The Ignorance of the Political Class

I’ve been watching the whole MP expenses scandal with a degree of incredulity – but also more than a little delight. I’ve long loathed the fact that our country is being run by a professional political class who are adept at playing the game of politics, but very, very poor at actually running the country.

I suspect that the whole defensiveness (and occasional surprise) being shown by the MPs caught with their snouts deep in the allowances trough are displaying a profound ignorance of the rest of the world. No other occupation would seriously expect their employer to pick up that range of housing, food and living cost. And it’s their ignorance of that basic fact, of that awareness of how life operates for the rest of us, that has caught them out – and which makes them so bad at running the country.

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Eden Project has a Blog

Wow. How did I miss this? My favourite tourist attraction now has a blog:

Eden Project: The Blog

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Review: Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien

Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien

I’ve rediscovered the joy of books. 2008 was one of the most reading-light years for me since 19933/4, when doing an English degree had burned the desire to read out of me. However, in the closing weeks of last year, I rediscovered my urge to read, and went for it. I’m determined to keep it up into 2009, and kicked off with a book I’d had sitting around for a few months:

It’s a travel book, which is not a genre I spend much time on. But it’s also a book about the tango, which is a dance I’ve enjoyed enough in my life to have started a (slightly moribund) blog about it. It traces the experiences the author, Brian Winter, has in Buenos Aires over the course of a couple of years. It’s only a slice of his life, as the main focus is on meetings and dances held in the small hours of the morning in various smoky tango clubs. You get little, tantalising hints of the rest of his life there, the journalism and the friends and the social life, but the focus in on both tango and the growing economic crisis in the country during his stay there.

By drawing these two threads out in parallel, Winter strives to find some hint of the Argentine character and the roots of the crisis by exploring the history of the county as it is hinted at through the lyrics of the tango. But that story, compelling as it is, is driven by his own exploration of the tango, and his growing obsession with the dance and with a beautiful tango instructor. 

This is a curious book, part-journalism, part-memoir, and part travel writing, but the combination works well and draws you into the city, the dance and the culture. I’m not sure it makes me want to visit Buenos Aires, but I certainly enjoyed visiting it through Winter’s writing.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 trailer

There have been two scifi series that have really redefined the genre in TV terms over the past couple of years. Doctor Who has proved that it can be a mass-market, mainstream hit, topping the viewing figure charts on main national TV stations.

And Battlestar Galactica has proved that it can be serious, adult drama with as much emotional weight and political focus as any drama produced on either side of the pond. It’s a shame that we’re only half a season from the final end of the show, but I’d rather it finished well than drifted into cancellation.

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Test Post from the WordPress iPhone app

So, how well does the iPhone app work?

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Light through the roof in the office Starbucks

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Coffee Break

Newspaper, coffee and iPhone

Coffee, papers and iPhone

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Blog Rebuild in Progress

Fly tipping on London\'s Marischal Road

Marischal Road Fly-tipping

It’s just possible that this site looks really, really ugly as you visit it right now. Here’s why:

I’ve finally figured out what I want to do with this blog, so I’m working on rebuilding it to make it work the way I want it to. And that means quite a lot fo changes to the way it’s structured. If you’re reading this at all, it means C&C is on its new web host. And next, I work on getting the design and plugins I want in place.

Stay tuned: good things coming…

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Will Video Comments Work?

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More Sunshine in Sutton

The same pic, this time brought in from Flickr:

Sunshine in Sutton 

Which works better?

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Sunshine in Sutton

 

Sunny Sutton

 

A lovely wee picture, just to test out the new uploading functionality in WordPress 2.5

 

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