Are we a Democracy really?

The Guardian Twitter feed very kindly guided me to an article about the British Prime Minister David Cameron being hamstrung when it comes to criticising Israel in relation to its recent activity in Gaza. Apparently he and Mr Hague had done so pre coalition and were lambasted by a number of Tory party donors. It brought me to recall a trip that Tony Blair, when Prime Minister himself, took to Libya when they were bringing Gaddafi out of the cold. He was accompanied by the CEO of BP. I remember the news reporting that he (The BP man) was the second most powerful man in the country. The most powerful man, it was said, was not part of the delegation. Conclusions can be drawn.

I shouldn't really speculate, but if I was a betting man I would put my shekels on most of the British public who make themselves aware of world events condemning the consistent killing of innocents, particularly children in Gaza. However it seems our leaders live more in fear of their Part paymasters than the public that votes them in. People who are at best answerable to their company shareholders and at worst only to themselves. Arguably the same or similar applies in most, if not all the world's prominent democracies. Obama's administration has only been able to use semi committal lawyer speak to condemn events because he does not need to be re-elected. Even then uses the UN schools as a shield from the powerful American lobbies. Principled it is not. Full of fear it certainly is. Oh and the US continues to ship the weapons that are killing these poor souls over. If I handed my friend  the bullets to shoot his neighbour then I would be an accessory. If I knew that said neighbour's children were standing in the way to stop him and he would shoot them too regardless then what am I? But I digress (I am half Welsh after all).

Democracy is what we in the Western world use as a verbal weapon against the nations that don't seem to tow the line yet we are clearly falling short in the application of same. The voting system in the UK, particularly when it comes to general elections, disregards swathes of voters intentions. Marginal constituencies were targeted at the last general election, for example, where the cash pockets of one individual funded the campaigns in these areas for one political party. And it is these areas alone that determine the political fate of the country every five years. In turn when these gentlemen and sometimes ladies are elected it seems they are often swayed by corporate winds and if not seem powerless to break them.

Understandably the establishment fears the results of true democracy. It is often considered that the masses are not educated enough to to truly understand the machinations of running a state. Though I would argue that too much democracy  may allow more educated people to have more say and hence more likely to dig more deeply at the roots of it. It is no wonder that there was little appetite for AV (Alternative Vote) in the political arena outside of the Liberal Democratic Party when the referendum came about. On the other hand maybe they were right as we were too stupid to understand it and despite its flaws it would have given us the electorate more control over our political destiny. No proof of course that it would diminish the powers of BP et al. Big Society anyone? How about a flower show and a sticky bun contest? Something for us to have a say on. Mind you there is always a local businessman leaning on the Vicar to make sure his wife's buns make the grade.

Haider Bahrani is the Managing Director of Sonneteer. The views aired here are his own.
haider@sonneteer.co.uk

Glasto, football and I missed Paxo's last stand. What else?

I'm 44 and I am watching BBC3. Glastonbury is on. I missed Jack White yesterday so I have promised myself a dose of iPlayer at some point. The kids will have to be asleep or maybe it's time the older one (3 and a half) had a dose of the sort of thing that got Daddy to owning 5 or so guitars and designing hifi. Hang on, I'm still scene setting. The title will make sense soon, I promise. Anyway, in between settling the little one and helping mummy with older ones over tiredness having come back from a soft-play birthday party I did manage to watch some of the Mexico vs. Netherland Quarter final. Typically every time a goal was scored (not counting the 94th minute penalty) I was distracted and only caught it on the replay, but yet again I seem to be digressing. But there's more. As we all know by now England is not on the menu football wise. I saw the last of that at the Bar at the Eurocamp we stayed at for our recent holiday. There were us two Dads cursing at the seemingly sub Championship standard of the football on display. Two so called powers of football, Uruguay and England playing like the Scout from Woking Town was watching and they were all a fluster. We were glad they were out as the Quarters would have been an embarrassment. I still do harp on about two years ago when the GB team at the Olympics playing with so much more heart (and structure) than England in the Euros a month or so earlier. Yes, still scene setting. Then came the worst thing. I was away for Paxo's last night on Newsnight. Did you watch it Friday night? Andrew Neal!? Well it was ok. Bit weird as I am used to him being a lot less serious on This Week. At least Kirsty is still there. RRRRrrr, but enough of that. Opening paragraph nearly over. So, What else? Cameron call Junker to congratulate him. Diplomat of the year.

Those who have kindly pressed their specs to the screen to read this blog from time to time may have noticed very little lately. Apart from the pleasure of nappy changing and late nights have filled the few holes in our schedules with I have also been exceptionally board politically. In the true spirit of the coalition I will defer all comment till after the general election.

Well maybe.

 Haider Bahrani is former hifi and technical book reviewer, sound engineer, wannabe poet, deluded songwriter, as well as one of the founders and the current Managing Director of Sonneteer, a British, high end hi-fi manufacturer.

Racism: Alive and well, living in Guildford, Surrey.

A subject I have been minded to tackle a few times before, but an incident today (Sunday 3rd of February 2013) has fired me up a little. 

