I was trying to watch the Hairy Bikers doing posh food - boy, their ceviche looks fantastic! - but kept being distracted by random thoughts from the TV news.
First of all, there's Lord Rennard. Love the name, by the way. Just when the LibDems look like staging a comeback after taking a stand with the Tories on a few issues and are fighting back at Eastleigh after the Geoff Huhn debacle, a dirty-old-man scandal raises its head, implicating not just Nick Clegg but the poster girl for LibDem equality, Jo Swinton, for doing nothing.
Then there's Cardinal O'Brien. He announces his retirement. Says he's in favour of priests being married and looks as if he's off to the conclave with a view to electing a modernising pope. 24 hours later he's gone, disgraced by a series of allegations - note, just allegations - nothing proved - of inappropriate behaviour made by other priests.
Coincidence? Maybe. As I'm sure someone once said: Once is a coincidence. Twice?
I'm not a LibDem or a Roman Catholic but I love a conspiracy. Prove to me I'm wrong.
Thursday 28 February 2013
Monday 25 February 2013
It's a waste!
It's a year since my neighbours and I embarked on recycling in our wee block of flats. We now have 7 wheelie bins for 6 households. The extra bin is for food waste - and that's the one I'm concerned about at the moment. I seem to be putting a lot of stuff into the food waste bin.
Tonight I cleared the fridge. I've got the cold so I had to rely on sell-by dates to decide what went out, rather than my nose: 3 slices of cold ham from the Sainsbury deli, a nearly full tub of tzadzike, 7 medium-sized potatoes, half a bag of lettuce, a bit of cucumber, 3 tomatoes.
I eat a lot of fresh food, as you can see, and I reckon this little lot of waste must have been worth about 8 quid.
Pretty shocking and I'm annoyed that I've allowed this to happen. In my defence, I have to say supermarkets are not geared up for dealing with single person households, despite the fact that millions of us now live alone. And I don't just mean the elderly. How about the newly divorced and separated and those between relationships or those just pissed off with relationships who decide to maintain their independence?
I always end up buying too much in the supermarket because portions only come 'family-sized' and have to rely on my family to come and take stuff away. This month I passed on to my nephew and his wife a tray of chicken joints, a packet of crackers, tortilla chips, crisps and a jar of pour over sauce. These are called bogofs in the supermarket - buy one get one free - often stuff near its sell-by date. None of these are any use to me unless I can freeze them and most I can't.
Sad to say, some of my elderly neighbours tell me they no longer buy fresh food, only frozen, although they know fresh is better for them, because it costs too much and they waste too much of the fresh stuff.
So will it ever happen? Will supermarkets stop selling to imaginary customers? The ones who live in families made up of two parents and two children and have giant chest freezers where they can store their bogofs? Will it ever be possible for the rest of us to buy wee portions at a reasonable price and not let stuff rot in our fridges?
Or is food shopping always going to be us the customers - the ones that are meant to have the choice, the ones the shops are meant to serve - buying only what the retailers want to sell us? And isn't it odd the supermarkets all want to sell us the same stuff at the same price and in the same quantities?
Tonight I cleared the fridge. I've got the cold so I had to rely on sell-by dates to decide what went out, rather than my nose: 3 slices of cold ham from the Sainsbury deli, a nearly full tub of tzadzike, 7 medium-sized potatoes, half a bag of lettuce, a bit of cucumber, 3 tomatoes.
I eat a lot of fresh food, as you can see, and I reckon this little lot of waste must have been worth about 8 quid.
Pretty shocking and I'm annoyed that I've allowed this to happen. In my defence, I have to say supermarkets are not geared up for dealing with single person households, despite the fact that millions of us now live alone. And I don't just mean the elderly. How about the newly divorced and separated and those between relationships or those just pissed off with relationships who decide to maintain their independence?
I always end up buying too much in the supermarket because portions only come 'family-sized' and have to rely on my family to come and take stuff away. This month I passed on to my nephew and his wife a tray of chicken joints, a packet of crackers, tortilla chips, crisps and a jar of pour over sauce. These are called bogofs in the supermarket - buy one get one free - often stuff near its sell-by date. None of these are any use to me unless I can freeze them and most I can't.
