So with nothing better to do late on Christmas Eve (we got rid of the telly – I could read a book I suppose) I write this post next to my virtual log fire and a tray containing mince pie crumbs, an end of a carrot and an empty flask of coffee. Coffee? You see we consulted the children and they considered that Santa will be tired and will need some coffee to keep him going.

This business of him coming down the chimney. I don’t suppose many people have open fire places these days. Probably blocked up with some fake log/coal fire device. Maybe a wood burning stove. But if it’s installed properly it’s going to have a  flue going up the existing chimney – rather a confined space for a portly Santa.

And then we have all those neo-Georgian developments where there is no chimney just a fake bolt-on chimney stack…

The other day I caught a Today program discussion on the idea of a ‘white Christmas’.

Interesting to note the notion of a white Christmas being a 19th century view – Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (& a very 20th century Bing Crosby didn’t help), that this is very much responsible for all the dreadful Christmas sentimentality. One of the contributors talked about the wonder of waking up to a snowy Christmas day which I have to admit would be wonderful. But I do often wonder about how ‘sentimental’ you’d get celebrating Christmas in Australia! And log fires on Christmas day – how many of us do that or even can with our neo-Georgian fake plastic chimneys.

And I recently got my first AV referendum mailshot urging me to support the Yes campaign. In a previous post I’ve criticised Britain’s adversarial political system and it’s inability to escape the 19th century and so will very much support the Yes campaign so that politics in Britain can get into the 20th century.

So that leaves us with neo-Georgian pastiche architecture. How do we go about getting the country’s house developers to design and build our homes fit for the 21st  century! Perhaps, if the Yes campaign wins, the Government should pass a law banning pastiche.

Ian Duncan-Smith recently courted controversy by saying that un-employed people should get on a bus to find work. Perhaps instead they should learn a foreign language…

At a party recently I had an enjoyable chat with someone in the very top echelon of management at a higher education establishment. Their advice to me was to not bother with the UK but to suggest to my daughters (when they are older) to go to a European university where it’ll be cheaper. Also (and I’m not sure if this has actually happened – the music was too loud to hear, but), universities can get non-state funding subject to a certain academic taking up a position. However, the academic in question is not British and can’t get a visa so bye-bye funding! Academic & funding goes to an establishment outside of the UK and the UK is the laughing-stock of the academic world.

So, on the one hand, Government is cutting funding – universities have to be more proactive in securing non-state funding, but the Home Office, pandering to a certain demographic, is saying no to foreigners.

Too many people are going to university – it’s not suitable for everyone. Sure when to time comes I’ll encourage my daughters to go but equally I’ll support them if they decide not to.

The Government needs to invest properly in higher education and to encourage people from all backgrounds with merit to go. More respect needs to be given to vocations that don’t need a degree.  Regardless of the actual repayment specifics, to a young person just the idea of a £30k debt before you’ve even got a job will be a deterring factor. Unless they come from a wealthy background.

And to go down the route of encouraging universities to seek funding from business is generally not good. Most businesses just look to the short term. Blue skies research is long term. A well known example is the laser. At the time no-one knew what the applied benefits could be…

So, learn a foreign language and go east to Europe or perhaps further where Mandarin would be handy to know. But I will agree with Norman Tebbit when he said ‘get on your bike’ – it’s greener :)

I made such a big thing about the election this year and how Adrian Ramsay was on the brink of becoming the first Green MP or at best coming second. In the event he came 4th and the celebrated first went to Caroline Lucas. How did it go all horribly wrong!

Activists seemed to be working themselves into a real belief that Adrian could win including me.

The same thing happened this September when activists were pretty much claiming that the Green Party would take control of it’s first council – Norwich. Sure they’re so close – the significant difference from the General Election was that the Green Party was and still is the opposition at Norwich City Council (currently Labour 16 and the Greens 14). But it was the almost ‘surety’ of taking control that on reflection was foolish.

I was persuaded to stand as ‘paper’ candidate in an un-winnable ward in September on my condition that I did absolutely nothing. Being at a count again was exciting. What was disappointing was certain ex-Lib Dem colleagues deciding that I didn’t exist. And can someone please tell me why practically all the Lib Dem activists at the count were sporting one of those mini, stupid ‘winning here’ stickers on their right shoulder. Perhaps that was foolish. If I was still in the Lib Dems I would have declined to look silly. On the night the Lib Dems lost a seat and are now a tragic vestige of when I was involved in the early 2000s.

I have been asked to stand again for the Greens next May. Possibly in a target seat. No I can’t – it’ll have to be in an un-winnable ward again. But I’ve missed the deadline for nominations and I’m glad. I’ve been insanely busy with work and will have make sure I continue to be if I’m to survive what this Government plans to do to this country (oops! silly me being foolish again).

