Because of the choices we had to make at school I dropped Geography and Biology and joked for years that I didn’t know what I was or where I was. But the idea that there are things we have to learn in order to be employable has always jarred with my sense of freedom and…
Author: admin
A Winter of Strikes
The UK, entering what may be a decade of economic hardship, is facing a winter of strikes. Some quite unexpected. Nurses, coffin makers and ambulance staff are among the groups with train workers finding that government doesn’t care about them. If you have a group of workers whom you consider so vital they should not…
Devolve
We are restarting the argument here in the UK for greater powers outside of London for the local population to govern more for itself. It sounds lovely and important but for political connivance and human criminality. Down here in Cornwall the local government has been among the most criminal in the country with self-service and…
Beggar to Beggar Cried
‘Time to put off the world and go somewhere And find my health again in the sea air,’ Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, ‘And make my soul before my pate is bare.- ‘And get a comfortable wife and house To rid me of the devil in my shoes,’ Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,…
Jokes I Enjoyed
You can’t believe everything you hear—but you can repeat it. “We used to play spin the bottle when I was a kid. A girl would spin the bottle, and if the bottle pointed to you when it stopped, the girl could either kiss you or give you a nickel. By the time I was…
Spellbound
Spellbound The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant trees are bending Their bare boughs weighed with snow. And the storm is fast descending, And yet I cannot go. Clouds beyond clouds above me, Wastes beyond wastes below;…
Old Lists
I just found some old lists from the 90s for flowers and seeds my mother wanted for the garden – nemesia, marigolds, honesty and many others. She loved flowers, especially her roses which I have kept about ten in the new garden despite the fact I am not really a flower person. I always preferred…
Don’t Count On It
I started online in 1998 and was taught about the Internet and how computers worked by several people who helped develop them. These were the days just before business started to sell online. I learned several things one of which was the idea of security online is a bit farcical. Today they have even jumped…
Lewis Carroll
I read Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass many years ago from a facsimile edition of the first ones ever published with the original artwork. I remember liking the Disney version as a kid. So it was with great sadness I learned of his probably paedophiliac tendency towards the daughters of his…
Energy is the New Economics
Politicians were used to the adage ‘it’s the economy stupid’ whenever they were asked what the most important element of ay election was; and even dictators fall if the people find they cannot afford to buy anything. But that is changing. Mostly because the fact that if everything has to be bought then nothing is…