dollars. Saddam thought this was an excellent idea and like a fool said so. If this ever happens the Federal Reserve could no longer just print more dollars to meet US energy needs. They would have to buy Euros and if the dollar fell , inflation and unemployment could rise sharply in the US. Who said Herbert Hoover?

The Co-alition of the Willin'

More like a co-alition of the 'illin' dude. This is a US War supported by Blair. In times gone by, the foreign policy of Turkey was written in Washington. Two days ago the Turks announced that if the US did not stop bombing ethic Turkmen in Northern Iraq they would cease all co-operation with the US. Newt Gingrich (remember him?) was on TV live from the Green Zone that Republicans established in New York for the purposes of scaring their allies shitless. Newt was in full on BIG LIE mode. Two whoppers

1. " We have many allies in the region. Only Iran and Syria oppose us and that is to be expected."

OK name them! Israel and…..? The Republicans are fixated by French opposition but Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Russia also opposed the war. I mean, even Mexico and Chile opposed a 2nd resolution to authorise for war. At one time these were client states.

2. " There were far bigger demonstrations against Ronald Regan in Europe than against George Bush

Sorry Newt. I was there. Not true The people who opposed Regan were the usual suspects of long haired shabby radicals and socialists. People like me. I was on the anti-Reagan demonstrations (organised by the Labour Party - Blair was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at the time.) in the early 80s. These were huge demos of up to 150,000 people but we were booed by builders and Conservative hecklers as we marched. Police jeered and shouted "Get Back to Moscow". Nearly all the press was pro-Reagan / Thatcher. Twenty years later, older fatter and dressed in a suit I joined the anti-Bush / Blair demos. It took over 6 hours to pass down the broadest streets in London. 2 million people at least. No heckling from dissenters and the police were helpful. They even called me "Sir" and let me through the crowd barrier so that I did not have to walk around the House of Commons. Girls dressed for what looked like a shopping exhibition with nice hand bags and immaculate hair and nails chanting "Drop Blair Not Bombs". To give you an impression of the size of the demonstration consider this. My wife Heather joined the demo at 11.00 a.m. marched for 2 hours and came home. I then left the house half an hour away from the demo and marched for another 3 hours.
Right wing commentators like Max Hastings who are still fiercely pro-Thatcher are going into print in the Times and the London Evening Standard under headlines like " We Were Misled" and " It pains me to say it but…the French were right"

Things are certainly changing this side of the Atlantic. I think Bush will just win, possibly with a minority of the popular vote but even if he does stay the White House there will be no rapproachment. Europe is set on a different course and Blair is heading for the dumper. As for Kerry, he not making much of an impression over here but even many Conservatives want him to win. The poll rating of the Conservative leader rose as soon as he started criticising the White House. The fact is that if Europe were voting for a US President the Democrats would sweep the board even if Charles Manson and OJ Simpson were on their ticket

Solution to this Mess

Yes…. that's two chili dogs, nachos with extra cheese, 3 large sodas and a family ticket for Garfield the Movie please.

Posted 10:20 AM by Paul
Election Fever

I get more excited about US than UK elections. Well there is so much more at stake, particularly now that Dick Cheney wants to rule the world and share the spoils between members of his old frat house. My friend Chris has threatened to gag me - as I drone on and on about it and ruin perfectly good conversations. Heather reminds me constantly that Bush cannot hear me when I shout at the TV. But it makes me feel better all the same.

So, I thought I would make myself a hostage to fortune and share my thoughts with the blogosphere.It all hangs on Ohio. The pollsters are predicting that the three main states to win are Penn. Fla and Ohio. Kerry to win Penn as the President is trying to close it down and sell it cheap to Halliburton. Bush will win Florida by the ploy of preventing anyone with wiry hair and natural sense of rhythm from voting unless they are called Don King. A recent change in Florida law gives Cuban Americans 5 votes each and you only get hurricane relief if you are Born Again.

So it is down to Ohio. My gut felling is that Kerry will win the poplar vote by 500K but Bush will take the Electoral College - just. This reported 11 point Bush lead has already been denounced as a scam by Gallup and others. Kerry needs to develop a sense of humour before the debates. Righteous indignation excites the core but not the floaters. Various major media players having a major pop a Bush on his record in the National Guard. By all accounts the boy was out on the razzle all the time, which is great if only he were not lecturing other people about doing their duty. But it means that the Frat boy vote is safe. The idea is that other guys from trailer parks and projects who are not members of of Omega-Delta should go and fight and die for their President whilst they have keg parties. The story circulating is that Bush bunked off a training exercise designed to counter a surprise attack on the USA - ironic or what?

