Gove backs down over Mary Seacole.

Michael "The Alien" Gove's plans for yet another reorganisation of education may have come a cropper but he has been able to reintroduce the Great (white) Man view of history into the school curriculum. One consolation has been that thanks in part to the efforts of Operation Black Vote Gove has had to back down over the Mary Seacole affair. Education, will we ever get it right?

Horse lasagne anyone?

The horsemeat scandal has forced the government, the media  and the chattering classes to once again peer into the dark corners of the food industry. Of course there is nothing wrong with horsemeat as such but it is just nice to be able to choose to eat it. The reasons for the state of the food industry are many and complex but certainly globalisation and the cold hand of the market have much to answer for. Food is shipped backwards and forwards around the world "adding value" and  "increasing margins" as it travels from one pool of cheap labour to another. Fancy a nice Findus lasagne ready meal? Pound for pound the horse will probably work out more expensive than last years Derby winner because apart from not knowing what's in it or how it was manufactured, processed food is really bad value. At the moment Domino's Pizza are running a big advertising campaign and all over town huge posters urge us to take advantage of their latest offer. "Feed 4 for £5 each" the posters shout. "All this for £19.99". All this? A couple of medium pizzas, garlic bread, a slack handfull of potato wedges and (this is the best bit) a 1.25 litre bottle of Coke. That's terrible food value and even worse value for money. For twenty quid four people could sit down to a roast chicken and a mountain of fresh veg. You could even throw in a bottle of cheap plonk. Of one thing you can be sure - the CEO and Board  Of Directors of any of the big food companies will not be tucking into the crap they produce, either for lunch today or any other day soon.

Gripped by Dancing On The Edge.

I'm completely knocked out by Stephen Poliakoff's new BBC drama Dancing On The Edge. Two episodes in and I am gripped by the story, the acting, the music, the politics of the tale, everything. An additional pleasure is trying to identify the brilliant locations used and those of you who took part in that great day out that was the 75th anniversary of the Battle Of Cable Street will recognise Willton's Music Hall, but that's just one of many. Interesting interview with Poliakoff here.

Civil partnership for all.

Being neither gay, Tory or for that matter very concerned about other peoples marriages, the Conservative Party tearing itself asunder over GAY MARRIAGE is a bit like stag beetles fighting - interesting enough to watch but you don't really care who wins. What is Cameron playing at? Is the whole thing just to take our minds off the vicissitudes of financial meltdown? Will gay weddings weaken the institution of marriage and shatter the bedrock of society? I'm sure that the answers to these questions are available somewhere - just not on this blog. None the less, I think I may have come up with the solution to the whole problem. A great many couples live together, raise children and go through the ups and downs of a relationship without feeling the need to have their union rubber stamped by the state. Others feel more comfortable within some kind of legal framework and again very many people enjoy the idea of a ceremony of commitment. If a secular "state marriage" or  "civil ceremony" was the only legal form and was open to couples of any sexual preference the problem would go away;  civil partnership for all. If couples also wanted to have their relationships sanctified by The Church Of The Sacred Slave Laundry, Mullahs, Elephant Gods or assorted tambourine bangers of any persuasion they would be at perfect liberty to do so and the faith of choice would be at liberty to be as inclusive or exclusive as they wanted. It would make no difference because such ceremonies would have no basis in law. Civil partnership for all who want it is surely the way foreword.

Freedom rising from the ashes.

Things could be a lot worse down in Angel Alley. The ground floor is pretty much a dirty, smoke damaged empty space now but thanks to the huge effort put in over the weekend all of the undamaged stock has been removed upstairs and amazingly the shop is open for business. Keep up to date on the Freedom website. Pay them a visit, Buy a book. Make a donation. After two world wars and the unwanted attention of generations of secret policemen and fascist fuckwits it will take more than a half-arsed arson attack to stop Freedom. If you are reading this and you are one of those rich anarchists I'm always hearing about well this could be your big chance to put some money where your mouth is.

Freedom arson attack.

 As you are probably aware Freedom Bookshop was the target of an arson attack in the early hours of Friday morning. More details on the Freedom website.

Unlock the inner power of your mind why don't you?

Who am I to dismiss a new scheme to have patients with mild to moderate mental health problems prescribed with a reading list of self-help books? Mind you, some of the American self-help manuals that I have come across have been so badly written and so depressingly trite that they could surely turn a normally cheerful soul to the edge of suicide. But certainly few things in life can bring quite so much comfort and joy as a good book and I do mean a proper dog eared book that you can reach down from a shelf or pull out of an inside pocket or the bottom of a rucksack. The ability to put aside your troubles for a moment and lose yourself in a decent read is a true gift I reckon.  It's just  that you won't  find many such gems in the self-help, self-pity, body mind and wallet section of your local library.