Sad to say, some of my elderly neighbours tell me they no longer buy fresh food, only frozen, although they know fresh is better for them, because it costs too much and they waste too much of the fresh stuff.
So will it ever happen? Will supermarkets stop selling to imaginary customers? The ones who live in families made up of two parents and two children and have giant chest freezers where they can store their bogofs? Will it ever be possible for the rest of us to buy wee portions at a reasonable price and not let stuff rot in our fridges?
Or is food shopping always going to be us the customers - the ones that are meant to have the choice, the ones the shops are meant to serve - buying only what the retailers want to sell us? And isn't it odd the supermarkets all want to sell us the same stuff at the same price and in the same quantities?
Saturday 23 February 2013
Meanwhile.....
I realise I haven't been on for a rant for a few days. To be honest, it's not lack of inspiration - there's just too much to choose from:
The UK economy has been downgraded by Moody's ratings firm from AAA to AA. This is one of the ratings companies that failed to spot the banks going under in 2008 - and, in fact, may have been in cahoots with banks to cover up subprime mortgages and the Libor scandal. And they think the UK is in a bad way.....
Meanwhile, back in the 19th century: a LibDem peer has been touching up women and getting away with it thanks to LibDem party managers who thought it was funny. Mind you, I suppose it might be if it wasn't happening to you. But try asking generations of women who've been groped and been expected to laugh it off.
Rangers fans have carried on doing sectarian chants, despite being threatened with fines and bans.
And in Northern Ireland, they're still back in the 17th century, marching over the Union Flag.
The UK economy has been downgraded by Moody's ratings firm from AAA to AA. This is one of the ratings companies that failed to spot the banks going under in 2008 - and, in fact, may have been in cahoots with banks to cover up subprime mortgages and the Libor scandal. And they think the UK is in a bad way.....
Meanwhile, back in the 19th century: a LibDem peer has been touching up women and getting away with it thanks to LibDem party managers who thought it was funny. Mind you, I suppose it might be if it wasn't happening to you. But try asking generations of women who've been groped and been expected to laugh it off.
Rangers fans have carried on doing sectarian chants, despite being threatened with fines and bans.
And in Northern Ireland, they're still back in the 17th century, marching over the Union Flag.
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Larkhall - say it isn't true!
The Independent newspaper ran an item recently on Larkhall and the worst thing is everything in it is true:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/scottish-town-where-green-is-beyond-the-pale-981747.html
How can Scotland be considered a grown-up country if we're still harking back several centuries in our religious beliefs? And Larkhall isn't the only town where this goes on. How about Drongan, Kilwinning, Coatbridge and many others? All a great joke - see the Herald Diary - often - unless, of course, you happen to live there and have kids growing up in among this. And you find sectarian loonies are living with you and poisoning the minds of your kids.
I recently un-friended someone on Facebook because I couldn't take the bigotry she displayed over Celtic being beaten by Juventus, quoting the Sash on her FB page. She probably hasn't even noticed she and I are no longer pals. And that's the worst part of it: religious bigotry isn't in your face in central Scotland - it's just there as part of the scenery.
Time to move on, people.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/scottish-town-where-green-is-beyond-the-pale-981747.html
How can Scotland be considered a grown-up country if we're still harking back several centuries in our religious beliefs? And Larkhall isn't the only town where this goes on. How about Drongan, Kilwinning, Coatbridge and many others? All a great joke - see the Herald Diary - often - unless, of course, you happen to live there and have kids growing up in among this. And you find sectarian loonies are living with you and poisoning the minds of your kids.
I recently un-friended someone on Facebook because I couldn't take the bigotry she displayed over Celtic being beaten by Juventus, quoting the Sash on her FB page. She probably hasn't even noticed she and I are no longer pals. And that's the worst part of it: religious bigotry isn't in your face in central Scotland - it's just there as part of the scenery.
Time to move on, people.
Is Duchess Kate Plastic?
