Resolutions

Spacemen 3 – Revolution

Er, I said Resolution not Revolution.

Still, a Revolution would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, a belated proper Happy New Year to you all. My apologies that I haven’t responded to all that left kind comments wishing me a good 2024; unfortunately my notifications on my phone for the blog seem to be on the blink, so until I logged on here today, for the first time in a week, I was blisfully unaware of them. So thank you all, and the same back to you.

I don’t normally indulge in new year resolutions, mostly because my self-control is so piss-poor I’ve usually broken them within a day or so, but this year I’d thought I’d give it a try. Most of them are related to this place, so I figured I may as well list them here, and I can mark myself for each at the end of the year, if I’m struggling for something to write about. Or maybe I won’t if I’ve failed spectacularly.

Here we go:

1. Try and post more frequently. It’s annoyed me that I’ve got into a bit of a three-posts-a-week rut, the same three series (Friday Night Music Club, Late Night Stargazing & Sunday Morning Coming Down) popping up and very little else. I appreciate I’ve not covered myself in glory thus far – it’s the 6th day of the year and this is the first post I’ve gotten round to writing – but things are gonna change, I can feel it.

2. Try and visit my blogging buddies more often (and leave comments as proof I’ve visited). I’ve felt terrible about this for a really long time, and I really don’t know why it is that before I started blogging I would visit them all almost daily, but for the last couple of years, next to never. I genuinely have no clue why this is, it’s not like I’m spending loads of time writing stuff for here. (I do read the ones I subscribe to get emails from, but as all of us bloggers know, these are next to useless if you’re keeping your eye on your stats and wondering what you have to do to get a bit more attention. Not that any of us will admit to keeping an eye on our stats, of course…) So, Charity Chic, No Badger Required, The (New) Vinyl Villain, Bagging Area, A Few Good Times in my Life, My Top Ten, New Amusements, Stuff & Nonsense, Sun Dried Sparrows, Unthought of, Though, Somehow, phonicpat, dubhead and above all What’s It All About? (who I’m delighted to see as I visited you all to copy and paste your blog addresses is back to doing her thang again. Long may she continue) to name but a few: if, come January 2025, you’ve seen no evidence of me visiting your places, you are officially permitted to be narked off with me.

3. Revive some of the old series. I know, I keep saying I’m going to do this, but this time I mean it, maaan. There’s loads which I started and never finished, most notably 50 Ways To Prove I’m Rubbish, which I started just before I turned 50. In 2019. The last one I wrote was #35, back in February 2023. I will finish this series this year, before I turn 55 and have to think of another way to commerorate that. There is also, of course, The 100 Greatest UK Number 1 Singles, which when I started to write it seemed an absolute gimme. All 100 songs were already mapped out, all I had to do was think of something to write about each one. Ah. Turns out that’s not as easy as you’d think. (And before you ask, I currently have no plans to bring back The Chain.) (Or do I….?) (No, I don’t.)

4. Stop beating myself up about using the same song more than once in the Friday Night Music Club series. Sometimes a song just seems right nestled next to whatever I’ve placed along side, and it’s too restrictive on my art (ha!) to exclude them once they’ve already featured. Besides, I’ve so far created over 50 hours of mixes for that series, so I think I can be forgiven for a little repetition every now and again. Also: nobody really cares.

5. Pay more attention to all of the TV streaming services I subscribe to, and write more about what I liked. A prime (no pun intended) example: this week I made a rare visit to ITVX to watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office. I imagine you’ve probably all watched it by now, or if not have definitely read or heard about it in the week since it first aired. It’s the story of the British Post Office scandal, a miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of sub-postmasters, all of them innocent, were wrongly prosecuted for theft, false accounting or fraud, most of them losing their jobs, their savings, their house, their lives (literally) and their long and still ongoing fight for justice. I generally avoid drama on ITV, finding it often clunky and poorly edited, but when I saw that Toby Jones (of the wonderful Detectorists) was in it, and knowing a bit about the story, I thought I’d give it a go. I was practically squealing with delight as every new character, played by British TV drama royalty, appeared: there’s Julie Hesmondhalgh, and Monica Dolan, and Ian Hart, and Katherine Kelly, and Shaun Dooley, and Lia Williams, and Will Mellor, and Alex Jennings, and Adam James – trust me, if the names don’t ring bells, their faces will. I decided to watch the first episode on Tuesday evening, and ended up bingewatching all four episodes that night, bawling at the sadness of some parts, crying with pleasure at the uplifting bits, furious at the treatment they received, the injustice and downright lies they had to face. Super strong recommends here. Jones plays the titular Mr Bates, who in his efforts to gain justice formed the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance, and I think its about time we had a tune:

