Nostalgia prompts antimetabole

Over the past couple of months I've come across three websites dealing with the part of the world from whence I come - Caerphilly and the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. More than that, they cover two topics of particular interest to me - social history and industrial archaeology. Wonderful photographs - the one shown is the top of the road in Bedwas where I lived for seven years or so - and wonderful information.  Two of them are Facebook pages (search for Discover Caerphilly and Caerphilly Local History) and the third is an incredibly well illustrated compendium of long-abandoned industrial sites. So many of these were my childhood playgrounds and it is really enjoyable being reminded of them. It's hard to believe now that we used to regularly explore Roman lead mines with no more than a candle and a length of shredded conveyor belt. Or climb to the top of old engine houses. Or swim in colliery reservoirs and flooded mine shafts. 'Elf and Safety? Never 'eard of it!

What these sites have done is to stir up memories of things long forgotten and now recalled with enjoyment. Be warned - I feel a series of autobiographical blogs coming on! The old saying we had is true: 'you can take the boy out of the valley, but you can't take the valley out of the boy'. And I'm not ashamed to admit to it!

And antimetabole? That's the rhetorical term for the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order. I may be from the valleys but I know some long words.

Sunday, Sunday...so good to me.

I read today (here) that Sunday trading laws are to be suspended for the duration of the Olympics. This has generally been greeted with pleasure and a sense that these laws are an anachronistic hangover from the days when the UK was a largely church-going country. It’s certainly true that we are now likely to do considerably different things with our leisure time than we were 50 years ago and there is no longer the sense of religious imperative that marks the Sabbath out as a day of rest for all. But does that mean we should scrap Sunday trading laws?

For me, Sunday trading has never been about protecting those who want to pursue their religions but about protecting workers – especially those with families. Protecting workers rights to work a set amount of hours per week is important. But so is making sure those hours work for the workers. I may miss shopping on a Sunday, but ask yourself how many workers miss out by working on that day? Do we really need to indulge in consumerism seven days a week? I’ve never been convinced that we do. What's wrong with a day of rest for everybody?

It's all pretty depressing at the moment, isn't it?

There seems to have been an incredible amount going on in the news, politics especially, in the last few months and it's been difficult for me to keep up blogging wise. Usually when I read a story that piques my interest, I think "I’ll write about that when I get time".  And by the time I actually have the time another scandal has erupted gloriously across the online media world

Just think about what we've gone through recently: celebrities avoiding tax, the potential O-level re-introduction, children abandoned in pubs, EU referendum talk, the Libor scandal, police cuts, people setting themselves on fire outside the Job Centre, the Queen meeting Martin McGuinness, George Osbourne's apparent fall from grace, Lords reform, poor young Chloe Smith getting offered up as a human sacrifice, the G4S debacle, the ongoing Leveson enquiry etc etc

Right now I’m looking at the political headlines and, despite the news of Bradley Wiggins' victory in the Tour de France and the impending media orgy of the Big O, the banking scandal still rumbles on. As if we needed reassuring that the bankers were/are a bad lot.  Good old Tony Robinson has come to the conclusion that bankers are not human, which might explain something. He's worth a watch here, as he indulges in the best rant I’ve seen in recent times.

Other headlines seem to concern what has become the standard fare of late: cuts, ‘reforms’, cuts, EU, cuts, banks, cuts....... All rather depressing really and by the time I hit 'Publish' no doubt a new demoralising scandal will have emerged.  Thank goodness we've got the warm weather to distract us - although we'll soon be complaining that it's too hot!

Where was Doc Martin?

Certainly not in Port Isaac where we walked today. A pretty strenuous 6 miler starting with a 2 mile inland stretch from Port Quin and the rest along the Cornish coastal footpath from Port Isaac back to Port Quin. It was, shall we say, rather up and down! Typical, really, of this part of the footpath. The day was glorious sunshine all the way, with blue skies, crystal clear seas and my ideal walking companion for company. A tonic for the body and soul. More, more!

I should add, perhaps, for those who don't already know, that Port Isaac is where the TV series, Doc Martin, is filmed. I think its TV alter-ego is Port Wen? Given that it's such a popular show, the references to it I could see were relatively low key and almost discrete. No Doc Martin burgers or no place to buy a Louise Lolly. We actually had a drink in the place that doubles for the primary school in the series. It was an old school at one time and is now a hotel/restaurant with the imaginative name of, wait for it, 'The Old School'.  Again, with very few discernable nods to the TV show.