Hilary Mantel has commented on the Duchess of Cambridge:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21502937
No surprise there: she was giving a talk about 'Royal Women.' I've read her talk. It's very long and quite complicated. In fact, Duchess Kate doesn't get as much space in the talk as HM the Queen, Princess Diana, Marie Antoinette or the wives of Henry VIII. One of her conclusions is that the difference between Diana and Kate is personality: Diana had one, whereas with Kate, who knows? If there is one, it's buried under her appearance: she is fashionably thin, has the perfect plastic smile and is obviously well aware what her role is in the UK royal family: perfect wife and soon to be perfect mother. She has a couple of interesting comments about that first portrait of Kate, the one we saw before Christmas, the one with the dead eyes. She also has some quite insightful comments to make about the Queen and Marie Antoinette. And she has a theory about Henry VIII's inability to produce healthy sons.
So why are Hilary Mantel's comments about the Duchess so important that the Prime Minister of the UK feels he has to wade into this and defend the Duchess?
Well, he's a nob, same as the royals and he's married into a family of nobs.
But more to the point, this is all about bread and circuses. The Roman ruling class worked out 2,000 years ago that in bad times you had to make sure the plebs had food in their belly and something to entertain them, so step up the bread allowance and fling a few more Christians and lions into the ring. Otherwise the masses, who were given to rioting at the drop of a toga, would be out there raping and pillaging.
Duchess Kate is our equivalent of the circuses. We've watched it all: the courtship, the engagement (with Diana's ring front and centre), the wedding and now the pregnancy. They help to keep us from focussing on what should really matter in the UK right now. Here's a list:
- the bedroom tax - only applicable to those living in council houses
- dismantling the Disabled Living Allowance - a special round of applause for the work of ATOS
- demonising the unemployed
- blaming immigrants for most things
- falling wages - except for the very well off
- rising fuel prices
- unpaid taxes - company taxes, not yours and mine
- unpunished (and unreformed) bankers.
And we're so easily diverted from these by the likes of Duchess Kate. Of course, there were riots on the streets of London in 2011 but we all know from the newspapers and TV they weren't about poverty, unemployment and deprivation but about people who wanted new trainers for nothing. The only real demo in recent years has been the one against the Iraq War. Of course, our soldiers shouldn't be over there but why aren't we out on the streets about the war here in the UK? The one between the UK government and the poor, unemployed, old, immigrant and disabled?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21502937
No surprise there: she was giving a talk about 'Royal Women.' I've read her talk. It's very long and quite complicated. In fact, Duchess Kate doesn't get as much space in the talk as HM the Queen, Princess Diana, Marie Antoinette or the wives of Henry VIII. One of her conclusions is that the difference between Diana and Kate is personality: Diana had one, whereas with Kate, who knows? If there is one, it's buried under her appearance: she is fashionably thin, has the perfect plastic smile and is obviously well aware what her role is in the UK royal family: perfect wife and soon to be perfect mother. She has a couple of interesting comments about that first portrait of Kate, the one we saw before Christmas, the one with the dead eyes. She also has some quite insightful comments to make about the Queen and Marie Antoinette. And she has a theory about Henry VIII's inability to produce healthy sons.
So why are Hilary Mantel's comments about the Duchess so important that the Prime Minister of the UK feels he has to wade into this and defend the Duchess?
Well, he's a nob, same as the royals and he's married into a family of nobs.
But more to the point, this is all about bread and circuses. The Roman ruling class worked out 2,000 years ago that in bad times you had to make sure the plebs had food in their belly and something to entertain them, so step up the bread allowance and fling a few more Christians and lions into the ring. Otherwise the masses, who were given to rioting at the drop of a toga, would be out there raping and pillaging.
Duchess Kate is our equivalent of the circuses. We've watched it all: the courtship, the engagement (with Diana's ring front and centre), the wedding and now the pregnancy. They help to keep us from focussing on what should really matter in the UK right now. Here's a list:
- the bedroom tax - only applicable to those living in council houses
- dismantling the Disabled Living Allowance - a special round of applause for the work of ATOS
- demonising the unemployed
- blaming immigrants for most things
- falling wages - except for the very well off
- rising fuel prices
- unpaid taxes - company taxes, not yours and mine
- unpunished (and unreformed) bankers.
And we're so easily diverted from these by the likes of Duchess Kate. Of course, there were riots on the streets of London in 2011 but we all know from the newspapers and TV they weren't about poverty, unemployment and deprivation but about people who wanted new trainers for nothing. The only real demo in recent years has been the one against the Iraq War. Of course, our soldiers shouldn't be over there but why aren't we out on the streets about the war here in the UK? The one between the UK government and the poor, unemployed, old, immigrant and disabled?