But really at the core I’m Green, always have been. Then again I run a business - perhaps I’m an incy-wincy bit into fiscal conservatism. But I believe in social justice. Maybe I’m a mess. One of those political quizzes claims that I’m a left social libertarian.

So where does that leave me politically? I think I’ll have to declare myself achromatic.

I’m not a consistent blogger (you’ll notice my last post was in May this year). I’m on Facebook but can go without logging-in for weeks at a time. & Twitter – well I did and probabaly won’t anymore.

I’m coming to the end of an intense period of work and I might find some time for a spurt of online existance. There are a small number of sites I visit regularly – the BBC and Lifehacker every day.

As one does I decided to check out a commenter on a post at Rupert’s Read and ended up at Matthew Watkins’  Thoughts, Theories & Omissions:  Politician’s not telling the Truth (his apostrophe not mine).

I commented that: ’For someone with a BSc, MSc & a PGCE you really need to check your spelling! :)’, followed by: ‘BTW – I don’t believe that you need an apostrophe in the title of this post.’

It just so happens that the next day procrastinating on Lifehacker I came across this kinetic typography animation by Matthew Rogers on Vimeo using Stephen Fry’s Language Podgram…

Stephen’s full essay on language pedants (grammar Nazis) is here.

In the comments at the Lifehacker post there is a video of David Mitchell’s rant on spelling standards…

Back to Matthew. There followed counter-comments from him and a further comment from me. To be fair to Matthew, as he states, I didn’t spend much time on his blog to realise areas of commonality. But even if I did I’d still have picked up on his spelling… especially as he’s a BSc, MSc and a PGCE!  Matthew states that he believes blogs are for opinion, discussion and critique and not as an exercise for getting your spelling correct. I disagree. Spelling is basic and these days there’s no excuse – even Blogger has a spellchecker (but alas no apostrophe checker!). And then in classic internet misinterpretation he believes that I’m wanting to discredit him because of my allegiance to the Green Party. But that’s a diversion.

At the end of the day I don’t particularly care about others’ misspelling (if it weren’t for spellcheckers I’d be lost) but as David Mitchell says ‘you’ll be judged!’ and as some commenter on the Lifehacker post says ‘…you need a firm grasp of the rules in order to break them effectively. Stephen Fry is a perfect example. He is willing to play with language to delightful results. But you can bet your ass he knows how to do it properly.’

As for the apostrophe. Do we actually need it? Why not consign it to the dustbin of history (because I had some tricky ones in this post!).

…well perhaps not…

In an interview with Thomas Kielinger, UK correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, Evan Davies on the Today program discusses the German perspective on coalition government. Thomas talks about the adversarial system of democracy, exemplified by the seating arrangement of the House of Commons, to which Evan Davies quipped about getting the interior designers in to make it more conducive to co-operation.

I like Germany, I lived there as a teenager. Even then the Germans were decades ahead of the UK. For those who are still sceptical of coalition government look at Germany, the strongest economy in Europe – coalition government since the war, and Greece who they are bailing out – one of the few European countries with single party government. And then think of the country the markets are talking about after Spain & Portugal… Britain with its single party adversarial system and it’s inability to escape the 19th century!

So why not demolish the House of Commons and… no that would be architectural vandalism. Turn it into a museum for the tourists, demolish, say the Millennium Dome, and get Richard Rogers or Norman Foster to build a 21st century Parliament where everyone sits in a circular arrangement like everywhere else.

Edit oops! How silly of me – the Millennium Dome was designed by Rogers!

Our eldest was away at Brownie camp on the North Norfolk coast at the weekend. It was her first time away from home by herself apart from friend sleepovers. On our way to collect her we made a family day-out with her younger sisters to Felbrigg Hall  where there’s a cool tree you can crawl into and climb up on the inside.

Stopping at traffic lights near Norwich airport we saw Chloe Smith MP chatting away on her phone in a rather nice looking shocking pink coat. It will be disappointing for her if she loses and will have been an MP for only a year but no doubt she’ll bounce back.

It’s the eve of election day and I’ve been tasked to deliver tellers to various polling stations for 7am in my vehicle – the irony! And all day I’ll be ‘knocking-up’ voters and fixing our toilet and being in for the washing machine repair guy – both of which decided not to work on the same day.

The eldest wants to vote with me. And unlike last time where I asked her view in the polling booth there will be no last-minute change off mind – it will be Adrian Ramsay!

Work is now well underway on the Unthank Road Tesco Express.

I won’t pretend – I’m principally concerned about the architecture of the store. As previously mentioned I would much rather [read more...]

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