Go Fourth And...

This time last year, a poll was published that showed even Ming Campbell (remember him) had a higher popularity rating than David Cameron - though of course a much lower one than the all-conquering Gordon Brown, then bestriding the political world like a colossus. A year is a long time... But all is not lost - Prezza and the heavy mob (if you're feeling at all queasy, don't follow that link) have a plan to save Broon and Labour. (The Go Fourth slogan is not one of Prezza's slipups, by the way, but a tremendously witty play on words.) Big John was blustering away on the Today programme this morning - just like old times - and his analysis of the current crisis was typically incisive: It was 'caused by the global'. Of course it was.

Londoners

I recently acquired, at a knockdown price (thanks, AbeBooks), a copy of Londoners, written by Maurice Gorham (author of the equally desirable The Local and Back to the Local) and illustrated by the great Edward Ardizzone. The illustrations - which are wonderful - are at least half the point of the book, but the text offers fascinating glimpses of London life in the 1950s and before (it was published in 1951). In his introduction, Gorham looks back over how the ways of Londoners changed between the wars and after the second spot of bother, observing, for example, that in the Thirties, 'even in the City you could see tweed' (if only that were still true), and, startlingly, noting a widespread abandonment of hats by both men and women before 1939. This is odd, as in my recollections of a Fifties childhood, men were invariably wearing hats or caps and the bareheaded look seemed slightly louche.
Now, with the brand spanking new model London taxis spontaneously combusting all around us, I'm put in mind of a Gorham anecdote from wartime, when you never knew where the next bomb was going to land. After his cab was rocked by an explosion too close for comfort, a London cabbie remarked: ''E'll do that once too often one of these days.' That's the spirit.

Too Big to Save?

So, as Lloyds TSB gobbles up HBOS, creating one huge megabank (which holds the greater part of the Nige pelf, such as it is), I have one simple observation.
If HBOS was too big to be allowed to go under, this one will be the same with bells on - which means it can basically do what it likes with a vast pool of money, regardless of the consequences. But here's the rub - it might also be too big to save. In which case LloydsTSBHBOS could bring down a huge chunk of the economy with it.
Sorry - no more apocalyptic thoughts from me today. Promise.

On the Bright Side...

It's Hank Williams's birthday. He would have been 85 today. It still seems astonishing that he was only 29 when he died - he looked 20 years older, he seemed to have lived several lifetimes of heartache (and moments of happiness), and he left behind him a body of work as great and as unshakably classic as any in American popular music. Happy birthday, Hank, wherever you are...

Listening, Responding, Acting

This, probably, is what we should really be worrying about - especially as it's already too late to do much about it. Remember those Heath era power cuts when we were only allowed electricity for so many hours a day? That could well be where we're heading - and/or into hock with those nice obliging Russians...
Meanwhile, my local (Lib Dem ecofascist) council - one of the first in the land to introduce fortnightly collections of household rubbish (this was years ago), only to retreat in the face of furious protests - has now done it again. This year they tried to charge everyone for having their garden waste taken away (previously a 'free' service), charging £35 a year for a kind of green hessian shoulderbag to cram it into. Not surprisingly, there was almost no take-up of this generous offer, the local tips were soon jammed with cars loaded to the gunwales with garden waste, there were furious protests - and, yesterday, a jaunty green leaflet on my doormat informing me that the scheme had been withdrawn. And, of course, claiming the credit for 'Listening, Responding, Acting'.
Join the dots between these two stories, and what do you find? The EU setting ludicrous targets - for 'renewable energy' and for 'recycling' - our government obligingly falling in with their crazy plans, then discovering just how unworkable they are and what deep trouble they've landed us in. Still, it'll be good having my garden refuse taken away 'free' again.

One Week On...

As a man grows older (or indeed a woman) time is supposed to accelerate and start whizzing by at a rate of knots (eheu fugaces etc.), but personally I find the reverse happening. The nearer I draw to my narrow home, the slower are the footsteps of Time. Looking back, a week ago feels like a month, a month like half a year...
Consider this day last week. There we were, congratulating ourselves on having survived those CERN boffins' rash experiment and celebrating Artie Tripp's 64th. Now, one week on, we live in a changed world, it seems, with international finance apparently in meltdown and nobody capable of wresting their gaze from the ghastly spectacle. A week is a long time in... well, in just about anything these days. For myself, I assume a zen-like calm in the face of this particular meltdown, much as I used to do in my youth when in the front seat of a car beside a suicidally, homicidally crazy driver (there were plenty of them in those days). Relax, switch off, what else can you do? Last night the boss of HBOS was on the TV news, dressed in a spectacularly ill-fitting suit and shirt, unkempt, sweating and half-shaven, incompetence coming off him like heat, as he blustered and flustered his way ineffectually through a brief interview. This is worrying, I suppose (I'm a customer) - but it would probably be more worrying if the boss was a supersmooth, suave conman in an immaculate Savile Row suit. Either way - what can you do?
Meanwhile, somewhere under the Swiss-French border, those particles are still gathering speed, all unnoticed by the world... As the man said, not with a bang but a whimper.

Re-Entry

Sorry - the return to NigeCorp and its attendant, all too familiar woes, after a week of freedom, has put me, temporarily, in a most un-blog-like frame of mind. Normal posting will be resumed soon, I'm sure...