The Music – Strength in Numbers

6. Bring some cheer into random strangers’ lives. A non-bloggy one, and a big ask. I do think it a rather simplistic view, but the world would be a much better place if we were all nice to each other. So, whilst I’m not exactly going to go looking for people to cheer up – nobody wants to be Colin Hunt – but when the possibility presents itself, I’m not going to pass up the opportunity.

And I’ve already had some success, I think/hope.

On Wednesday I went to hospital for my first session of physiotherapy since I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I got there fashionably early (I hate being late, or close to late) and so made myself comfortable whilst I waited for my name to be called. I spent the time doomscrolling through social media on my phone, and at one point looked up to see a pair of legs with a really cool pair of ankle boots at the end of them had joined the waiting masses. I couldn’t see the owner of the legs or the boots as they were obscured by a large pot plant. They were black (the boots, not the legs), sort of Dr Marten-y, and had what looked like splodges of paint, or flowers, or firework explosions, all multi-coloured, all over them. They looked fantastic (still the boots). After a while, the owner of the legs and boots was called for their physio session; they belonged to a woman probably about my age, maybe a little older. She was using two crutches to help her walk. She didn’t really look the type to be wearing such funky footwear.

After I had my session, I went to reception to book my next appointment (14th February – I clearly made an impression on my (male) physiotherapist!), and as I turned to leave, I heard the click-click of crutches on a hard floor. I turned and saw that it was Madame Fancy Boots.

“Excuse me!” I called to her. She stopped click-clicking and looked at me quizzically, like I was going to tell her she’d dropped something, or had tucked her dress into her knickers.

“I love your boots,” I said.

“Oh!” she said, visibly swelling with pride, “thank you very much!”

“Pleasure!” I said, before I turned and swept through the double doors and out of her life for ever.

Resolution accomplished.

Franz Ferdinand – Eleanor Put Your Boots On

Tiga – Shoes

More soon.

The Election Section V2.8

Sometimes, you have to think not so much about what is said, than what is not said.

Last week, when Donald Trump, President of the country responsible for the production of the second highest amount of greenhouses gases in the world, announced he would be pulling out of the Paris Agreement – joining Nicaragua and Syria as the only attendees of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change not to sign it – the remaining signatories released statements condemning or expressing disappointment at the decision.

But one leader was notable by her absence from joining the chorus of disapproval. You guessed it: that strong and stable, “bloody difficult woman” Theresa May.

Of course, that’s not the only Trump-related subject she’s been notably quiet about, for, sadly, another opportunity to show some strength and leadership by speaking out against him very came very swiftly afterwards. For as the world queued up to not only show support for the UK in the wake of the third terrorist attack on our shores this year, but also to denounce Trump’s baseless criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, where was our Theresa?

Probably off thinking really hard about the Brexit negotiations again, I suppose.

James – Say Something

I find it incredible to think that the Conservatives have run their election campaign focusing on the strength, stability and leadership qualities, hoping that by repeating sound-bite of the year “strong and stable” enough we’d eventually believe it. A bit like Kenny Craig, if you like.

“Kenny who?” I hear you ask? Kenny Craig. You know Kenny Craig, you just probably don’t know that’s his name.