Clinton will I feel do something come late October, possibly in Arkansas from a wheelchair or iron lung surrounded by crippled children and puppy dogs. The heart attack is a god send for the Dems. He is now forgiven for his sex sleaze as illness has conferred some kind of secular sainthood on the flawed genius. Clinton will milk his heart attack for every vote. Gag Gore. It is a shame but his just too bitter. He needs to move on by offering to lead the Labour Party, but he is too left wing to get the job. All this is up in the air if Kerry is assonated by an NRA activist in which case Edwards to win by a landslide and Bush to be court marshaled in 2005 as a deserter

P.S get ready for the Soviet Union to be re-branded and re- launched.

P.P.S My good friend Tom Watson MP is up in Hartlepool working his guts out when he should be having a rest where the rather sad and lonely Peter Mandelson has just stood down to take an important job with the EU (Brussels - they will have anyone). The bye-election in in three weeks. My worry for Tom is that he will help Labor secure a third term with a reduced majority but lose his own seat. Then the people who he helped will conveniently forget his contribution ot the cause. Tom if you are reading this - Go back to your home base and prepare for battle.

Posted 3:59 PM by Paul
Family Life

Mum died a year ago today and just like this time last year the weather has been perfect. At some point I intend to extend the short eligy I wrote for her to include bits that could not have been read out in church.

On the one hand it seems like mum died last week and on the other it seems like she belongs to a distant age. Her memory a beautiful myth. I had thought of doing something to commemorate her death but it just didn't seem right. Instead I decided to have a family day in and take the kids for a picnic in the local park, which in many ways would have been a fitting commemoration of her life because she was always put family first.

I say, "would have been" because we had to abandon the picnic after a few minutes because Emily was stung by a wasp. She was very brave about it and it wasn't too serious as we were only a few minutes from home. Heather applied the anti sting cream and Ems was fine. We then decided to go for a swim but could not get in the pool as they has already reached capacity due to the hot weather and the fact that one of the life guards had not turned up. This often happens when there is a heatwave. Insurance contracts limit them to a ratio of 30 swimmers per life guard so I explained to Emily that we would go another day and I would buy her a comic to make up for missing swimming. "Good idea!" she exclaimed. It's the kind of thing my dad used to do when things went wrong, buy some chocolate or a comic and the world was instantly put to rights. The comic included a free sparkly skipping rope so she was very happy.

Emily and Alice are in bed and I am sat hear reflecting on parenthood and thinking of my mum and dad, content in the knowledge that, for me at least, there is nothing better than family life.

At the other side of Europe in Southern Russia people like me and Heather are burying their children in the aftermath of the attack on the school in North Ossetia. Others are wandering the streets disconsolately holding up pictures of their kids holding out the faint hope that they are in a hospital somewhere and not in the smoldering ruins of the school's gymnasium. That is what we would all do, cling to every last fragment of hope in a world that seems to be returning to the middle ages.

The attackers clearly had no intention of releasing the children and started killing adults almost as soon as they had taken control of the school. They had no real demands. They were seeking Armageddon. They even intentionally prevented the children from drinking or eating to add to the hell. De-hydrated, unconscious children are more difficult to rescue and easier to slaughter.
The people behind the attacks want to start an inter-communal war and provoke reprisals on Moslem communities in Chechnya and beyond. There is clear method in their horrific actions.
It is a tactic straight out of the 13th Century. Some Moslems might say straight out of the Crusades.

It seems strangely naive now to remember how hopeful we all were when the Berlin Wall came down. It felt like the dawn of a new age, free from the fear of nuclear war that had formed the backdrop to our lives and rid of the awful political system that had tortured millions.

Since the Wall came down, over 100,00 people have died in former Yugoslavia, Chechnya and the Caucusus. Perhaps the end of cruel totalitarian communism was not entirely a good thing after all. No one knows where all this will lead. A new Stalinism probably. Geo-politics aside you just wonder what kind of world your kids will grow up into - if indeed they are allowed to grow up at all.

Next week the kids move to another after- school club (the one at their school is over-crowded and bullying is rife) which is a 10 minute walk from their school gates. Alice will walk there with Emily three days a week through fairly quiet streets over one pedestrian crossings. I was doinf for more dangerous trips when I was 6. But still I worry. The kids see it as a great adventure, but both me and Heather are already having anxiety dreams.

