On the farm.

'Europe or bust', it said.  I am refering to an article in the Christmas week(Bumper Festive Double) issue of Farmer's Weekly.
We spend every other Christmas up on the Farm in North Yorkshire and we have regular jaunts up from 'the beautiful south' so that our little girl has regular contact with the Northern Grandparents and so they can see their little girl of course.

I am always fascinated culturally with the way of life and to the regular expression of political view which is often at least as complex as its urban equivalent.

Farmers are inherently conservative. They believe themselves to be and, on matters close to home,  I find this to generally be true. Which brings me back to the article I have referenced at the top. On the front cover of the magazine it read: Debate. Outside the EU, would British agriculture sink or swim?  I imagined on turning to the page there would be rant after rant of how awful Europe is and how we would be better off on our own and so on and so forth.  To my surprise,  the opposite was generally true.  The more learnered discussion was generally in favour(of Europe) while most of the voices against were made of populist sound bites and little substance.  This to me was a little disappointing as I was very intereted to hear (read)  a constructive debate.  The only problem the pro European arguments may have had here is that they were presented too academically.

So is there a grand misconception regarding the 'Rurals'? Much in the same way as I sometimes get the impression that out here they think all townies are unionist and Marxist? My impression is, of course, wrong (well slightly), their (the Rurals) impression is too and so is the general impression the 'Urbans' seem to have of the farming world. As every good politicians says at least once in their life, it is much more complex than that.

The only thing that confuses me is why a people who are as reluctant to embrace change as the next person are so anti trade union for that very trait?  Mince pie anyone?

The headless chicken raises it's ugly tail twice!

As a Fidelity client I often get letters when there is a little termoil in the equity markets. As you can imagine, I've had a few lately.The author of the latest was laying the blame firmly on the lack of leadership in political circles.  A sentiment I share and a frustration many are starting to bare. The HP debacle that seems to have been playing out over a number of months and which came to a head in the past week exposes a similar problem at the technology giant.

I have had this feeling myself sitting at tables in meetings watching people hoping someone else will tell them what to do. Oh Iggy 'Chairman of the bored/board' I'm so bored as they fiddle and things crumble beneath them.

I vote for the highly intelligent Rottweiler rather than the charming 'know it all'. 

'So you can't hear them scream'

A few weeks ago,  I couldn't attend a seminar at the local University Technology Centre on 'Selling in hard times' as I was baby sitting my daughter.  I asked a friend who had attended to give me a  summary. He eventually gave me copy of his notes which were well rationalised sales techniques,  but when we spoke about it the language was much more emotive. The notes were paraphrasing the speaker whereas here he was speaking of the collective sombre, anxious, defeatist sentiments from the audience. Most were apparently showing grave concerns for the austerity measures which were bringing their livelihoods to halt. What he actually said was,  ' if you are going to kill them,  slit their throats so you don't have to hear them scream!'.

A brand New Frying pan!

5 live in my car with Victoria Derbyshire as I consume the fumes of the M25 on my way to visit a supplier and 'Yates of the yard' is being grilled by MPs. Apparently nothing done within his department is anything to do with him as there are 4000 people doing it and can't have his finger on every pulse. I caught the end of Ian Blair's testimony just as I got on the road and his line was similar. At least Ronald Reagan said he couldn't remember and was subsequently proved right with his terrible illness. Prime executives, Chief or otherwise, if worth their pay packet should have every finger and more in every pie and on every pulse in their organisation either directly of through their delegates. Else to what end do they exist? If the chaps are struggling to multi task perhaps more ladies should be in charge?!

All of this reminds me, we need a new non-stick frying pan at home. The one I normally use is starting to cling to eggs and it's leaving little black bit on the tomatoes.

It's the people stupid!

Nothing to learnum here!

As cringe worthy and damn site anger stimulating things like Daily Mail headlines and Sarah Palin utterings can be to many they are certainly very effective in communicating with their audience. The recent, UK Conservative government led anti Alternative Vote campaign could, too, be viewed as having been plucked from the same reference book.

Readers of the broadsheet press will have gazed upon harsh and to some extent dismissive criticism of all of the above for being simplistic, populist and vulgar and yet their effectiveness is undiminished. Take Sarah Palin's book for example and combine it with her political short(video) that came out during the Mid term US elections. Both seen as tabloid, cliche and lacking in any cranial content. That is to quote some of the politest of critics. One could argue, however, that they are a stroke of genius. Ms Palin, the Daily Mail and Messrs Cameron et al. are fully aware to whom they are speaking and have tailored their messages perfectly. Sometimes the truth is a victim, but the audience is happy and the agendas are met. We dare not educate them else they might know what they are voting for(or against as is more likely)!

In much the same way that the Thatcherite philosophy of the 1980s relied on a large pool of unemployed to succeed this neo libertarian, staunch conservatism (an oxymoron if there ever was') relies on a pseudo educated masses to steamroller its' engine through.

It has been interesting to hear comments from my peers here in Britain while observing the news on the Arab spring. As young Egyptinas and Tunisians face cameras and articulate in good english about political freedoms and what not and to find out that some of them are shop keepers, taxi drivers and manual workers yet command a level of education we wouldn't expect on UK shop floors. That's unless they were Polish of course!

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Can't do, wont do; a prefect all at sea.