We had just parked up at Sainsburys, Burpham, Guildford. It was a busy Sunday as usual and we couldn't find a family parking slot. Our little two year old is quite alive and we need to hold her hand tight as we walk across the car park.
 As we walked past the family parking as one slot became available it was immediately taken by a Fiat 500 with an older gentleman and younger man with child seat, but no child to be seen. Admittedly I gave them an evil stare. They got out and brushed past us making a few unsavoury remarks which I would dare not repeat in the presence of children or polite company. The younger fellow then said well I've got a car seat in the back so I'm all right. An answer to a question that no one had asked out loud. My retort was perhaps a little devils advocate as I said "well stupid is as stupid does". The older man, I presume the father of the younger walked up to me and put his face to mine as he produced a string of expletives. Be minded that my little girl was holding my hand and mummy was to her side. I told him that he was a 'deplorable human being'. He walked away calling me a "bloody foreigner" and then stood at the entrance to Sainsbury's and produced a Nazi salute. I imagine all the CC TV cameras would have got a lens full. My Grandfather who saw the second world war first hand and many like him will not have been too pleased that a countryman of theirs behaves as such.

It might be worth mentioning that am slightly olive skinned and have curly hair. I am the descendant of Celtic, English, Arabic and (we believe) Persian ancestors. I am a Welsh Rugby nut and see myself as whole heartedly British. Saying that it should not be relevant. What was a minor non vocal and non violent displeasure at something small turned into an unnecessary racist tirade.

Do we blame ignorance? Do we blame education or the lack thereof? Does anyone have the right to be ignorant in this age of information? So is it pure for the, sake of it, hatred? Questions I do not have the answer for. All I can say is my experience is real. Does the younger man feel ashamed of the older one's actions I wonder? He too is a father. So let's hope so. If you'd like to know how it feels then imagine your stomach being pulled out and someone starts to rummage in your guts.

I said at the start that I have been minded to tackle this subject before. Compared to many my experiences are very few. The sources of them are often more shocking to me and almost always the culprits have been over 55. Our children should grow up to a better place than this. But they wont if we just walk on by. Flush them out and shame them. Let everyone know who they are. If others cheer then we know who they are too.

Dear Mr Osborne

So if I buy my employers shares i have to:

ARTIST: Robert Johnson
TITLE: Crossroads
Lyrics and Chords


[As performed by Cream]

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knee
Down to the crossroads, fell down on my knee
Ask the Lord up above for mercy, take me if you please

/ G7 C7 G7 - / C7 - G7 - / D7 C7 G7 - /

I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Nobody seemed to know me, everybody passed me by

Well I'm going down to Rosedale, take my rider by my side
Going down to Rosedale, take my rider by my side
We can still barrelhouse, baby, on the riverside

You can run, you can run, tell my friend, boy, Willie Brown
Run, you can run, tell my friend, boy, Willie Brown
And I'm standing at the crossroads, believe I'm sinking down

reproduced from:

http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/crossroa.htm

If you need the chord tabs then just leave a comment and I'll add them later.

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.

Fatherhood, baby poo and politics.

Well I'm just testing this new app on my Android phone so it's really just an excuse subject. Saying that I have recently become a father to a beautiful baby girl and the poo thing is therefore very current and politics is certainly very poo right now.

British politics is stuck in some sort of farce with the triamph of misguided ideology over sober pragmatism. Where as in America, we have a pragmatic president being to honest and suggesting his public might be less clever than one might hope and a nutty Ms Palin releasing an ad(post mid terms) which is so lowest commen denominator thta she clearly assumes her public are stupid, but simply sinks to their level and smile. Now I breathe.

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The mad hatter's tea party's US tour.

The mad hatters tea party didn't quite get into full swing, thank fully.

There is, however, an under current of right wing extremism and selfishness in America (thankfully far from the majority) that sits very uncomfortably with most reasonable rational people. It is ironic that they often compare the left as the taliban, when it is they, with a few changes of names and titles, who would fit the Whahhabiate  mould best.(Wahhabi? That's the extreme version of Islam that all the nutty blowuppy myself lot practice. It's a bit like burn in hell evangelical stuff gone too far) .
They are their own biggest enemy, but they just don't see it. Is Europe really so bad that they hate the way we go about things?
I feel sorry for Obama as he is struggling against a culture that simply will not change even if it means they will die because of it. I hope it never happens here. David C beware, big society could lead you right there. Unintentionally of course!

Mind you quite a few people voted for Obama originally. So there is a silent majority of rationality. Just wish they weren't so impatient. Mind you most good people are proven by history and not by their popularity at the time. I know it's a cliché, but I had to say it.

Ideology and carpet bombing.

Not quite how I planned this blog as intended to start some months ago. Time has been mine enemy. The current cuts bonanza has reminded me of the invasion of Iraq a little. 100s of thousands of innocents dead apparently for the greater good. Well if any were my relatives I may have a different view. Often the ones bombing are idealogs who will not be directly, emotionally or otherwise, affected by the carpet bombing.

This is a post on the BBC website in response to a question on the cuts. Oh sorry I mean spending review. After a meeting with David Cameron I was asked to refrain from using the word cuts in reference to the cuts. So the word cuts and spending review will now mean one and the same. This is just so i dont say cuts too often when referring to it, the spending review.

I digress. My response on the BBC blogs:

History will prove this to be all folly. There is only a feint whiff of pragmatism in all these cuts. An ideology of small government is stinking through all of this and no one seems to notice. They say that after a few minutes in the pigsty you don't really notice the smell any more!
"The bourgeoisie, by the rapid
improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication,
draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation."
Now that simply wont happen if we cut everyone out of a means to make money and grow. Investment, investment, investment by Education, education and so on. We are blindly ruining a whole generation all because of some libertarian extremism brushed up as the country's saviour!
Oh Karl Marx wrote the quote. So even the so called inventor of Communism was really a social democrat at heart. The solution is more important than the method of achieving it. The question is, what is the solution in your mind?

Confidence is the key here. This is not achieved by demoralising a nation. There is a good way out of this. This is not it. This is a confidence trick