Who Is Nigel Farage?

One of the problems I have with UKIP is Nigel Farage.  Quite what the real policies are and would be if they had power or major influence are not clear to me.

Also I have this interest in forage, which is close in spelling.  Before you assume wild things what it is about is military logistics before motorised transport became common and then basic.

What was required was horses plus other pack carrying animals.  They needed forage.  So no forage meant no horses etc.  No horses etc. meant no effective logistics with direct effects on how armies moved, fed themselves and many other things, not least cavalry.

Think Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812.  Once they had eaten the horses and indeed all the leather tack etc. and had a long way to go they were in real trouble.

So what has all this to do with Nigel Farage now leading UKIP into a situation where if the gods really do have a sense of humour he might have a critical influence on who governs and how?

As they gain more support they have to be more active and have many more candidates.  This takes resources and also needs a raft of policies to sustain their impetus.  In short, political forage.

At the moment they are struggling to do this and like an army needing food are scouring the land for what they can find to sustain their efforts.  While this is going on Nigel has to say something. 

So at present he is complaining about everything that comes to mind.  This has the risk of being accused of all the "ists" that attract protest and dislike.  On the other hand he has become the voice of the fed up and all those disgusted about this and that.

Now he is our Grumpy, and the one from "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" and distinct from the Mr. Grumpy of the Mr. Men.  The snag is that like the dwarfs at the end of it all UKIP will still be digging.

Snow White will be left with the cooking and cleaning, the Prince will have moved to Brussels and the Evil Queen of corporate finance will still be in charge.

Who Is Ed Miliband?

At first sight he looks harmless, indeed almost likable.  You could imagine him behind the counter of an old fashioned department store trying to oblige.  But wanting to get rid of unwanted stock.

In the old days this might have been the sort of superior store that required newly recruited young male assistants to have passed the old Schools Certificate examination.

Then this put them in the elite levels for education in that promotion to junior or even higher  management might be attainable.

For some, it never happened and they spent their working lives behind the counters, superior only to the female assistants and with nowhere else to go.

They are a breed long gone.  Often the failure to progress was that although academically able in practical terms they were not very good.

Often the urge to please let them to promise more than they should have done.  Also, the need to impress led to extremes that made them look foolish.

If you encountered a shop man of this kind, or his parallel working in a local authority, who did not really know what he was doing and on the occasions he did know something, somehow or another made mistakes, you would know he was a Goofy.

This was a Disney character who over the years moved from one context to another.  Always a nice guy, apparently sparky, but whose thinking mechanisms could not really cope with the challenges of life.

Ed Miliband comes across in this way.  Hapless, disorganised, clever but accident prone and never knows where he put the other shoe.

Yet now he leads the Labour Party and might even make it to 10 Downing Street to become Prime Minister.

So Goofy might well run the store after all.

Who Are Cameron And Osborne?

Pairings may be planned, accidental or arise from special circumstances.  In the case of Cameron and Osborne which is open to question.  But like it or not, when the histories are written they will be linked together for better or for worse.

The writers will have their own say on who became richer and who became poorer as a result of their efforts.  But their time in office has been a quest for success in the hope that it would lead to not just winning the next election but gaining real power.

Yet this level of success had eluded them.  For all the spouting of figures and great claims and striking of poses there isn't much to show for it and what there is all seems to create losses and major liabilities for the future.

Which brings to mind the ineffable efforts of the team of Dick Dastardly and his associate hound, Muttley and their super rocket car The Mean Machine and The Double Zero.  In the series Wacky Races this was by far the fastest car.

Unluckily, because of their own duplicity, hastiness and errors of judgement, they always lost, often staggering in last and falling apart.  In short they defeated themselves.

Later, they turn up as major figures in the "Dastardly and Muttley And Their Flying Machines", also known as "Stop The Pigeon" where their unceasing and strenuous efforts lead to one disaster after another.  To quote Wikipedia:

Quote:

Often it appears that if Dastardly had not bothered to cheat, then he might have won fairly. Upon tasting defeat, Dastardly would utter his catchphrases, "Drat!!! Drat!!! And Double Drat!!!", "Triple Drat!" and even "Curses, foiled again!"

This is often followed by Muttley's snickering. His other main catchphrase was "Muttley, do something!"

Unquote.

The hot money says Penelope Pitstop or the pigeon in May.

Who Is Nick Clegg?

Nick is man who does not seem to get things quite right.  He is prone to being argumentative and intractable and to do things that make little sense even in terms of his own interest.

As Leader of the Liberal Democrats he has obstructed Democracy and been very illiberal at times.

He reminds me of the character of Count Duckula, the juvenile delinquent vampire duck doomed to be the Count Dracula of our times by some freak of circumstance, much as to his surprise Nick became Deputy Prime Minister in 2010.

He is attended by Igor, the bad tempered and surly put upon butler who is more logical but often equally misguided but unlucky enough to be on the wrong end of the Count's scrapes.  Think Vince Cable.

The person who cares for the young Count is his Nannie a large, formidable, very clumsy lady who leaves a trail of destruction in her wake in her ambition to be useful, concerned and the maker of decisions.  Think Danny Alexander.