Sunday 17 February 2013
What is school for?
Reading, writing, 'rithmetic? Or contraception, condoms and craziness?
I've no problem with helping teenagers to avoid becoming parents too early. We want them to be old enough to make an informed decision and maybe have a life before they have children - especially girls, who rarely stop at one child once they've started and whose opportunities in life recede with every pregnancy. It's hard to get women back into education once they've dropped out.
But I'm also fed up with the likes of the NHS trying to divert schools from their true mission which is - let me remind you - education, education, education: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21491127
The facts are that the number of teenage pregnancies has been falling for the past 10 years.This reduction in teenage pregnancies is due to a joint effort by schools, the NHS, social workers, community education workers and - strangely enough - parents. As Hillary Clinton said: It takes a village to raise a child. Besides, schools have less and less access to nurses: there are probably more cops on campus in Scotland than nurses now - and nurses must have other priorities apart from contraception, like making sure everybody gets their MMR jags. And the best way to stop teenage pregnancies is surely to offer young people opportunities in jobs and education.
We need to stop trying to pass the buck to the schools. Right now, they are responsible for everything from first aid to safe cycling to citizenship - oh, and the curriculum on top of that.
I've no problem with helping teenagers to avoid becoming parents too early. We want them to be old enough to make an informed decision and maybe have a life before they have children - especially girls, who rarely stop at one child once they've started and whose opportunities in life recede with every pregnancy. It's hard to get women back into education once they've dropped out.
But I'm also fed up with the likes of the NHS trying to divert schools from their true mission which is - let me remind you - education, education, education: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21491127
The facts are that the number of teenage pregnancies has been falling for the past 10 years.This reduction in teenage pregnancies is due to a joint effort by schools, the NHS, social workers, community education workers and - strangely enough - parents. As Hillary Clinton said: It takes a village to raise a child. Besides, schools have less and less access to nurses: there are probably more cops on campus in Scotland than nurses now - and nurses must have other priorities apart from contraception, like making sure everybody gets their MMR jags. And the best way to stop teenage pregnancies is surely to offer young people opportunities in jobs and education.
We need to stop trying to pass the buck to the schools. Right now, they are responsible for everything from first aid to safe cycling to citizenship - oh, and the curriculum on top of that.
Tuesday 12 February 2013
Did this always go on?
I imagine parents are exercising a bit of control over what news they watch on TV or see in the papers this week as two absolutely horrible court cases go on:
Dale Cregan admits he murdered two police officers and claims it was because the police had given his family a hard time in a previous murder investigation. He lured the officers to the house he was hiding in, shot them many times over and then threw a hand grenade at them.
Michael and Mairead Philpott are accused of murdering their 6 children by setting fire to their house. According to the prosecution, no one was supposed to die: the father wanted to set up his mistress for arson so he could get custody of his 4 children by her and keep the benefits they attracted.
I admit I'm baffled by these crimes and dread to think what they tell us about our society. That life is cheap? That guns are readily available if you want them? That the most important thing in life is money? That you can do anything, no matter how bizarre, if you feel offended? That however weird a crime someone can dream up, there will be someone around who will help in carrying it out - like the Philpotts' friend who helped set the fire.
So tell me: did terrible crimes like this always go on and I just never noticed? Or has something awful happened to us to make it possible for people to do things like this? I suspect that this kind of crime is the UK's version of the US school shootings, in which a small group of individuals feel entitled to sort life out to suit themselves and never give a moment's thought to the consequences of their actions.
And please don't tell me the death penalty would stop crimes like this happening - I don't think it works like that.
Dale Cregan admits he murdered two police officers and claims it was because the police had given his family a hard time in a previous murder investigation. He lured the officers to the house he was hiding in, shot them many times over and then threw a hand grenade at them.
Michael and Mairead Philpott are accused of murdering their 6 children by setting fire to their house. According to the prosecution, no one was supposed to die: the father wanted to set up his mistress for arson so he could get custody of his 4 children by her and keep the benefits they attracted.
I admit I'm baffled by these crimes and dread to think what they tell us about our society. That life is cheap? That guns are readily available if you want them? That the most important thing in life is money? That you can do anything, no matter how bizarre, if you feel offended? That however weird a crime someone can dream up, there will be someone around who will help in carrying it out - like the Philpotts' friend who helped set the fire.
