Promise Of The Day Second

Hard on the heels of the Inheritance Tax and related giveaways, originally introduced to curb inequalities of wealth, comes the news that leading parties will give free funerals to all.  Not only that but in the spirit of diversity mortality will not mean loss of human rights.

So those wishing to communicate with their once nearest and dearest, or at least relatives will be entitled to claim for the cost of mediums, spiritualists and shamans.  Cameron will assert that he will table the new laws immediately on being returned to office in that Osborne's Treasury already has the relevant expertise.

The Labour Party will take the view that as their policies and practices are already ancient they are the ones to be entrusted.  The Lib Dem's will want to abolish death and replace it with life eternal in the freezer.  The Green's are divided as to whether dust should return to dust or adopt the Parsi methods of disposal.

The SNP view is that an open door policy is the way forward or backward.  In the absence of oil, industry or other forms of work Scotland could welcome the world's deceased.  Also, they would want to repatriate all Scots or their descendants who died abroad.  This would give a huge boost to public spending and the economy.

Jame's Skinner of Skinner's Horse could return from Delhi and John Russell Colvin with his tomb from the Red Fort at Agra could be placed on the lawns of Balmoral Castle as a major tourist attraction overlooking all the wind farms.

Scotland could become the dead centre of the world.

Aintree Races A Fine Day Out

There has been a lot of excited comment and titillating photo's in the media of members of the plebeian classes, notably female, taking over the Aintree Races for their amusement.

So, what's new?  

Above is a 1937 picture of the patrician classes who also liked a bevvy or ten on a good day out at the races.  I was there, at least down on the Melling Road, when the Royal Car went past and was told got a cheerful wave and smile from the lady.

Sadly, the memory has been lost.  Perhaps I had a few lemonades too many.

Promise Of The Day

Instead of trying to keep up with tidal wave of promises this is an attempt to get in first.

Today's promise is that every pensioner will have their own nominated chiropodist and a new agency will be created to manage this service.

The leaders of the parties will pledge that they will really put their foot into it.

Scottish Labouring

Scottish Labour are up in Edinburgh for a love in and making promises and the rest.  But what is the reality?

Try this bit of real fun from the film "Bandwagon" at two and a half minutes on triplets.

It will be time well spent.

The Times They Are A'changing

Things change and can change fast.  If anything the pace, nature and extent of change has been on the increase and is not letting up.  There are those who promote and seek change, often because they see benefit from them.  Others put up with it and many others resent it.

We were made aware that on the Left there are those who believe in and want "creative destruction" in society and the economy because of theories that this can only be for the better, at least for those doing the creating.  What is manifest among these is a lack of awareness or understanding of the unintended consequences and they pretend certainty where there is none.

For others there are those again who look out for it, some of whom want it, others accepting that it is a necessary condition of human life that things cannot stay the same.  But changes can be big or small with the kick that a lot of small ones can make a big one.

Inevitably, now many corporations and businesses have got into the change business if only to attempt survival or to be in the position of controlling change for their own purposes.  There seems to be a new way of looking at this.

This article on the subject  from Project Syndicate under the title of "Creative Self-Disruption" is not long but heavy in the wordage at points.

One brief quote says:

Finally, the micro-level forces that have the potential to drive segment-wide transformations should be internalized at every level of the company.

Unquote.

Or briefly it can be the little things that turn out to mean a lot in the way the business or a particular market works.  At the moment we are being told by our prospective rulers that they will allow us to stay the same and have what we have but their governments will change all those things which certain interests want to be changed.

One way or another it will not cost most of us anything and we will all be a lot better off because either the rich will pay or we will all be so rich we will not notice the taxes or something like that. Governments are now looking to borrow huge sums of money on the premise that people will get back much less than they lend.

Circles will be squared and for those who do not want squares then ovals or oblongs will be provided by the government.

What was all that about mens sana in corpore sano?

Blair Backs Up Miliband

Tony Blair has descended from heaven or is it this or that 'stan to the East where he keeps his gold mine?

He says he is backing Ed Miliband 100%.  We have heard this kind of thing before, "Your are doing a great job, we are right behind you Caesar!" is one.

The other famously is the line in that epic "Carry On Cleo" where Kenneth Williams, as Caesar, above, cries, "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy!"

They don't make them like that any more.

How Can We Know The Dancers From The Dance?

"Sell in May and go away" is an adage from the past referring to stock market strategies.  "Sell in April and go to the Devil" does not have quite the same ring but is something we might consider.  In the UK we have a fractured administration but not a Parliament for the next month at least.

In the USA and elsewhere there are political uncertainties that are the culmination of many others and real decisions are avoided.  The creation of the Chinese led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is said to herald the end of US world supremacy.  It might, on the other hand if the investment is not true investment it might just the cause of a another global bust.

For the state of California the New York Times now asks if endless growth had ended and if the economic effects of drought with other trends may mean that this agent of US growth is now another place needing support and subsidy.  If the dry period continues it may well be that the Governor has done too little too late.

There is a lot of pessimism around together with a realisation of the uncertainties arising from too many wars and conflicts together with too much debt and other liabilities.  The way these have been patched over with banks and governments lending each other money and back again is not sustainable however many would like it to be.

There are many experts who fear that another fuse is about to blow and it could be bigger and more brutal than the last one.  The battle to promise spending and declaim unpopular adjustments to finances may make matters worse.  Our present austerity could turn out to be the last gasp of a golden age in comparison with what is to come.

    

Among the many what if's in the UK ignored at the moment is the value of the pound.  If there is a changed situation after May and at the same time the markets become more variable, just as the pound may go up it can go down, a "Black Swan" event of this kind can happen.

Let us say to roughly parity with the Euro.  If there is a left wing Europhile coalition in place, what price them deciding to join the Euro to hoorahs from some parts of business at least?  Never mind the propaganda tirades coupled with the hard man soft man threats and promises.

As a coda to this has been the news that the recent run of the production of the Royal Ballet classic "Swan Lake" is the last, picture above.  What a new production might be like we do not know. It might be one essentially classic, but simplified with a lot of the "business" taken out and replaced by more concentration on the principals.

At the other extreme there will be pressure to have one that reflects our present times and obsessions.  It could be set in Norris Green, Liverpool, currently listed as among the most deprived parts of the UK.

There is a lake there in Walton Park which once had swans.  You could do a production that reflects local gang activities, a grossly dysfunctional community and the destruction of nature in the area with all the now compulsory sex and violence.

So in the worlds of finance, international politics and ballet we might all start with a Black Swan but finish with a lot of dead ducks.