Update on Adam, Keith and John.

Lots and lots going on in the world at the moment but, rather than dwell on matters political, I thought I'd give an update on the progress of three people I've previously mentioned, all of whom have reached significant points in their particular endeavours. Hooray for the human spirit!

1.  Adam Bird: Adam has featured twice in my musings so far (13th December 2011 and April 1st 2012) and his mother, Catherine, has described his traumatic entry into the world most touchingly in her blog, IUGR Baby. The past few months have certainly been a roller coaster of medical treatment and emotions. The good news is that Adam is now out of hospital and is living at home with his parents, Catherine and Chris. 'Normality' is a relative term but I send them every good wish as they work towards their own normality. Adam is undoubtedly a fighter and to repeat the words of his mother "what a little hero he is. Go monkey!"

2.  Keith Selbo: Keith got a mention (or, in modern parlance, perhaps it should be 'a shout out') on 5th June 2012. Keith is walking the Appalachian Trail and has just reached the 500 mile from the end mark - some 1700 miles north of his starting point! He is now in Vermount (aka Vermud, Veroots or Verocks - see Keith's diary here if you want to find out why these alternatives are apt) and, using his sign-off phrase for every blog entry he makes "it's all good". Another roller coaster of a trip but another triumph of the human spirit. Here's hoping that Keith's knees hold out for his remaining time on the trail.

3. John Wilmut: John also got a mention on 5th June. At that time he was well into his walk from Land's End to John O'Groats. As the photograph shows, his walk has been completed successfully and he is now back at his home in Cornwall recovering. If you take a log at John's website here you can access his blog and, more importantly, how you can contribute to his sponsorship. He was walking in support of Christian Aid's work in Sierra Leone. A worthy cause and one that I would commend to you.

Three different blogs, each one giving a very personalised view of events in the writer's lives. Collectively they illustrate all that I like about blogs: intimate, immediate and interesting. Take a look at them if you can find the time.

Not bad for a lady in her 80s?

A lot was written recently about the Olympic Torch being presented to the Queen at Windsor Castle. Quite sensibly for security reasons, what we did not see was the leg through Windsor Great Park when her maj donned the White Tracksuit of State and held the torch aloft for an impressive 200 yard stretch. As she commented after: "one has to do what one can to entertain one's subjects and earn one's allowance". Go, Liz, Go! Gawd bless her - she's an inspiration to everyone of us.

And that's not all; one lucky person will benefit permanently from the event as a new post of Royal Torch Flunky has been created to allow the iconic cone to feature in all future state occasions. It makes me proud to be British.

Kindly adjust your dress.........................

.........................before standing up in front of a group of 30 women! More of that later. Today was my last scheduled talk about bread making to a local group, this time to the Launceston branch of the WI. I spent an enjoyable morning baking for it and tried a few different breads to make it more interesting for me. The full list, and a few notes to myself, follows:

1.  Pesto swirl - this time with more pesto and olive oil.
2. Chocolate bread - glazed with honey, the temperature of which was too hot and caused a little lifting of the crust.
3. Rosemary and olive oil foccacio - with more olive oil than usual and a good sprinkling of sea salt.
4. White undertin loaf - in the mode of Pearce's of Kelly Bray.
5. Plain white loaf - boring!
6. Bread horns - just for fun.
7. Grisini/breadsticks - the double twists looked good.
8. Good old chick pea, coriander and cumin flatbread.
9.  Raisin and fennel seed fougasse - with a few aniseed seeds thrown in for a slightly different flavour.
10. Plain bagels - boiled with some malt extract before baking.

And then it was off to the talk itself - at the very elegant Eagle House Hotel in Launceston.  I thought I'd got off to a good start until one of the organisers came up and whispered in my ear that my fly was half undone! Unfortunately this was rather a stage whisper and everyone in the audience knew what was going on. A quick adjustment later and I continued, albeit with a redder face than when I started. Lots of questions after I had finished but not before one of the members (who must have been well over 80) shocked me, but amused her friends, by saying that "they thought they were going to see my baguette at the beginning". Another red face for me and I changed the focus rapidly by suggesting that it was time to taste what I had brought. The chocolate bread and pesto swirl were voted the favourates and these almost completely disappeared in double quick time.

