My favourite waste of time

So capitalism is still collapsing, my son is away in respite and what do I do?

Slept in late, watched The Gilmore Girls. Who? The Gilmore Girls! Followed by the omnibus edition of Hollyoaks, a bath, a shopping trip for some easy drinking dry white wine and some crisps. Since the telly was already tuned into E4 I just accidentally watched Wife Swap -totally liberal parents swap with totally Christian family. Of course each of the mothers begrudgingly acknowledged they had learned something from the other while glowering at each other lest they each ...well something can't quite put my finger on. Something about mothers and their domains. Is there a fine line between matriarchy and mysogyny? Or rather the mysogynistic exploitation of matriarchs in this programme or something.

...followed by triple bill NCIS (I love the theme tune -its equal tops with the the theme to BBC's Who do you think you are), all of which I have seen before. Seems I mixed up the fact that the series which I haven't already seen is on Friday not Saturday.

This is not what I had planned for the small amount of time I have which is not devoted 24/7 to ensuring the safety and welfare of the young man I care for.

I had planned the most high-minded and intellectual pursuits. So why have I ended up in a most mind-melting televisual environment?

It seems the lofty ideal enshrined in various community care law that carers' should have a life outside caring and their wish to work, train, be educated or simply enjoy leisure activities should be taken into account is still not happening in practice. Such is the weight of caring responsibility that all I am fit for come some time off is the inanities of soapland.

There is a reasonably operational brain (just about, still) here just going to rot.

Kate Nash comes out

...for feminism.

Smashing guitars

...aren't they. Stupidly and unfortunately I did not record the series 'The Story of the Guitar' (cringeworthy -Rachel Cooke at New Statesman, 'a treat' Sam Wollaston at The Guardian). I do hope it will find its way on to an educational BBC DVD or something... all that historic footage and exquisite guitariness.

By some cruel twist of nature I love music but cannot sing a note nor possess the co-ordination to play an instrument. In recorder lessons at school I used to mime because I could not keep up with everyone else, the messages from brain to hand just got lost somewhere along the way. Sometimes the teacher would line us up and progress along the line getting each of us to play solo. I used to blow a note, shrug awkwardly, screw up my terrified crimson face and die.

I would have loved to have played the drums. I once tried guitar lessons but had the same experience as per the recorder. Rather tragic for something I loved so much.

As well as all the guitar riffs and clips in the series some of my own personal favourite guitar bits are the guitar solo in Stone Roses 'I am the Resurrection', Radiohead 'Street Spirit', also by the Stone Roses 'Waterfall', Joy Division, New Order, Muse ..oh and just about anything with a guitar in it. Once saw Nils Lofgren (Bruce Springsteen, E Street Band) on a solo tour.

Perhaps all is not lost for me though, as Radiohead sang "I want to be in a band.. When I get to heaven..Anyone can play guitar".

Photo by Derek K. Miller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Godin_LG-Squier_Strat.jpg

The C-word

Cripes! Capitalism is collapsing around us and where am I? Holed up in meetings and Caring. Back Soon. Follow the links in The Reading Room and the Art Gallery over there >>>... plenty to keep you entertained.

Excuses, excuses

Don's excuses are way more exotic than mine.

I have been busy trying, pathetically, to ensure a voice, locally, for families caring for disabled children.

The Blame Game

Just a quick knee-jerk reaction to Cameron's speech today. If Gordon Brown is to blame for the economic situation in Britain today then presumably America's problems are his fault and so are those of France and Asia. Accusing Labour of being statist is one thing but global domination is certainly not something they would claim to have. Separating off domestic problems may make good political copy which some people might not notice the contradictions of but does not actually make any logical sense or sound policy sense.

Might it not just be something all these societies had in common?

Its definitely not, in her own sound, not over-inflated, estimation her fault.

But my especial finger-wagging, tut-tutting, judgemental raised eyebrow rests equally (I have two eyebrows) on the opposition, the true party of business and business itself for jumping up and down and being shrill every time 'regulation' is even hinted at. You can't adopt a position of objecting to every measure to humanise markets and capitalism (family-friendly, flexible working?) and then abdicate all responsibilty for creating a culture -and here, stop, pause, and think of culture as opposed to laws- of deregulation which then results in the mess we have now. Y'know, hey, these guys are risk-takers (except they're not, hedging? other products for passing off, repackaging/spreading risk? [insert country/institution] stock-market panic?), we should reward them handsomely and set them free and then bail them out when everything goes pear-shaped.

