Decided that its high time i started drawing attention to some of the music I love. This is a current smooth jazz groove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhJ7M8cDiD8&feature=related
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
And talking of globalisation.....
Its having a negative effect on my erstwhile favourite city, Paris. Many of the bistros which we used to love have gone, replaced by overpriced trendy bars serving identikit food, and Japanese restaurants, for some bizarre reason. Sorry, but raw fish and rice will never be more than raw fish and rice. Its OK once or twice a year. One of our very favourites has turned into a tourist trap. Astier, near Parmentier metro, used to be fantastic, but now style has replaced substance and its full of tourists . The food? The foie gras was straight out of the fridge - too cold - and the main course was a dry piece of guinea fowl perched on top of a very bitter pile of red cabbage, with two blobs of nondescript sauce and a pice of what I think was cremated belly of pork. David's scallops were not fresh as subsequent events proved, and they were served with bordelaise sauce - with scallops? - and what turned out to be undercooked diced parsnips which the French feed only to pigs and cattle.
Don't go, under any circumstance
Don't go, under any circumstance
The election - what a depressing set of options
So, the election is underway. I spent some time in Paris - more about that in a moment - but here, the usual low-level slagging off of the 'other side' seems to be making its presence felt as ever.
The thing is that despite some of the flowery rhetoric, there really isn't all that much difference between the parties. No wonder a dispute about a piddling increase in VAT makes the headlines. The Tories appear to have hit on this pathetic idea about everyone suddenly becoming socially involved and giving up their time for nothing. I already do, and its bloody hard work to get new people involved. And these sort of initiative need time and money. Do they really think that people in the inner cities are suddenly going to say ' oh, these services aren't provided any more, so we are going to provide them for ourselves'. its like the bloody Boy Scouts writ large, and it just shows how woefully out of touch they are.
But Labour? The manifesto was sub-Blairite wishy-washy lack of inspiration. Some reasonable points made, yes, but severely lacks vision.
I'm also not convinced by the LibDem switch to the right - indeed, the free market orthodoxy seems to be universally applied across the parties
The poison of globalisation.
We have been switched into a safe Labour seat (Bootle). I won't vote for the homophobic vaticanist MP who at 78, should have retired. There isn't a Green candidate. Listed on their website is a Trade Union and Socialist candidate, Pete Glover. Perhaps by default I will have to vote for him?
The thing is that despite some of the flowery rhetoric, there really isn't all that much difference between the parties. No wonder a dispute about a piddling increase in VAT makes the headlines. The Tories appear to have hit on this pathetic idea about everyone suddenly becoming socially involved and giving up their time for nothing. I already do, and its bloody hard work to get new people involved. And these sort of initiative need time and money. Do they really think that people in the inner cities are suddenly going to say ' oh, these services aren't provided any more, so we are going to provide them for ourselves'. its like the bloody Boy Scouts writ large, and it just shows how woefully out of touch they are.
But Labour? The manifesto was sub-Blairite wishy-washy lack of inspiration. Some reasonable points made, yes, but severely lacks vision.
I'm also not convinced by the LibDem switch to the right - indeed, the free market orthodoxy seems to be universally applied across the parties
The poison of globalisation.
We have been switched into a safe Labour seat (Bootle). I won't vote for the homophobic vaticanist MP who at 78, should have retired. There isn't a Green candidate. Listed on their website is a Trade Union and Socialist candidate, Pete Glover. Perhaps by default I will have to vote for him?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
