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The final 100 candidates for the Mars One expedition have been selected and hope to set up a permanent community on the Red Planet some time after 2025. The reasons for wanting to go on the  expedition seem quite varied as they must have been on all of humanity's great leaps into the unknown. There is much talk of,  "leaving a legacy" and a great deal of pessimism about the future of humanity on Earth.  The logic is, I suppose, that having fucked up one planet it's time to move on to another. But Mother Earth will continue as a benign habitat long after we have gone and for myself I would prefer that humanity used it's undoubted potential to build a more just and equitable society for itself. Amongst all the quotes from the potential interplanetary pioneers that are sculling around the media today I came across this little gem from one Hannah Earnshaw - "My family is pretty thrilled. They are really happy for me. Obviously it's going to be pretty challenging leaving the earth and not coming back but we can still communicate via the internet."

I told you so!

The Daily Mail is about as noted for accurate dietary advice as it is for anything else but the horrendous old rag deserves a nod for flagging up the fact that butter and cheese may not be as bad for us as we have been led to believe. I have always felt that the natural product of a cow is probably better food than the homogenised, emulsified and generally fucked about product of a factory. Margarine was after all developed as a butter substitute. The end result of scaring a generation away from decent grub like dairy produce and fresh meat and replacing it with processed sugar and palm oil can be seen waddling down any High Street.
But we make far too much fuss about what we should and should not eat. The best advice came from American writer Michael Pollan, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". 'Nuff said.

Inside The House of Fun.

The BBC's new reality sitcom Inside The Commons could turn out to be a smash hit rival to Strictly, Britain's Got Talent and the rest. The first episode was a hoot. The countrie's largest Victorian Mock-Gothic horror housing the nations biggest collection of ego driven petty (and not so petty) crooks. Pseudo medieval pageantry and Hollywood Arthurian protocol. A handful of "good people" struggle to make sense of it all and at least have a try at  honestly representing their constituents. And on top of it all this monstrous edifice of a building is falling down around their ears.
Did you spot Nicholas Soames in his skull and crossbones braces? I had no idea that "Fatty" Soames was a Class War supporter, but then, I only recently discovered that Beyonce is a member of the Illuminati. Another thing. Somewhere hidden in the middle of the Victorian monstrosity that is the Palace of Westminster is the original Westminster Hall. But where? I hope that we get to see it in future episodes. Anyway, I wonder if I might make a suggestion. Why not flog off the building to the Chinese  who would turn it into a hotel complex and theme park? A new building on Millbank could incorporate MP accommodation and thus save a fortune on bent expenses.  In the meantime, as the general Election looms, enjoy one of the best bits of comedy on the box.

March for Homes.

12 NOON Shorditch Church. E1 6JN (North London)
St Mary's Churchyard SE1 6SQ  (South London)
March to City Hall.

A possible way forward.

The Middle East explained.

                                                                                        

The above was sent to me by a reader of this blog. I have no idea of the source but just thought that it summed up at least part of the tragedy of the Middle East rather well.

Waddling down to the chippie of life.

If we all adjusted our diet and lifestyle according to the findings of every new research project the resulting stress would probably far outweigh any benefits that we might get. The latest media  frenzy is caused by Cambridge University research that suggests that lack of exercise causes twice the number of deaths as does obesity. There are a number of interesting issues here but one thing that struck me immediately was all the emphasis on the benefits of a daily twenty minute walk. I find it difficult to get my head round the idea of not walking for at least twenty minutes every day but such is the sedentary nature of many peoples lives that I suppose walking down to the shops now requires an almost Olympian effort.
There was a time when only the rich had any choice about taking exercise. For the majority just the effort of putting bread on the table was exercise enough and the problem was that by the time that people reached retirement age they were simply worn out. Putting bread on the table is still a struggle for many but not a physical struggle. Exercise in this country is now very much a matter of choice.
But why this obsession with longevity? Surely it's the quality of life that matters not the length.  For me exercise is a real pleasure but that's just me and for others the idea of voluntarily getting out of breath or working up a sweat is just too boring for words. So be it. We all have to die of something.

Happy New Year!