Its funny the same magnanimity doesn't apply to 'working class' 'risky behaviour'.

Ohhh what's the loud noise. Big Bang anyone? No, not the Large Hadron Collider but cast your minds back to 1986/7 and the deregulation of the financial markets. Remember they needed to be set free to take risks.It was good for us.

No links, no pictures

They say part of the success of successful blogging is in regular posting, the very nowness of news etc but I take if not practice a slightly different view. Some blogposts on the blogs I read are just useful in that they distill stuff from a wider time perspective and hang there for posterity. Debate and history does seem to go in cycles and circles and have timeless themes. So don't anybody with half a brain cell stop blogging unless its to spend more time with your family. I suppose what I am saying is self-justifying guff about not having posted anything for a few days, don't come here for any cutting-edge gossipy breaking news type stuff.

If the personal is the political, I suppose the central political message from my absence is that caring responsibilities often prevent one from having a public voice to add to the cacophony via blogging and it reinforces the fact that the most vulnerable aren't always heard by dint of the fact they are busy being vulnerable.

However, have been well busy with carer related stuff locally. Caring in the sense of 'Caring' with a 'Capital C' is about so much more than Caring/caring for our individual loved one.

I will say this about national politics and the reporting of it. Having been in some fairly heavy carer/disability related meetings recently which am sure are replicated across the country I have at the same time been utterly disgusted at the time and prominence accorded to purely party political non-stories in the mainstreammedia ie all this style/leadership/Miliband overheard remark stuff.

Imagine, for example, if the same amount of time and prominence had been spent actually looking at the substance of the things in Gordon Brown's speech. His re-affirmation of commitment to SureStart Children's Centres could have afforded a whole debate around these places/idea of such places as the crucible in which the next generation of human beings is forged.Imagine the more relevant policy outcomes which might ensue on a whole range of issues if as a society we could become more engaged with 'serious' and 'detail' Gordon Brown mentioned in his speech.

This whole disability/caring related stuff I am spouting is by no means a minority sport. There is a great deal in common between those born disabled and in need of care and those who become disabled through the, at present, degenerative nature of longevity of which such numbers are predicted to rise.

I would be the first in a probably inappropriately didactic way to encourage my fellow citizens to watch/read the more serious news outlets but I have to say some elements of the News in Newsnight gives somewhat distasteful prominence to the narrow interpretation of news as party political news.

C'mon there's more to news than party politics and party political process.

This week a small child died on account of her mother being ashamed of her disability. Did not that warrant a wider debate?

Soul Man

If a week is a long time in politics what of economics timeframes? How weird does it feel to suddenly be talking about a 'crisis of capitalism'. The notion of 'capitalism' as a criticism was a defunct Marxist conspiracy theory as in fact capitalism is just what human beings 'naturally' do. Since it is regarded these days as such a natural and inevitable backdrop as much as the sky, the trees and the fields, seeing/hearing the word capitalism being mentioned in the MSM is quite surreal indeed.

At this critical time we must be concerned for the Soul of Man under Capitalism.

Cinderella*..

(*Britney Spears)
...shan't be going to the ball.

Spot the difference

I take as much interest in the process of news creation as in the news itself. Having already commented on how watching/reading the news often feels like journalists inhabit a parallel universe where they hear an entirely different language and therefore politicians mean something other than the words they actually speak, two articles written recently confirmed my suspicions.

You couldn't slip a page of free supplement paper between Brian Cathcart's 'Reading the political codes' in the New Statesman and Peter Wilby's 'Catch of the day' in the Guardian.

They both dealt with journalists' tendency to read all kinds of fanciful imaginings into whatever politicians say and both manage to weave Pifflegate into their articles. However, there was nothing coded about Boris Johnson's rubbishing of the notion of 'broken Britain', one of his own leader's key slogans though it undoubtedly stems from Boris's off-messageness and the fact that it is simply a slogan rather than a true characterisation of the nature of modern Britain.

If they had wanted the media could have developed Boris's remark and David Davis resignation into a wider narrative about splits and divisions within the Conservative Party but they didn't. Instead, they continue to insert meaning into every gap, pause and ommission in government ministers' utterances.

Are they simply decoding dissembling politicians or creating the news?

Sleepy Jean

(NB to quote the Ting Tings that's not my name - just couldn't think of a title because of sleep deprivation)

I desperately want to go to sleep (carers often get very tired) but with such intermittent internet over the last few days I really should catch up on some reading/'working' and blogging while the internet connection is good to go. The Lib Dem conference is on... maybe just a quick fortywinks....