So tell me: did terrible crimes like this always go on and I just never noticed? Or has something awful happened to us to make it possible for people to do things like this? I suspect that this kind of crime is the UK's version of the US school shootings, in which a small group of individuals feel entitled to sort life out to suit themselves and never give a moment's thought to the consequences of their actions.
And please don't tell me the death penalty would stop crimes like this happening - I don't think it works like that.
Monday 11 February 2013
Call Me Childcatcher!
According to my well-read nephew, the UK is in the middle of a baby boom. I was a child of the first baby boom in the 50s. My generation caused another boom when they had their children. Now the grandchildren of the baby boomers are starting to appear. That means, of course, we can expect a crisis in our schools, health service and housing any time now, since we never seem to be prepared for this fairly predictable set of events.
I'm kind of aware of a baby boom already, living as I do in one of those areas (East Renfrewshire) where people pay silly money for a house so they can get their kids into the local schools. Well, they do now. Before they just lied about their address. I've noticed a rise in the number of prams around (or 'transport systems', as I believe they are now called), not to mention people-carriers and those ridiculous bus-sized vehicles driven by young women who need two bays to park them in.
I also notice restaurants and cafes here are trying to be more 'family-friendly'. I even know of one restaurant that has set aside a room as a 'pram park' and offers young mothers specially-low-priced lunches. Whole Foods have a mummy and child session on a Monday where kiddy snacks are provided free and mummies get a drink and a snack at a discounted price. I'd love to know what effect this has on the takings of the places in question. You won't catch me in a restaurant with the yummy mummies - and I avoid Whole Foods on a Monday till about 5pm.
The trouble is: the small children in my family are absolutely delightful. Even when they're screaming the place down, we're fairly relaxed about them. Other people's small children are a pain in the arse.
Sometimes I wonder if there's a sign over my head telling young parents I canny be bothered with their howling offspring. That would be the only explanation for the fact that I seem to attract them. At the doc's today, I was in a waiting room with just two people apart from me and plenty of empty seats. When the young mother arrived with the screaming wean in the car seat where did she sit? Of course, right next to me. So radio chatter on one side and screaming wean on the other. What did I do? Went and stood in the corridor till my name was called.
Any chance of a pensioner-friendly surgery any time now? No, I thought not.
I'm kind of aware of a baby boom already, living as I do in one of those areas (East Renfrewshire) where people pay silly money for a house so they can get their kids into the local schools. Well, they do now. Before they just lied about their address. I've noticed a rise in the number of prams around (or 'transport systems', as I believe they are now called), not to mention people-carriers and those ridiculous bus-sized vehicles driven by young women who need two bays to park them in.
I also notice restaurants and cafes here are trying to be more 'family-friendly'. I even know of one restaurant that has set aside a room as a 'pram park' and offers young mothers specially-low-priced lunches. Whole Foods have a mummy and child session on a Monday where kiddy snacks are provided free and mummies get a drink and a snack at a discounted price. I'd love to know what effect this has on the takings of the places in question. You won't catch me in a restaurant with the yummy mummies - and I avoid Whole Foods on a Monday till about 5pm.
The trouble is: the small children in my family are absolutely delightful. Even when they're screaming the place down, we're fairly relaxed about them. Other people's small children are a pain in the arse.
Sometimes I wonder if there's a sign over my head telling young parents I canny be bothered with their howling offspring. That would be the only explanation for the fact that I seem to attract them. At the doc's today, I was in a waiting room with just two people apart from me and plenty of empty seats. When the young mother arrived with the screaming wean in the car seat where did she sit? Of course, right next to me. So radio chatter on one side and screaming wean on the other. What did I do? Went and stood in the corridor till my name was called.
Any chance of a pensioner-friendly surgery any time now? No, I thought not.
Saturday 9 February 2013
Horsey, horsey
A short Question and Answer session on the matter of the great horsemeat scandal:
Q Is it possible for a supermarket to provide 12 beefburgers or a Findus beef lasagne for a pound?
A No, of course it isn't. But it is possible to sell horseburgers and horse lasagne to very poor people trying to feed their families who won't ask too many questions, and you can get away with it for a long time: I heard today that meat in supermarkets in the UK was last DNA-tested 10 years ago.