For my money, one of the most interesting things that happened during 2014 was the Scottish Referendum. Not the result, or for that matter the issue of Independence itself, but the fact that even in these cynical, disillusioned times it is still possible for a population to get politically motivated. Even after extensive research, much perusal of Old Moore's Almanack, casting of turkey bones and the like, I am unable to predict if the coming general election will be of more than passing interest to the British public. We are now witnesses to a level of economic injustice never previously seen in my lifetime. But apart from a tiny handful of activists most of us seem content to sit back, hope for the best, and expect the worst. So with that less that cheerful thought I will simply wish you all a Happy New Year .

Have a good one!

As you can see from the picture below, I have finally got the decorations up in the hall and given a fair wind and the central heating holding up we are all set for the festivities. So from this old git, Her Indoors and all at Freedom Pass Towers - HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

Waste not want not.

I have been known, when feeling particularly grumpy, to dismiss the Green Party as being nothing more than a home for middle-class women who have sublimated their sex drive into recycling. It's an opinion that is not generally well received among my loved ones and has won me few friends. But leaving aside the good people of the Green Party it has to be admitted that recycling has become almost another religion and woe betide the careless individual who deposits an empty bottle in the wrong receptacle. I doubt that the planet needs saving, well not in the foreseeable future anyway, but if it did I doubt that beating ipads into plough shears would help much. Truth be told the best thing to do about waste is have less of it. I'm the last person to propose that we all return to gnawing a raw turnip by candlelight but the rich nations have reached ludicrous levels of consumption and waste. Use less stuff, reuse things and only then consider recycling. Anyway, what do I know about Green issues. Does anyone know how to cook a Great Bustard? I was thinking of getting one for Xmas.

The Waste Hierarchy. 

Baroness Jenkins rustles up a little something.

The road to nowhere? New Stonehenge plans unveiled.

The most eye catching item in the road improvement announcement this morning is of course the proposal for a, wait for it, wait for it, A TUNNEL UNDER STONEHENGE. What an amazing idea. I'm just surprised that no one has thought of it before! For generations of kids (and adults) the first and usually their only view of Stonehenge is from a traffic jam on the A303; preferably in an overheating Ford Cortina. It was a rite of passage and certainly no proper family holiday to the West Country could be complete without it. Now the Tories want to deprive us of all this by digging a tunnel under a national treasure that is almost in the same league as Barbara Windsor and Bruce Forsyth. May the fleas of a thousand Sid Rawles infest their armpits. Mind you, The Stonehenge Alliance are in favour of a longer tunnel - say from Sunbury Cross to Penzance.

Anarchy in the PKK.

If there is one BBC programme maker who can get my attention it's Adam Curtis. Interested in what's happening along the Turkish/Syrian border right now? Want to know about the influence of Murray Bookchin on the PKK?  Adam Curtis is your man.

Bearing up under the strain.

About this time of year my mother would usually buy a copy of Old Moore's Almanack. I was amazed to find recently that this handy guide to astrological predictions for the year ahead is still being published by the same W Foulsham who produced it when I was kid. I remember that apart from the predictions of Royal Weddings, and other such disasters there were loads of adverts for sure-fire betting systems and a variety of lucky charms with "Joan The Wad" being a favourite if memory serves.
The news this morning is that David Cameron is warning of total financial meltdown, Islamic State have captured the Syrian town of Dabiq that in Islam is supposedly the location for Armageddon and there has been a pre-Christmas outbreak of bird flu on a duck farm in Yorkshire. Other than that it's all good.
Old Moore's Almanack might not be such a bad investment after all.

A Kingston drift.

