RAMP-AGE Communiqué.

Hot on the heels of the Wikileaks revelations about a member of the House Of Windsor behaving inappropriately comes news that the allotment society cyber intelligence section have intercepted the following:

RAMP-AGE COMMUNIQUE TO THE YOUTH.
IF YOU ARE TAKING PART IN TOMORROWS DAY OF ACTION, BE SURE TO WRAP UP NICE AND WARM. LOVE AND SOLIDARITY.

First Test - Final Straw

What with being swept along by a tidal wave of militant fifteen year olds, discharging the various duties allotted to me by her indoors and keeping things ticking over on the allotment, it's been a busy week. Now I discover that I can't even put my feet up and watch The Ashes highlights on the box. It had escaped my notice that there is absolutely no terrestial coverage of the test at all. Will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back? What would you do, sign up for Sky - or get out on the street with the kids?

Pensioners on the rampage.

One new development at today's disturbances in London was the emergence of a group of militant pensioners who could be seen urging the youth on to further acts of rebellion. Some of the wrinkled revolutionaries that I spoke to claimed to be members of something called RAMP-AGE, a kind of KING MOB for old people. And there was me thinking that Rampage was a Midwest wrestling promotion.

All power to the students!

Having spent most of my adult life slagging off students and generally adopting a thoroughly workerist, not to say neanderthal, attitude toward the dilettante little shits, I now find myself, in the light of recent events, having to eat a large portion of humble pie. Who knows how the next couple of weeks will pan out, but the cuts have motivated students to a degree not seen for a long time. More power to their elbow. Tomorrow could be a very interesting day. Good luck kids. Stay safe, and look after each other.

"Weedy" Gove set to trash school sport.

If Michael Gove gets his way, and I see no reason to assume otherwise, there will be a massive reduction in the sport and PE facilities of state schools in the near future. There has been a consistent erosion of school sports for many years now as successive governments have chiseled away at both the facilities and time available by forcing schools to sell off sports fields and bow to the constraints of the National Curriculum at the same time. None of this will affect the fee paying sector of course. Private schools, being exempt from both income tax and the National Curriculum, have the best of facilities and the freedom to devote as much time to sport as they choose. The posh schools recognize the importance of each child developing their potential in their own way and see sport and physical education as a vital part of this.
As the media indulges in it's collective jerk-off over the continuing adventures of a former Marlborough College hockey captain, it might spare a thought for the majority of kids who, deprived of anything better to do, will be trashing Gove's motor and gobbing on his head down the stairwell when he turns up for a photo opp at their school.

No Business Like Show Business... for the time being.

I had resolved not to join in the Royal Wedding nonsense. To simply have no part of it. But this piece on the Principia Dialectica site was too good not to re-post here,
The announcement of the forthcoming royal marriage will be used by the coalition as a smokescreen, a feel-good factor and an economic bonanza. But the euphoria will not last long. Nothing does these days. The crisis of the economy is too deep. Too many people are suffering. Many will be left with unsold souvenirs.

The entry of Kate Middleton in the royal family is quite symbolic. The monarchy in Britain have always been keen to be seen to change. It did not back Nicolas II when he was toppled. George V discarded his cousin, he could not be seen to back such an autocrat, since there was trouble at home, and it could become much bigger like in Russia. So the czar and his family were left behind…Politics is a cruel business. So the entry of the middle-class to the monarchy is a new move, and it could end the mystique of the Royal Family. Kate Middleton would probably not be out of place on the X-Factor circuit or Celebrity Come Dancing. An art history student is to marry another one.

No wonder all the journalists wheeled in to applaud were over the moon. “A brilliant boost for the economy ” said one hack from ITN (16 of Nov, 2010),”a bonanza for the capital” said another on the same network. Cristina Odone , the God fearing feminist from the New Statesman was over the moon about the marriage , because of sales, and tourism. (Channel 4, 16 Nov, 2010). . then the historian Simon Schama spoke of “of the fetish of the ring”- Kate was given Diana’s wedding ring. Schama also spoke of that marriage as “exorcising Diana’s death” , he also said it was “good news for the government”. and then he added we could be in for a three year Royal display.

First this coming marriage, then the Diamond Jubilee of the queen and her husband, and then the possible marriage of Harry. The crisis of the commodity economy is bottomless. The system has no way of rectifying itself. For Tory historians, in times of crisis, the precedent is there to follow: rally round the flag.

David Starkey, that perfect little Tory squirt and historian of royalty was over the moon with this marriage. He belched: “The Royal Family is reaching out.” Starkey could hardly stay in his chair, you had the impression he was going to take his clothes off and scream: “JOY, JOY, JOY.”

So it is the end of royalty as you knew it, it is now a middle-class show. Maybe the queen is the last monarch, Britain might be a republic in a few years. The Australian PM is of that opinion.

'Nuff said.

Fitwatch site taken down.

When the police react to protest it is not always easy to decide if it is as a result of the personal views of officers, the whim of their political masters or simply an attempt to justify budgets. For whatever reason the police have, in the wake of the mounting level of student protest, had the Fitwatch site closed down. No court order involved; just a quiet word in the relevant shell-like did the trick.