Q Could the horsemeat get into the beefburgers and beef lasagne by accident?
A Once maybe. Twice at a push. For 10 years? Not a chance. A trace maybe. 100%? No way.
Q So this is a scam, is it?
A Unless you have another word for it.
Q But who stands to gain from supplying horsemeat to abattoirs instead of beef?
A How much time have you got? People in eastern Europe and Eire with horsemeat they want to dispose of for money. People running abattoirs. People in other countries with contracts to supply meat to UK supermarkets, whose bosses want a profit. People on the supply side of supermarkets who will take a back-hander.
Q Is there a way to stop this happening?
A Of course. Only source your beef in the UK. And DNA-test it every year.
Q So why don't UK supermarkets and food suppliers source their beef in the UK?
A Because then consumers would have to pay a decent amount for good beef - and UK consumers want cheap food.
Q So it's the consumer's fault?
A Och, fault-schmault. There are a lot of people in this country either not working or only able to get part-time work or on minimum wage. I think jobseeker's allowance is about 65 quid a week. You're not going to be living high on the hough with that income. And supermarkets have shareholders who have got used to the company making huge profits, meaning big dividends for shareholders. Supermarkets will do many things to keep their shareholders happy - like squeeze farmers till the pips squeak. Remember the milk price last year? When farmers were supplying milk at a price that didn't cover the cost of feeding the cows? Remember the horrors of factory-farmed pigs, hens and calves? Yes, we do all of that here in the UK to keep prices down. And then we get excited about French farmers fattening geese for foie gras.....
Q Is it dangerous for people to eat horsemeat?
A Only for the horse. Lots of communities eat horsemeat. It's what's available and it used to be cheap. The French ate snails and frogs' legs because that's what was available to them and they were cheap. People in the Far East don't eat dog because they're perverts. It's what they can afford.
Q What happens next?
A Let's see how HM Government reacts to this. No sign so far of a minister stepping forward and protesting on behalf of consumers. Well, that would mean Tories criticising business and we can't have that. The disposal of animal carcasses through abattoirs is subject to very strict EU regulation so it will be good to hear what the EU have to say. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of turning veggie myself - or at least avoiding cheapo beefburgers and Findus beef lasagne.
Q Is it possible for a supermarket to provide 12 beefburgers or a Findus beef lasagne for a pound?
A No, of course it isn't. But it is possible to sell horseburgers and horse lasagne to very poor people trying to feed their families who won't ask too many questions, and you can get away with it for a long time: I heard today that meat in supermarkets in the UK was last DNA-tested 10 years ago.
Q Could the horsemeat get into the beefburgers and beef lasagne by accident?
A Once maybe. Twice at a push. For 10 years? Not a chance. A trace maybe. 100%? No way.
Q So this is a scam, is it?
A Unless you have another word for it.
Q But who stands to gain from supplying horsemeat to abattoirs instead of beef?
A How much time have you got? People in eastern Europe and Eire with horsemeat they want to dispose of for money. People running abattoirs. People in other countries with contracts to supply meat to UK supermarkets, whose bosses want a profit. People on the supply side of supermarkets who will take a back-hander.
Q Is there a way to stop this happening?
A Of course. Only source your beef in the UK. And DNA-test it every year.
Q So why don't UK supermarkets and food suppliers source their beef in the UK?
A Because then consumers would have to pay a decent amount for good beef - and UK consumers want cheap food.
Q So it's the consumer's fault?
A Och, fault-schmault. There are a lot of people in this country either not working or only able to get part-time work or on minimum wage. I think jobseeker's allowance is about 65 quid a week. You're not going to be living high on the hough with that income. And supermarkets have shareholders who have got used to the company making huge profits, meaning big dividends for shareholders. Supermarkets will do many things to keep their shareholders happy - like squeeze farmers till the pips squeak. Remember the milk price last year? When farmers were supplying milk at a price that didn't cover the cost of feeding the cows? Remember the horrors of factory-farmed pigs, hens and calves? Yes, we do all of that here in the UK to keep prices down. And then we get excited about French farmers fattening geese for foie gras.....
Q Is it dangerous for people to eat horsemeat?
