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So this is meant to change my mind about Smoking

So the pro-smoking lobby have got David Hockney on side? He’s apparently been making a noise at the Labour party conference about the right to smoke in pubs –

“You cannot have a smoke free bohemia. Without a bohemia you pay a heavy price,” he said in an interview with The Independent. “Picasso smoked until he was about 98 and so did Matisse.” – right, and so did a fair few other people. However, millions more are dying across the world of smoking related illnesses. Most of them smoke, some of them don’t. Very few of them would smoke again if they were given the chance to start over. And as for a smoke-free bohemia – I thought artists were supposed to be forward thinking, blue-sky-people, envisaging the world that could be. etc. etc. Clearly Hockney is sold on some cliched view of Bohemia as Paris in the early 20th Century. You might as well say you can’t have a Bohemia without huge amounts of dog shit on all the streets – that’s been a feature of Paris for a long time as well…

Clearly Hockney has no idea what he’s talking about – no medical training, no background in social theory. He’s a painter (quite a good one). This quote from the article is telling –

Mr Hockney was taken to Brighton by Forest, a pro-smoking lobby group funded by cigarette makers. At a packed meeting he attacked the government’s plans alongside Joe Jackson, the 80s singer, and the chef Antony Worrall-Thompson.

Right, and what other areas of my life are going to be informed by the three stooges? What on earth have Joe Jackson and Worrall Thompson got to do with anything? I quite like Joe Jackson’s music (recorded, not live), but I’m not about to take tips from him about anything, least of all public policy. Forest are guilty of the most ludicrous of PR faux-pas. Three minor league celebs with no qualification to talk on any subject other than their speciality of art, music or food, pontificating about the right to smoke – PISS OFF, CRAP CELEBS! Nobody cares.

Smoking is rubbish – pointless, damaging, anti-social and expensive. The industry is corrupt beyond belief (it always astounds me when I meet leftie eco-monkeys who smoke – how on earth do they square that one???) and the health effects are a HUGE and pointless burden on the NHS.

Hockney’s comment on this is telling –

Did the artist worry about being hijacked by the tobacco manufacturers? ” No,” he quipped.

“I am glad of the tobacco manufacturers. I am a big customer of theirs. They make a good vegetarian product.”

So no concern about the other environmental effects of the tobacco industry, the human cost, the aggressive marketing to the world’s poorest nations, the covering up of health reports. So long as it’s ‘veggie’. You dickhead.

If I smoked, I’d give up after hearing that, for fear of being associated with a moron like Hockney. and If I owned one of his paintings, I’d probably chop it into 20,000 pieces and sell them.

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A picture speaks a thousand words…

Picture nabbed from Jyoti’s blog.

Yup, that’s an old bloke – Walter Wolfgang, 82 years old, who came to England as a Jew persecuted under the Nazis. At the Labour Party conference, he was bodily thrown out for shouting ‘nonsense’ during Jack Straw’s (Jack Boot?) speech on Iraq.

So not only are the Govt still trying to defend the disaster in Iraq, they are throwing out old men for disagreeing – he wasn’t being threatening or rowdy, or winding up ready throw a fresh dog turd at Straw (oh, that he had!), he just disagreed. But no, under New Labour such things are not allowed. And what’s more, he was prevented from re-entering the hall under the new Anti-Terror Laws!! WTF?? Since when was ‘nonsense’ hate-speech, or incitement to blow shit up, or whatever?

Blair’s half-arsed apology this morning was an embarrassment – a pathetic attempt to shrug off common assault taking place in the name of his party stifling dissent.

This quote from the Guardian sums up the government’s response

Returning to the scene today, Mr Wolfgang received a round of applause from both the conference floor and from party members standing outside. However, the two cabinet ministers on stage at the time, Lord Falconer and David Miliband, refused to join in.

Of course they refused – how could they applaud the exposing of a deeply flawed spin-machine-decision? They’d probably get thrown out of the cabinet.

in contrast, “Later, in his closing speech to conference, the defence secretary, John Reid, apologised to Mr Wolfgang with the prime minister applauding from the stage.” – that’s right, applaud the controlled written apology, worded to try and make light of the whole thing. But don’t join in with the rank and file plebs as they show support for an old man assaulted by hired goons.

How long are the labour party members going to put up with this?? The general public in Britain are on the whole way too apathetic to do anything about it on a national level, but those inside the Labour party who’ve seen their beloved institution stolen out from under them and replaced with some kind off hybrid ‘psuedo-compassionate Thatcherism’. It’s hideous, it’s tragic and it’s wrong.

The berk who man-handled Walter should be tried for assault, as should whoever decided on that as a policy. Wouldn’t it be great to have seen a mass walkout in protest? You bet your arse if it had happened in France that’s what they’d have done.

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Comments trial….

OK, this is a test, but due to overwhelming public demand, I’m going to enable comments for a while, and see how we get on.

I’m making absolutely no pretense about this being any kind of democratic public space – if I don’t like your comment for whatever reason, I’ll delete it; if I can’t be bothered to answer it, I’ll delete it; if you’re the cheat, I’ll delete it.

