Lessons From History

The 1945-51 Labour Government which inherited the largest structural deficit- not that this actually matters- and debt in UK history and proceeded to deal with this by creating the National Health Service, nationalising the coal and steel industry and embarking upon the most far-reaching house-building programme of any UK government. What they did essentially was to repair the economy through full employment, by circulating the available money and by achieving growth through investment. This is where the opportunity presented by the infrastructure failings we have at present should have been, I thought, immediately apparent.

The coalition are choosing a different tactic, one of shrinking the economy (VAT cuts hitting expenditure, wholesale redundancies preventing money circulation, cancelling the school-building programme in order to fund their 'free schools' (for selected kids in affluent areas) programme and opening up the NHS to speculators from here and abroad) and hoping that the private sector will grow sufficiently to not only make up the shortfall but also to pay off the second largest debt in UK history. And where does that public sector growth come from? Well, as no-one here will have much money it will have to come from abroad. But with the EU (by far our biggest customer for exports) in much the same boat then it can't come from abroad either.

It's a conundrum isn't it?

The Stone Roses: My Part In Their Downfall.

I have a terrible record with the Roses; I was at Spike Island (which was the penultimate gig before Reni left), I saw them at Wembley Arena (the last gig before John left) and I was at the Reading festival gig (the last they ever did and one of the most heartbreaking events of my life).

It was almost like a countdown: two to go, one to go, none to go, gone!

I also happened to stumble into the press mobbing them outside Wolverhampton Magistrates Court after the Silvertone/paint court case.

I blame myself. You always hurt the ones you love.

Hangin' With Howard Marks

Here I am with the rest of the Squad meeting Howard Marks after his evening in the Adam and Eve Digbeth. This was taken on my phone's camera and the quality is a disappointment.

I'm wearing a Fred Perry bomber jacket that Laura complains sounds like rustling paper. It's a pretty stiff cotton and needs to wear in is all.

Silvio Berlusconi

Speaking about the Italian Government's refusal to fund scientific research, the curiously dark-haired megalomaniac and serial user of prostitutes stated "Why do we need to pay scientists when we make the best shoes in the world?".

He may be corrupt, stupid, spiteful and racist but you can argue that he has a point: England might be world leaders in pharmaceutical research but we also have ShoeZone and Brantano.

Self-Portrait (with ineptitude)

The idea of this picture was to see how massive my Vespa Italia helmet looked on me (open-face helmets always look massive but massive is, like everything else, a matter of degree) but I was too busy fiddling with the steering lock to pose in time for the self-timer on my phone's camera. I was delighted with the happy accident that is the almost perfect obscuration in the shot though.