We will sell you guns and missiles! 

Admittedly I have never nailed my flag to the centre (ish) right mast and I am far from a believer in the Libertarian, Anarchistic ideology. Saying that I have always considered the likes of David Cameron and William Hague to be well intentioned people at heart. May be that is still to be born out and  my current anger, misinformed.  I am certainly a believer of, if you want people to travel down a certain road then you need to build the roads and build them from where they are now. Discarding the old roads but asking those who need new ones to build them themselves is a little bit 'Let them eat cake' ( a la Marie Antoinette for those of us who didn't read history at Oxford). So we have an ideology of young conservatism of the Thatcher era which tore the heart out of British humanity eating away at the innards of current leadership. A philosophy born of millionaires and not for the better, greater society.

The well intentioned amateurism of Messrs Hague and Cameron has none been more evident this Arab Spring. While William observes the the dramatic nature and the likely consequence's of the fact that the Arabs are humans with normal human needs like us (the great civilised people of  the west) after all, David sups with the tyrants. One hopes that Mr Cameron(David) will have been lecturing the Saudis on the merits of pluralism rather than begging them to pump more oil and buy more of our guns. The confused messages, never the less, show off a bunch of guys put in charge of the Zoo, having lost all the animals and no idea how to start getting them back.

.

It's the way I tweeted them. So they called!

Something that tickled me. So I had to share. Below is a response to a recent Tweet. My tweets spread through, twitter, facebook and LinkedIn. The response is from my old friend Catherine.

Haider Bahrani

As a Bahrani (Never been to Bahrain), why is my government (British) not going to the aid of the Bahraini people?Are Libyans more worthy?
Catherine Osborn 
Thank you for calling the United Nations Humanitarian Hotline, please listen carefully to the following options.: Press 1 if you have oil. If you have no oil, please hang up now. Thank you. All of our agents are currently busy obliterating other oil-producing nations. You are being held in a queue; please don't hang up, your oil is important to us. [Cue Greensleeves]


The events represented in this story are real. Any similarities represented in the news are purely coincidental!

You win again: Barnsley Central sticks to Labour - PR and Hot Chocolate

Everyone's a winner baby, that aint the truth; to coin the words of a well known sometimes bridge player..
As a Labour stronghold it was going to be difficult to truly gauge the mood of the country to the Blue n Orange party, but, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say their potential downfall is not the economy stupid this time. The last 15 or so years has brought more people through higher education and in general we have a more savy bunch. We trust in brands; Labour, Conservative, LibDem. The LibDems have definitely tarnished their brand as their core has been taped in blue. The Conservatives, conversely have found the old apple core from the 80's and got a PR man to sell it. But in the end it's just an old rotten core that was bitter all along.
May day, May day! Now for that Cuppa.

High Society, No such thing and Big: High Risk Cameron gets high in the sky.

As I put finger to keys news breaks as David Cameron lands in Egypt as his 'Window of opportunity' for reform in Egypt is open. I was about to talk (write) about, well the first part of the above title and the Cameron ideological moves towards Americanisation(in republican political terms), I mean shrinking government. Apart from my strong misgivings regarding making public service one big charity organisation (or is it loads of little ones) incoherently making tea and saying oh how awful while others rant against the machine, it is truly a remarkable exposure and measure of how much uncalculated risk the man is willing to take.

Of course, the very meddling from the former colonials (in the eyes of the Arabs) is what brought about the regimes that they have come to detest in the first place. So surely landing in Egypt now as well as unstitching the fabric of Britain are bad for erm, well Britain!?

If I was every in doubt I am now sure. The prefects have taken over the school and they are in a little rowing boat in the middle of the pacific, Nic on one oar and Dave on the other.

Thank heaven for little girls!

Newsnight again with Kirsty at thw wheel today. Gigi Ibrahim is on again as Egypt takes another interesting turn. Whether it be people power or stirring by the 'West' Mubarak clearly hasn't read the script. Barak (not Mu) may also have played his cards a little earlier than he should have.

I went to an all boys bording school and this reminds me of when decent young boys are made prefects. Power is a drug and the adiction is irational.

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NewsNight 09-02-2011 Gigi talking and me tweeting!

I posted this on Twitter earlier today 
"NewsNight: did anyone note the thick silence when Gigi Ibrahim said she was a Revolutionary Socialist? So eloquent and pro democracy too!"
My main focus was my little girl on my lap taking from a bottle in my hand and the fact that I was quite exhausted and really didn't want to fall asleep with her there. As a distraction, Newsnight is my often friend on these occasions. They were talking earlier about revolutions and young educated women coming to the surface as leaders and so on. An interesting development in itself, bit not my concern here.


Gigi Ibrahim, speaking fluent American English with a subtle Arabic Accent waxed eloquently and intelligently  as the host (cant remember who is was now;I was tired) asked generally about events and brought in other guests etc. Then the question was posed whether the protesters had any political leanings or ideologies as it was implied that the revolution in Egypt not an ideological conflict, political religious or otherwise. quite matter of factly Gigi responded that she was a revolutionary socialist but that didn't necessarily reflect the views of other protesters. The silent deep breaths of air in the studios of other guests and the host told a tale that may define the west's approach to the final outcome.


I am sure the Commercial and military deals will still be in place who ever comes in.