A Only for the horse. Lots of communities eat horsemeat. It's what's available and it used to be cheap. The French ate snails and frogs' legs because that's what was available to them and they were cheap. People in the Far East don't eat dog because they're perverts. It's what they can afford.
Q What happens next?
A Let's see how HM Government reacts to this. No sign so far of a minister stepping forward and protesting on behalf of consumers. Well, that would mean Tories criticising business and we can't have that. The disposal of animal carcasses through abattoirs is subject to very strict EU regulation so it will be good to hear what the EU have to say. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of turning veggie myself - or at least avoiding cheapo beefburgers and Findus beef lasagne.
Wednesday 6 February 2013
But some are more equal
On Monday, the media began to print a real horror story: a woman aged 81 was left in her home with no food, drink or medication for over a week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21361631
The woman had money: she'd been paying an agency to send carers to her home 4 times a day. Then the agency was raided by the Borders people, the illegal immigrants running it vanished and her carers stopped coming. Somehow, the word that she was alone - and vulnerable - was never acted on by the local authority.
Her name was Gloria. Not that it matters now. She's dead.
Every week there are reports of elderly people going missing: wandering off from sheltered housing or care homes or what used to be called mental hospitals, most vanishing while 'out for a walk' - alone. Some but not all are demented. One man (aged about 84) was found dead in the garden of his block of flats in Edinburgh after ten months.
Imagine if he - or Gloria - had been 1 year old rather than 81. For a start, the story might have stayed in the headlines for more than 48 hours. There might have been calls for an enquiry into the death. Someone would have been called to account for their failure to act, though probably not sacked or struck off as a result. That's not how we do things in the UK.
But because the case involves an elderly person, no one seems to get over-excited.
I suppose it's not as bad as leaving your old people to die on an ice floe, as the Inuit were said to do. Or is it?
The woman had money: she'd been paying an agency to send carers to her home 4 times a day. Then the agency was raided by the Borders people, the illegal immigrants running it vanished and her carers stopped coming. Somehow, the word that she was alone - and vulnerable - was never acted on by the local authority.
Her name was Gloria. Not that it matters now. She's dead.
Every week there are reports of elderly people going missing: wandering off from sheltered housing or care homes or what used to be called mental hospitals, most vanishing while 'out for a walk' - alone. Some but not all are demented. One man (aged about 84) was found dead in the garden of his block of flats in Edinburgh after ten months.
Imagine if he - or Gloria - had been 1 year old rather than 81. For a start, the story might have stayed in the headlines for more than 48 hours. There might have been calls for an enquiry into the death. Someone would have been called to account for their failure to act, though probably not sacked or struck off as a result. That's not how we do things in the UK.
But because the case involves an elderly person, no one seems to get over-excited.
I suppose it's not as bad as leaving your old people to die on an ice floe, as the Inuit were said to do. Or is it?
Tuesday 5 February 2013
Jeremy Vine is a prat
That's not my opinion, that's a fact. There you go, that's how the Jeremy Vine phone-in Radio 2 lets its callers talk about everybody. No need for any expertise, just the ability to sound off on live (or nearly live) radio. Today they're discussing the relationship between Chris Huhne and his son, as 'revealed' in the texts published for some reason by the court yesterday when Huhne went on trial. You'll notice the son was not in trial. Jeremy and the rest of his goon squad know nothing about their relationship but are happy to interpret the Huhne family crisis according to their own narrow experience.
There's a serious point here: how does a set of texts sent between an obviously hurt and angry 17 year old boy and his father who dumped his mother for another woman - how does that come to be the topic of a BBC radio phone-in? I find the whole business pretty tacky, worthy of another Jeremy off the telly.
Meanwhile, over on BBC2's Politics Today programme at the same time, there's a real journalist at work: Polly Toynbee (is she still with the Guardian?) is discussing the by-election that will have to be held in Chris Huhne's constituency. She speaks crisply and loses no opportunity to put the politicians of both Tory and LibDem shades in their place, countering allegation with pure, clean fact - and she's able to quote where she got her facts too.
It's a sad reflection on the BBC that we hear more and more of the Vine type of show and very little of Politics Today.