Yesterday the artist Laura Oldfield Ford led a group drift around the back streets of Kingston Upon Thames. Apart from the implausibility of anyone "leading" a "planned" drift, it turned out to be a good way to spend an afternoon. Laura is tiny, very friendly and obviously hugely talented. I loved her art work and admired her politics. Towards the end of our walk she was talking about her experiences with so called "careers guidance" at school. Attending what she described as a "shit comprehensive", Laura had told the teachers that she wanted to be an artist. She was advised to get a job in a stationary and art material shop. Hearing this I was immediately transported back to my own Norlington Road Boys Secondary Modern. Most of us were destined for the factories with the more polite and less disreputable  looking perhaps getting office work. Retail, or "shops" as we called it in those days, was another possibility. And so it was that any sporting ability would probably lead to a job in a sports goods shop. Although I languished in the second class from the bottom for all of my academic career, I was an avid reader and this was enough for me to be sent off to work for WH Smith flogging newspapers on Liverpool Street Station. Laura clearly survived "careers guidance" and so I suppose did I but my heart bleeds for the kids who are crushed by the system. All those unfulfilled dreams, all that lost potential.

All Huff and Puff?

I have only attended the "poor doors" picket three times so am not in a position to throw stones at anyone else for failing to turn out. Still, it does seem strange that none of the established left groupscules have bothered to get involved. Perhaps they don't see any mileage in the protest or maybe it's because they suspect that the tenants using the side entrance to One Commercial Street are not poor at all but merely "less wealthy". Now I hear that the Huffington Post site put up an article about the picket but took it down after only ten minutes. How strange. A shame actually as it was a good article. You can catch a PDF of the mystery piece here.
EDIT.  Well I never!  http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/peter-tatchell-intervention-gets-huff-post-poor-doors-article-re-published/

Cyberscouting For Boys.

It's easy to make cheap jokes and leftist jibes about the Scout Movement but scouting has provided a vehicle for adventure and a sense of achievement for countless thousands of kids and that can be no bad thing.  Of course Scouting has had to change with the times and may now bear little resemblance to the organisation founded by Baden Powell. The interesting thing is that every time that Scouting goes through an internal crisis about long trousers, politically correct woggles or whatever, it seems to grab the attention of, not only the media, but loads of busybodies such as myself who have nothing whatever to do with Scouting but are not short of an opinion or two about the way that the movement should develop. This week came news that the modern scout is being encouraged to concentrate on developing skills in PR and IT rather than knot tying. I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. The use of cordage, and the ability to tie a secure and appropriate knot, goes back long before the dawn of recorded history. Every time that we denigrate a practical skill and consign it to the dustbin of history, only a short time afterwards it seems to me, we realise the folly of such loss and start launching national initiatives to train young people in these skills.
It may well be that we are close to a world where everything from heart surgery to bricklaying will be done by computers and practical skill are consigned to museums and heritage centres. Maybe that will be for the best, but I doubt it. A cyber society unable to tie it's own shoelaces? No thanks.

A London blog and a half.

I have just stumbled across a wonderful blog. The writers father was a keen photographer who recorded London street scenes and characters from the first decade after the war. A London Inheritance is one of those rare blogs that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Wrong place, wrong time - right move.

It's difficult to know what to do really. A day never passes without more alerts, reports and such like about the nation's lack of physical fitness and alarming levels of obesity. The Olympic legacy has just turned out to be a loss of playing fields and allotments alongside a load more luxury apartments. Only sports that can guarantee a large medal haul at the next games are being considered for state support. If you want to get fit and you don't have the money or the stomach for all those chrome and carpet gyms the best thing is get your kit on and go out for a jog. Not that this is without it's potential problems. You could be running along, suddenly have a funny turn, lurch across to the other side of the road, stumble over the curb and accidentaly deliver a quite decent flying shoulder charge to the fucking Prime Minister.  And there you are. Pinned to the ground by loads of fat coppers and arrested before you have even started your fitness regime. Cameron's security team covered up their gross ineptitude by claiming that Leeds jogger Dean Farley was just, "In the wrong place at the wrong time".  Mm, bit like Charles de Menezes I suppose. At least this time the plod just had egg on their faces rather than some poor bastard's brains splattered all over a tube carriage.

It's grim up North London alright.

Fuck me! You really could not make it up.  Some wealthy Hampstead residents are seriously suggesting that Labour's timid proposal for a Mansion Tax will so devastate their cosseted lives that the whole thing is actually a humanitarian issue. Has anyone alerted Valerie Amos? Drop what you're doing in West Africa girl and get yourself up to Hampstead.
Top marks to Political Scrapbook for alerting the world to this imminent crisis.

And now this. I don't know how they cope.