Time to give demonstration baking a rest for a while, methinks.

Political Reform in the UK: House of Lords and the Monarchy

Reform of the House of Lords is on the agenda (again) and I thought I'd use this as an entree into a series of postings under the general theme of 'Political Reform in the UK'. Admittedly not a topic that grabs many -  although it should. Maybe I can persuade some to take more interest in it?

Today Nick Clegg opened a 2-day debate on plans to reform the House of Lords. Briefly the proposals are:

*  A smaller chamber - reduced from 826 members to 450.
*  The majority, 80%, of members would be elected - at the moment nearly all peers are appointed either by political parties or by the independent House of Lords Commission.
*  90 members, some 20% of the total, would still be appointed, by an Appointments Commission, on a non-party basis.
*  Time-limited membership - Once elected, peers would serve a non-renewable 15-year term instead of being members for life.
*  There would be a reduction in the number of bishops - from 26 to 12.
*  The chamber would still be called the House of Lords but members would not have the title "Lord". Parliament to choose a new name for members
 
He described the House of Lords as a 'flawed institution'; one that exercises power without legitimacy and one that needs reform. I agree that it is a 'flawed institution', although this is a gross understatement. I agree that it exercises power without legitimacy but I strongly disagree with his view that it needs reform. It does not need to be REFORMED; it needs to be ABOLISHED. To me anything other than a completely elected second chamber is totally incompatible with the representative democracy we like to think we have. The starting point for any debate on the future of the House of Lords should be "we will abolish the House of Lords; let's talk about what we are going to replace it with". Unless this principle is accepted at the outset (and it is not likely to be) we are going to end up with a typical British compromise. There'll be lots of huff and puff, with some enjoyable rhetoric on both sides (did you hear Malcolm Rifkin delivering wonderfully sonorous cobblers with his wonderfully sonorous bass voice in the Commons today? More! More!) but the result will not bring true representative democracy any closer.
 
And talking about true respresentative democracy, where does the Monarchyfit? Quite simply it doesn't! What we need is a total overall of our political system so that we have a modern structure that suits the needs of its citizens. And hereditary entitlement just does not fit into this.

I know, I know - all of the above leads to the question "what would you replace it with?" As I write, I'm much clearer about what I don't want than what I do and I'm uncomfortable with what is a very unsatisfactory intellectual position. Let's hope that more exploration on and around the issues will make me feel happier! Stay tuned!

Vive le Republique!

150 Not Out

I've reached something of a milestone with this posting; it's my 150th.  What's significant about that? Nothing really but it does mark the point at which I venture into the area of e-publishing (aka vanity publishing!). With an eye to future generations, I've been seeking a way of making a permanent record of my musings and I've come across an relatively easy way of transferring all of my entries into e-book format. Entry 150 seems a good, and easy to remember, place to act as an end point for doing this. If it works out, perhaps Entry 300 will be the next publication fixed point. Assuming I maintain my current rate of posting - and keep my marbles - that should be somewhere towards the beginning of 2015. Spooky!

Here's to the next 150!

Talking to the WI

In a moment of weakness a couple of years ago, I agreed to talk to our local Women's Institute about bread making. Someone had apparently found out that I was an oddity - a male who baked - and they wanted to find out more. Either that or they were so desparately short of speakers that anyone who could string two or three intelligible sentences together on a vague theme was welcome at one of their meetings. Whatever the reason, the session went reasonably well and they went away happy. And that's when the WI jungle drums started beating! "We've found a new speaker - and he's cheap" must have been the message that went out as, since then, I've been asked to talk to a number of other WI groups. And so it was that last week, after a morning's baking, I trotted along with my wares (see photograph: spot the new ones - chocolate bread and pesto whirls) to Kelly Bray WI Hall to tell them about bread.

It's always interesting to find out how I've been 'billed' and what the expectations of the attendees are. For this particular occasion, some seemed to have the idea that I was Mr Baker the baker. Although I find such nominative determinism amusing, I had to disabuse them and tell them the awful truth: I was not 'a baker' but someone who did a 'bit of baking' and had the gall to talk about it. As it turned out, not that many of them admitted to making bread themselves and seemed keen to learn. It was a good humoured session and when it came to the tasting, the chocolate bread and raisin and fennel fougasse came out on top.