There's a serious point here: how does a set of texts sent between an obviously hurt and angry 17 year old boy and his father who dumped his mother for another woman - how does that come to be the topic of a BBC radio phone-in? I find the whole business pretty tacky, worthy of another Jeremy off the telly.
Meanwhile, over on BBC2's Politics Today programme at the same time, there's a real journalist at work: Polly Toynbee (is she still with the Guardian?) is discussing the by-election that will have to be held in Chris Huhne's constituency. She speaks crisply and loses no opportunity to put the politicians of both Tory and LibDem shades in their place, countering allegation with pure, clean fact - and she's able to quote where she got her facts too.
It's a sad reflection on the BBC that we hear more and more of the Vine type of show and very little of Politics Today.
Saturday 2 February 2013
Back to Bach
After several sleepless nights, I've been catching up on TV programmes I've recorded. I've just watched the 2nd part of Howard Goodall 's Story of Music on BBC4 (?). You may not be a fan of classical music - in which case, bye! - but I am. I know nothing about Howard Goodall but I've enjoyed the first two parts of his series. But now I've come across a review of his first programme by somebody called Mark Smith in Saturday's Herald. He says Howard Goodall lacks 'passion'.
So let's summon up a bit of respect here: what kind of an expert on classical music are you, Mark Smith? Can you play an instrument to professional level? What is your educational background vis a vis classical music? Can you even haud a tune? These are the only qualifications I'll accept before I let you pronounce on the work of a music professional.
I've been on the receiving end of this kind of patronising crap myself, of course. It happens to everyone with any sort of skill that other people think is easily gained and easily exploited. I speak foreign languages and have often been asked to do translations - for nothing, of course. I tried translating "Taps" for a group of guides in Glasgow, only to be told my translation was wrong. And I once had to tell the office of the chief executive of a local authority that although I spoke/understood 6 languages, since Italian wasn't one of them, I'd have to ask someone else to translate the five page letter she'd emailed over - and how much was her office willing to pay? PAY? It was as if I'd sworn at them. When I finally got money out of their office and got the letter translated by a native Italian teacher with an Honours degree in Italian and French from a Scottish university, I got a message that someone in the office thought the letter contained errors - not that anyone could point me at the person claiming to have found the mistakes or what the mistakes were.
There are some talents that can't be faked and have to be accepted as natural: musical, dramatic, artistic, linguistic, sporting, mathematical. There are also some things that can be learned on the job - some easily and some not so easily. The problem at the moment is that our education system seems to encourage the things that can be learned easily and relegates what's inbred/intuitive or acquired by fckn hard work to the second or even third rate level.
A former student of mine has sustained an injury to his hand and, as a result can't play the pipes any more. That, frankly, is as tragic as anything I've heard in recent months and I wish Stewart well.
So let's summon up a bit of respect here: what kind of an expert on classical music are you, Mark Smith? Can you play an instrument to professional level? What is your educational background vis a vis classical music? Can you even haud a tune? These are the only qualifications I'll accept before I let you pronounce on the work of a music professional.
I've been on the receiving end of this kind of patronising crap myself, of course. It happens to everyone with any sort of skill that other people think is easily gained and easily exploited. I speak foreign languages and have often been asked to do translations - for nothing, of course. I tried translating "Taps" for a group of guides in Glasgow, only to be told my translation was wrong. And I once had to tell the office of the chief executive of a local authority that although I spoke/understood 6 languages, since Italian wasn't one of them, I'd have to ask someone else to translate the five page letter she'd emailed over - and how much was her office willing to pay? PAY? It was as if I'd sworn at them. When I finally got money out of their office and got the letter translated by a native Italian teacher with an Honours degree in Italian and French from a Scottish university, I got a message that someone in the office thought the letter contained errors - not that anyone could point me at the person claiming to have found the mistakes or what the mistakes were.
There are some talents that can't be faked and have to be accepted as natural: musical, dramatic, artistic, linguistic, sporting, mathematical. There are also some things that can be learned on the job - some easily and some not so easily. The problem at the moment is that our education system seems to encourage the things that can be learned easily and relegates what's inbred/intuitive or acquired by fckn hard work to the second or even third rate level.
A former student of mine has sustained an injury to his hand and, as a result can't play the pipes any more. That, frankly, is as tragic as anything I've heard in recent months and I wish Stewart well.
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