End of the Pier

Just before my troubles with the internet (which aren't over yet and which is why I'm only just posting this now) Fleetwood pier went up in flames. Not for the first time either. A couple of days previously I had been strolling past the delapidated pier with relatives discussing what should be done with it. I did subsequently query it with them but they can vouch for their whereabouts.

Predictable I know, but I suggested it should go all olde worlde and be restored to its original Edwardian glory and that much more should be made of Fleetwood's history and fine old buildings. Visit Fleetwood Museum.

There was an application to build some flats on it. Although the view would have been nice on a sunny day am not sure I would fancy being lashed by a stormy sea. Now there's not much left but a tangled wreckage.

Some locals are of the view that it was a mixed blessing; a sad end but that it was an eyesore.

Here's how it used to look.

Internot

So we weren't sucked into a black hole and my birthday happened after all. Well it did a bit. It was slightly ruined by a series of minor irritations and one big domestic catastrophe. A flavour of the minor irritations can be illustrated by this: I had 10 quid nicked out of the envelope left out for the milkman. I know, I Know slightly foolish payment arrangement but for a number of reasons and lack of headspace to think through a better one it was for the moment the one which was semi-decided upon.

The major catastrophe is my internet connection is down. Have spent the weekend (when I should have been out having birthday fun!) trying to diagnose the problem swapping cables etc before I get onto the ISP. Again for various reasons it wasn't thought to be a service failure with the ISP (the ISP website reports no problems in the area). Heavily leaning towards the theory that the modem is busted. The proof of this is this post which is brought to you from my laptop and via the relatively free (I felt morally obliged to buy some food and a coffee but the staff keep looking at me) wifi at McDonald's which almost certainly means its a hardware problem back home.

I was about to try this connecting to wifi at McDonald's test last night. It was a test of the same magnitude of the firing up of the Large Hadron Collider but the laptop battery died on me so I was sat there faced with some food I didn't really want a potential internet connection and a dead laptop.

My loss of internet is a catastrophe. A number of things I do at the moment are heavily dependent on internet access. Also being often housebound by caring responsibilities accessing contacts and information online is essential, paradoxically, to 'having a life'. I once read somewhere a survey that found that a significant percentage of people were more anxious about the loss of their internet than the loss of a partner. No doubt we could pick holes in a survey which found such a thing but I would not argue with the idea that being connected is an essential part of modern life, especially for people such as myself. It is not a frivolous luxury.

My Autistic son will also be devastated at the loss of it and while he is very competent with google and youtube he cannot understand the basics nor the complexities of getting the internet fixed; his solution to everything is sellotape. A devastated Autistic young person repetitively chanting 'fix it, fix it' for as long as it takes will add an extra layer of stress to the whole event.

On a positive note though some friends who were away for the weekend bothered to send me a text wishing me happy birthday which was nice and my elder son who lives away from home remembered independently that it was my birthday and brought me a clothes voucher for one of my favourite shops.

I know there's loads of stuff going on in the world not least the interesting political stuff here and in America and I have things to say about it but for now I will be tangled up in the pressing problems of getting back online and hope that the plight of the poor carer with the additional burden of trying to maintain networks and opportunities by other more labour intensive methods is as newsworthy in its own way as what royalty has for breakfast or indeed the leadership squabbles of the Labour Party. Get a grip Labour, some of us have real problems out here.

There done it. Blogging from McDonald's wifi. My battery life and the staff's patience maybe about to run out. 17 mins left. Just enough time to download some stuff on the Mental Capacity Act -not for me for 'work'- though I may well be needing it very soon!

From Bury to Mercury

Well done Lancashire lads! Check out their Northerness and their music.

They also support the National Autistic Society and will be raising money for the charity on their forthcoming tour.

Big change

In September's issue of Total Politics, Tim Shipman, Washington correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph writes about Barack Obama's effective organisation in mobilising volunteers and supporters. I don't know whether it was deliberately written this way or not but this paragraph did raise a particular image in my mind:

"To tackle McCain he is now assembling what will be the largest field operation in the history of American politics. During the South Carolina primary Clinton supporters in the state capital Colombia dined nightly on fast food. There were so many Obama volunteers that they roasted and consumed an entire pig every night.

By June, the Obama campaign staff was more than twice the size of the Bush re-election campaign staff in 2004 and nearly three times the size of McCain's..."

That'll be all the roasted pig!