I guess I’m like the labour party – pretending to be in dialogue with those who hear what I’m saying, when really I’m just a dogmatic old narcissist, who likes the sound of his own voice.

So, you’ve been warned. I may switch them off again if the responses aren’t to my liking. haha!

Soundtrack – me, both solo and with Cleveland Watkiss.

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A goodbye and a thankyou.

M Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled and numerous other books about negotiating what it is to be human, has died.

The Road Less Travelled is one of my all time favourite books. I initially bought it as a joke – it was one of those books that you see celebs reading when they are trying to look like they are taking time out to get their lives together. Geri Halliwell photographed next to a pool reading it, etc.

So I bought it for $2 in an american bargain bookshop, and within half a page I was hooked. Peck’s basic premise that life is difficult, and so much of our mental anguish comes from the feeling that ‘it’s not fair’. If we only realised that being human was about dealing with those obstacles and difficulties, we’d be a lot more happy and productive.

A really simple thought, but a deeply profound one. The follow up book is perhaps even better – Further Along The Road Less Travelled – between the first and second volumes, Peck converted to Christianity, but must’ve pissed off a lot of conservative christians with his unorthodox take on the faith. This too I found profoundly inspiring.

Obviously I never got to meet him – nor did most of the millions of people who read his books, erroneously labeled as ‘self help’ (as Hugo points out, ‘his later work is filled with the notion that our transformation does happen not only through our own efforts (“self-help”) but in partnership with God and our community.’) I wish I had met him, I’m sure he was a fascinating bloke. I’d liked to have had the chance to thank him for his books, for taking the time to write them. there are probably loads of people out there with thoughts that could change my life, but most of them don’t get round to writing them down. He did, and for that, I’m grateful.

Fair-well, Scott (M. Scott? or just M.? Scott, I think).

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Me in Bassics magazine

I posted a thing about this on my NewsFeed page a while ago, but I finally got a copy of Bassics Magazine through today, with the interview with me in it. It’s the biggest interview I’ve done in print (there are a couple of big ones on the net with various e-mags), and looks great. The questions were pretty good so it’s well worth a read if you should see a copy in your local newsagent/borders/barnes and noble/wherever you buy mags.

The cover star of the issue is Michael Manring, so it’s a fine solo bass filled issue. There’s also a track of mine on the cover CD, as well as some video footage, which I’m looking forward to seeing again – the Cheat and I filmed it at St Luke’s at the start of the year. We wanted to do it at St Luke’s cos we could do it in front of the big purple curtains in the main church, but the day we booked it they were installing a new PA, so we had to film it in the back hall, which means the backdrop is a yellow-painted brick wall. It looks like I’m filming it in prison! Hopefully my wikkid skillz will obscure any reservations people might have about learning from a convicted felon serving time at her majesty’s pleasure.

I’ve been a busy boy this morning, putting together the press release for the John Peel Day gig with Rise – click here for the PDF. That’s now been mailed to all the relevant media peoples so now we wait for some coverage and a huge crowd!

Soundtrack – Michael Franti and Spearhead, ‘Everyone Deserves Music’.

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"Vague News' from the Labour party conference

From the BBC news site, once again –

Charles Clarke has vowed to “eliminate” anti-social behaviour and disrespect in society by the time of the next general election “whenever it comes”.

Huh? How can anyone say something like that? What’s he going to do, make being drunk a capital offence? Enact a cull of people deemed to be unfit to live in the country by the government? And what constitutes disrespect?

Apparently the context was to do with eliminating disrespect so bigotry can’t be used by extremists as a weapon in elections – so he tags on some nonsense about extremists to try and add gravitas to his vague and ridiculous pronouncements.

Any notion of ‘reinforcing a culture of respect’ in the current climate is doomed to fail – nobody trusts the government, we’re terrified of the anti-terrorism laws, the prime minister is a proven liar and supporter of illegal military action, the PFI schemes on education and health are ruining public services, teachers feel undermined, doctors overworked, GM food is being pushed along despite zero public demand… How on earth are they going to demonstrate anything worthy of respect?

There definitely needs to be a change somewhere along the line, but the current Government are part of the problem not part of the solution. It’s fucking disrespectful to lie to the nation and kill thousands of Iraqis.

Put your own house in order.

Soundtrack – Talk Talk, ‘Spirit Of Eden’.

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So, does anyone still not know that getting drunk is a really stupid thing to do?

Yet more stats about drinking –

The “Anatomy of a big night out” survey found over a third [of the 500 women polled] had been sexually assaulted while drunk and 34% had had unprotected sex after drinking.

Why does anyone still get drunk? Surely by now EVERYONE realises that it turns you into a twat, it’s a causal factor in the vast majority of crimes, and is clearly at the leading edge of the crisis in sexual health in Britain.