So tonight, I will go up to check them one last time and think about my mother and fatter - thankful that all their sons and daughters survived them and that they died in bed.

Posted 2:52 AM by Paul
Moving On

Not blogged for a while. It's been a busy time and we have just got back from a short break in Ireland.

I handed in my notice at work just before we went away. It's a great feeling to be moving on and experience the thrill of a new challenge. I am off to work for my old boss at the Millennium Dome. She is the director of a big live events and - to use the marketing jargon - brand experience company. She was also one of the few people to come out of the debacle with any credit. I will be one of the team running a big careers and vocational educational expo in London called SkillCity.

It is a short term contract on good money but if I make a success of it could lead to long term prospects. Permanency in employment is largely a chimera. Large organisations like the one I have worked for since 2001 re-structure every two years following a "strategic review" by consultants. A swathe of middle managers are made redundant and their jobs re-branded with subtly different titles and responsibilities.

The new outfit are part of a larger group of companies including Interbrand and they have already brought me in on the discussions to revitalise and re-brand Blackpool. For any Americans reading this, Blackpool is a northern seaside resort, which used to attract millions of visitors but is now going through a bad time. As sleazy as Coney Island but with none of the charm.

The city fathers backed by some major investors are trying to put together package including casinos and gambling, which they hope will make the town more like Atlantic City and less like Hell. We were there a couple of years ago for mum's 80th birthday and had a great old time of it - when we were in the hotel. We ventured out with the kids around 3.00 p.m. and within an hour saw a blind drunk man laying in a horse trough dressed as a woman - stag night excesses - and another charging £4 to have your photograph taken with his Boa Constrictor. Blackpool Tower had discount shops in the units at its base and the shops were full of blow up dolls and sex toys. No exactly family entertainment. Added to that gangs of young men with 1000 yard stares roamed the streets bumping into holiday makers - "Watch where ya f*****g going !" screamed one. Again the stag night phenomenon. Not so much sleazy as positively menacing.
So, helping turn the place into somewhere ordinary people want to go will be quite a challenge. I start in October but I am fitting in a few days before then.

Ireland was a welcome break from the noise and dirt of the city but I am glad to be back. After a few days in the country a kind of melancholy sets in. We stayed with Kate and Finbar, a couple of friends who live close to us in London. Finbar inherited the family farmhouse when his mother died and still keeps it on. His brother works the land part time in the farm next door. Given that Finbar is the Deputy Director of a museum in London and Kate works as a social worker it's remarkable that the place feels like a real home and not just a holiday bolt hole. They are clearly routed in West Cork but have no intention of moving back in the near future.

The six days featured some great highlights:

Watching the kids pick blackberries down country lanes.

Visiting a Faerie Fort - a circular Iron Age settlement on Finbar's family land with the Fastnet lighthouse blinking in the distance.

Swimming with Alice in the surf at Barley Cove on the South West tip of Ireland

Watching Emily catch crabs in rock pools with Eoin , Kate and Finbar's five year old boy

Swimming in the peaty water hole under the bridge with the kids.

A visit to Levis's a tiny pub and shop run by two Irish spinsters in their 90s

Two hours body surfing on the Red Strand with Emily and Alice and a big gang of Irish girls from Tipperary. Emily laughing as the water splashed over her head. This was followed by supper with Kathleen and Kevin. Friends of Kate and Finbar's since they were in university. Kevin is a civil engineer and Kathleen is a Labour member for the Irish Senate. Despite having respect for Blair as a communicator she asked the question " I mean he flew over to America after 9/11 and made out he was the Leader of Europe without even asking the boys"…by which she meant the other EU heads of state. Well said. But then she asked a larger question.

" But perhaps democratic countries get the leaders they deserve. the ones that reflect the wider culture". She has a point.

So now it is back to two days at the new job and we fly out to Bilbao for the 2nd leg of the family holiday on Wednesday. I hope we will have more luck with the flights. The plane to Cork went in low and tried to land twice but poor visibility meant we had to pull out. The landing gear was down so we must have been blow around 3,000 feet. I was grimacing, the kids were laughing and Heather as ever was cool. I am sure she even managed a short nap as it came in for the second time. Worst case scenarios were going through my mind but I am sure that if I panicked Heather would leap up slap me across the face and shout, "Pull yourself together man"

Eventually the plane landed at Shannon 100 miles away and we returned to Cork by coach.
It's strange. When I was 30 I was relaxed when flying and scare of the sea. Now it's the other way round