If you know this cartoon character and the shambles he invariably leaves around him then you have Nick Clegg.

Music Of The Microchip

No sooner have you more or less adapted to one change then another comes along which may be more disruptive or a cause of upheaval.  This is more or less the story of very many during the 20th Century.

Going in the 21st Century, the pace of change seems to be increasing  Just as you need to know the difference between simple interest and compound interest you have to accept that change on change can be even more disruptive than in the past.

There are a few who have little interest in any kind of music.  Some have a wide interest and enjoy many different kinds without worrying too much.  Typically, however, the larger groups may well be those who identify with a limited range and within them some with very closely defined likes.

In the mid 20th Century in the popular fields there came the big providers.  Some were large companies selling the sound.  There were in many places state TV and radio all too often telling people what would be popular.  These came to control provision and taste to a high degree.

This could be very odd in some cases, notably at BBCTV in the 1950's and beginning of the 1960's, sometime called by them laughably a TV golden age. They went strong on Minstrel shows inherited from pre-war Radio committees who decided on popular tastes.

Also there were strange programmes set in alleged night club settings to persuade the workers they were part of it.  There was the White Heather Club, supposed to be the cutting edge of Scottish culture, at least the tunes were decent.  Dear Zeus there were even Boy Scout Gang Shows.

It was baffling.  Certainly for my generation in their teens there were several fields of preference but it wasn't these, Minstrel shows were very boring and very old fashioned.  Even for my parents generation they were of the past, big band dance music and American and then film musicals were the thing.

It was no wonder when commercial ITV began the viewing figures for the BBC tanked so badly the licence fee was in serious jeopardy and with it the BBC as a whole.  They then rushed into pop' and other programming chasing the market.

The reign of the big companies and associated radio and TV has lasted a long time if you consider the changes in the technology.  But now the of the microchip and the huge power of the net and new devices it could be about to change and do so quickly and extensively in the last decade.

The sounds we hear in ordinary life have changed radically in that time.  These are many and various and most arising from life as it is.  There are other sounds, some of choice and intent and while we think they are the same it is becoming very different.

The music world of the recent past may be about to disintegrate and this in turn will bring about major structural changes.  How far any of these might amount to social change is another matter.  It may mean less togetherness and more apartness.

It could mean that we can all be a lot more flexible and even open to new sounds as a matter of routine.  Because when you can spend your own time hopping about and trying things it is a lot easier than when you are urged or forced in a particular direction.

But some things do last and ride out the storms.  The tune here is the Canarios and the modern video set a long time ago.

But if you listen for it you can still hear the tune in many places and many ways.

We Are All The Losers

The shocking events in France and the tragic loss of lives is a main story in the media but the blanket media coverage once again is simplistic in its treatment and analysis.

I can only hope that our leaders are not thinking along some of these lines, because if they do they will not understand the implications and that it is a matter of great complexity straddling borders.

One of the themes is that because the terrorists are French Algerians, born of the unhappy history of France and Algeria that it only relates to that and is essentially a French problem.

But there are Algerians in other places.  One of them is the Charnwood district of Leicester in the Leicester East Constituency.  In former times the local cinema was The Melbourne, in the flea pit class, but the cheapest in town.

At the end of the 1940's on a few occasions I was among the patrons there.  A film I saw was the John Wayne one "Fort Apache" often found on the moviesformen channel.  Times have changed, I suspect very different films would now be on offer.

Bust Britain?

In this blog on Thursday 25 September 2014 in the post "Calling The Doctor" I posted the text of an article "Bodies, Beds and Bottlenecks" at 1300 words that was written in the year 2000, referring what had happened in 1998 during a winter heath crisis.

I was not alone in my thoughts, because then and more recently there have been others who have suggested that what we were being told by those on high was wrong in a number of respects.

In short, the kind of crisis occurring in the NHS at present was predictable.  Why all those very expensive people in charge either failed to see it or would not accept it is a question that has to be asked, although I doubt any sensible answers will be forthcoming.

Today, the media tells us that the Bank of England, that very expensive outfit in the City of London, did not foresee the coming financial crisis of 2007 and so did not take the actions to either prepare for or to forestall it.

But I knew things were on the skids by then because I had already made the relevant arrangements even at my low and limited level.

It was not the sayings of Nostrodamus or a passing astrologer that informed me.  It was the opinions of a range of experts that were in line with my views about the gathering problems.

In short, these have been two gross failures of government.  The NHS may not be government, but its structure, financing and critical policies are and have been for near seventy years.

Similarly, the Bank of England might argue that it was not  strictly government but it is central to the governance of much of the financial system and whatever organisation is at the time has always been close to The Treasury.

It is possible to look around and suggest other failures of government, some major and some minor that have occurred in recent decades.  In fact, failure, error and total misunderstanding of the realities seem almost inbuilt into the system.

Also in May we will elect a House of Commons on the basis of a badly distorted electoral system that may be no more able to address or deal with major matters because the government that arises will be solely concerned with short term politics.

This will be over the fixed five year period with an unworkable constitution now subject to extensive foreign direction.

Can our system of government now get anything right at all?