I really don’t like being around very drunk people. I hate talking to people who think they’re being really clever and funny but are really just dribbling buffoons. I don’t mind people who’ve had a few drinks (it’s not like I want to form some kind of tee-totallers club), but being around proper bladdered people is rubbish. You act like a twat. No, really, you do. The only people who think it’s cool are other equally mullah’d people. And what’s more, you’re upping your chances of getting mugged, raped, attacked, etc. etc. by some insane order of magnitude. Just give up, stop doing it. Go on, i dare you. If you want to know how you come across, go out for a night out in central London, don’t drink a thing, then get the night bus home. If that doesn’t put you off, I don’t know what will.

The binge drinking thing in Britain is just mental. Travelling in Italy, people there seem to guzzle a lot of wine. I drink a fair bit of wine when I’m Italy. And never get drunk. It’s spread out, it’s with food, it’s drunk for the pleasure of it, not to get shit-faced and fall over. There doesn’t appear to be much kudos in Italian society in lying face down in your own sick. Clearly there are entire sub-cultures in the UK where being so hammered that you piss yourself is a real status symbol.

just stop it, it’s getting really tired.

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Ah, the British judiciary – always treating foreigners with respect…

From the BBC website –

The Home Office did not act unlawfully by asking a man to attend a meeting in order to arrest him for deportation, a High Court judge has ruled.

Lawyers for Jamaican Alrick Glanville, 34, accused officials of playing “a trick” on their client, as he had been promised a meeting about a work permit.

Mr Glanville had been offered a three-year permanent position for a medical design and production firm.

His employer had offered to obtain a work permit for him, and he had applied for leave to remain, wrongly believing that the permit had been granted.

But immigration rules meant that, without a work permit, Mr Glanville needed to leave the UK and apply for leave to remain from Jamaica.

Mr Justice Moses said Mr Glanville’s application for leave to remain was consequently turned down, but that he was not told.

So, let’s get this straight, this guy had been in the UK for a while, had been offered a job, applied for a work permit, got mixed up with the bureaucracy, and instead of helping him, telling him what he needs to do, he is summoned to a meeting, on the pretext that it’s in his interest, and is then arrested.

Bastards. I’m embarrassed that I live in a country where things like that are legal. It’s not like he was even living off the state (he still wouldn’t have deserved this treatment if he was, but even hate-fuelled Daily Mail readers can’t resent a guy doing a job!).

I have a friend who worked with a charity helping girls trafficked into the country to work illegally in the sex trade. Kept as slaves, they have little chance of escape. When they finally got to a safe-house, the workers at the safe house had to go with them to sign on, otherwise they would be kidnapped by the immigration service and deported, without any thought for the danger they were in, or the huge likelihood that they would be kidnapped again, and trafficked straight back out of the country again.

Our immigration service is a disgrace, and not for the reasons bandied around in the right-wing media. If a country like ours with a centuries-old tradition of empire building and fucking up the rest of the planet can’t see its responsibility to the people whose countries we’ve helped to render bankrupt, we should be ashamed. I’m ashamed. The treatment of those who come here seeking asylum or a better life (can we please get away from this idea that economic migrants are somehow a bad thing??) is appalling and the changes that are needed in our immigration policy ought to make life easier on the immigrants not harder. And don’t get my started on the prison conditions that asylum applicants are kept in…

I hope Alrick is able to sort his life out, and that he is able to appeal and win, to come back and take up the job he’s been offered, and I wish the immigration bastards were forced to apologise for treating him this way.

Soundtrack – Rise Kagona’s tracks for the gig on the 13th.

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A Blogger's Favourite Blogs blog-meme

OK, here’s a meme for all y’all who blog out there –

If you were stuck on a desert island with an internet connection to only one blog, whose would it be?
Which is the blog that makes you laugh the most?
Which blog is most likely to make you cry?
Which blog is most likely to inspire you to part with cash for a CD/DVD?
Which blog is most likely to cause you to change your mind about an issue?
Which blog do you read first in the morning?
Of the blogs you read by people you don’t know, who would you most like to meet?

And here’s my answers –

1) – assuming that www.howtobuildboatsoutofsand.blogspot.com doesn’t exist, It’d probably be Liz’s – I’m sure if there was a decent curry house on the island, she’ll blog about it at some point, as well as somewhere to purchase stylish footwear should the opportunity arise.
2) – either Liz’s or Going Jesus.
3) – er, probably Sleepless In Sudan – which could also fit into the above category – equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.
4) – Most likely Sid’s blog.
5) – Hugo’s blog – either him or his comments. Lots of great brain food there. There are a couple of others that teach me a lot – George Monbiot and Jyoti but I don’t often change my mind on an issue because of them, just discover an issue I wasn’t previously aware of.
6) assuming all the blogs I read have got new posts listed, it’s normally Gareth’s, knowing that we’ll be chatting about whatever we’ve both blogged about within about 5 minutes of me switching my computer on. Though, it may actually be the Shark, as she lives in NYC and thus blogs later than anyone else I read, so is more likely to have posted after I went to bed… And this was in no way influenced by her offence at not being mentioned in the rest of the list. Not at all.
7) Either Sara, Hugo or Jyoti – all very interesting peoples.

Right, there you go – now go answer them on your own blogs!

Soundtrack – Duke Ellington, ‘The Classic Tracks Of The 40s’ (featuring the legendary Jimmy Blanton on bass).

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