I have a soft spot for the  British institution that is the WI. Admittedly it's an easy target for jokes (and sometimes they don't help themselves: anyone for the most interesting twig competition?) but I've always found the ladies engaging, engaged and appreciative. The food they ply speakers with is pretty good as well! Next week I'm off to the Launceston WI branch for a repeat performance, although I'm planning to add in some new items for this one to make it more interesting for me. Although practice makes perfect, repetition is boring.

We used to bank with Barclays...................

.............until the early 70s when we became aware, through the activities of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), of their support for the regime in South Africa From the mid-1970s to 1986 AAM and End Loans to Southern Africa worked together to campaign against Barclays to get the bank to withdraw from and stop making loans to South Africa. In 1985, because other international banks stopped financial dealing with South Africa, the apartheid government declared a debt repayment standstill after which Barclays ceased making new loans to them. In 1986 they withdrew from South Africa entirely. The student boycott, of which we were a (very small!) part, of the bank led to a drop in its share of the UK student finance market from 27 per cent to 15 per cent by the time it pulled out in 1986. Because of its associations with the apartheid regime, Barclays Bank was known as 'Boerclays Bank'.

Given the rather pitiful state of our finances at the time, it was a pretty empty guesture on our part. But I like to think that the collective action of thousands like us helped tip the balance. I still believe that many individual small actions by committed people can make a real difference.

And I've carried a suspicion of Barclays' business ethics ever since. So much so that the present LIBOR/Bob Diamond affair surprises me not one jot.

Mervyn King: where has he been?

Mervyn King is the Governor of the Bank of England and, as such, he is a Very Important Man in financial circles. Some would say that, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, his role is the most pivotal to the health of the British economy. I've been trying to figure out what he's been doing whilst Rome has been burning and a letter from David Dalton in this morning's Guardian very neatly sums up the conclusions I've come to. Mr Dalton wrote:

Mervyn King has been governor of the Bank of England since 2003. In nine glorious years he has been surprised by the credit crunch, presided over four years of recession, issued an unbroken series of inaccurate growth and inflation predictions, and is now shocked and horrified to discover some bankers are unscrupulous crooks. His confidence, complacency and cluelessness must have inspired the present government. Clearly he isn't going to resign, and he seems to be unsackable, but couldn't somebody go and wake him up every few weeks?

The World at One on the BBC today has pointed out that it was a word of disapproval from Mervyn King that was a key factor in the resignation of Bob Diamond. So, perhaps, Mervyn hasn't been asleep all the time. But it still leaves me with questions about how effective he is and whether he is also someone who should be considering their position. The ripples are spreading outwards........

More shock and horror: support for a Coalition policy

A recent report from The One Campaign shows that many European countries are reneging on their aid commitments to the world’s poorest countries. Britain is a noble exception - hooray! International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has just recommitted the government to put its target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid into law. Posh Dave's Boys deserve credit for this: protecting the aid budget despite wider cuts, but they will need to persuade a sceptical public that it's the right thing to be doing in these financially striken times. There remains significant support for cutting aid in the short term and, amongst some, a wish to cut aid completely.

It is clear from opinion polls that large numbers of the public are not aware of the progress being made in many developing countries, and a belief that resources there are wasted or used inefficiently. Corruption is also seen as a problem, although not to the same extent. Furthermore, fundraising appeals that ostensibly tug on people’s heart strings may in fact be counterproductive, reinforcing the idea that nothing has changed.

One person in Evesham said:

“I was around when Live Aid shocked everybody and still the problem hasn’t been sorted, we’re giving to charities, doing our stuff and it’s still happening.”

Another person, from Newcastle, said:

“They never show you the success stories, they never say ‘look at this hospital we’ve built, look at the wells we’ve made with the money that’s come in’, it’s always like you say the sob story kind of thing and a lot of it that goes in there is good and a lot of good things but you never see the success, they never do an advert saying ‘with your money we built this or we provided three donkeys’, you never see that kind of stuff, I never see it.”

As Britain stays on course with its own target, the aid budget will increase from around £7 billion this year to around £9 billion next year. This will not go unnoticed by the opponents of aid and it will be interesting to see how the government frames the message. The way they do this will be critical to increasing public support. I wish them every success. For once, they have my full support for one of their policies.

What to do with the House of Lords?