This is Kenny Craig:

In the last few days, the issue of national security and policing levels has, unsurprisingly given result events, moved centre stage in the election campaign. After the Manchester bombing, a friend of mine, a police officer in London, posted this on Facebook (since I’m not sure whether or not he’s supposed to make political comments, I’ve edited it to remove his name):

It was a sentiment echoed on Sunday evening by Jeremy Corbyn:

“You cannot protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts. Theresa May was warned by the Police Federation but she accused them of ‘crying wolf’”

That is a reference to a speech that May gave back in in 2015, when she was still the Home Secretary. I’ll hand over to James O’Brien of LBC to explain further:

May, of course, denies there have been cuts: “Since 2015…we have not cut the police but protected their budget….we have increased the number of armed police officers, improved co-operation between the police and specialist military units, and provided funding for an additional 1,900 officers at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.”

Former senior Metropolitan police officer Peter Kirkham begs to differ. In an interview with Sky News at the weekend, he said: “The police service is in crisis as a result of the cuts…We hear talk of extra police officers on the street. They’re not extra, they’re officers that have had their rare leave days cancelled, they’ve had their 12-hour shifts that are now done routinely extended into 16 hours.”

So that protected budget, those extra officers, are actually officers who are being forced to work longer shifts, and have less days off. They must be knackered. Which makes their eight-minute reaction time on Saturday night all the more amazing.

“Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, don’t look around the eyes, look into my eyes…”

Time for a tune, I think:

The Music – Strength in Numbers

But, other than bullshitting us about the cuts to our police services which she has overseen since she became Home Secretary and then Prime Minister, she has a plan to combat the rise in extremist terrorism, right? Sure she does. Here you go:

“While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country…We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements to regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremism and terrorism planning.”

Now, I’m not saying that’s not important, that she doesn’t have the semblance of a point there. But let’s counter-balance that with the report into the foreign funding and support of jihadi groups commissioned by David Cameron when he was Prime Minister. The report was to be shown to Cameron and May, then Home Secretary. The report is thought to focus on Saudi Arabia, which has repeatedly been highlighted by European leaders as a funding source for Islamist jihadis.

Well, that’s brilliant, isn’t it? We just have a look at that report, see what it says about the funding, take action against those funding the terrorists, and we’re on the way to sorting this out, right?

Oh, except there’s just one thing. The Home Office have announced that the report won’t necessarily be published, because the contents may be “very sensitive”.

What could be sensitive about that?

On Monday, Lib Dem leader shed a little light on this for us when he wrote an article saying that the report should be published and that it: “…should include exposing and rooting out the source funding of terror, even it means difficult and embarrassing conversations with those such as Saudi Arabia that the government claims are our allies.”

Huh? “Embarassing conversations?” “Our allies?” What can he mean?

Oh wait a minute….

Theresa May meets King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabi

That was taken when May popped over to Saudi Arabia (in a rare moment when she wasn’t thinking about the Brexit negotiations, of course) to discuss our lucrative arms deals to the Saudis. At around that time, the Saudis were being roundly criticised by all and sundry as reports emerged of their bombs hitting schools, hospitals and wedding parties as it intervenes in the war in Yemen. And who sold them the bombs that killed the innocent civilians in those schools, hospitals and wedding parties? Yup, the good old UK. Fair makes your heart swell with pride, doesn’t it?

I mean, even America has stopped the supply of precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia on the back of those reports. But us? Nah, we’ll carry on regardless, thanks.

The Beautiful South – Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)

So May happily sides with a nation that possibly gives financial and logistical support to ISIS, suppresses a report into just that, whilst telling us that we need to tackle extremism and denying that she has been responsible for the cuts in police numbers in the UK which undoubtedly leave us exposed.

And she refuses to condemn the words and actions of Donald J. Trump.

That’s two truly special relationships we have, right there.

Stereolab – With Friends Like These

So, before you pop off to vote tomorrow, you’ll have lots of questions to ask yourself. Make sure that one of them is this: who do you think really has the safety of the country at heart? Is it the party that has pledged to recruit an additional 10,000 police officers (even if they can’t remember how much it’s going to cost), or the party that has axed the police numbers over the past seven years whilst cutting arms deals with countries who are, in all probability, providing resources to those very people who seek to destroy our way of life?

All being well, I’ll be back later tonight with an overview of what the main parties are offering. I’m sure it will be a real laugh a minute.

More soon.