Corpus Christi - Trimble

Could it be that one of the symptoms of the degradation of this country is the way we treat those who are intelligent and pretty? Certainly, it is interesting to compare the media reporting of Jade Goody, an unattractive, boorish, ignorant chav whose sole "claim to fame" is to have accidentally become a millionaire and then to do something we all do, die; with that of Gail Trimble, who more-or-less won University Challenge single-handed for Corpus Christi. Bouquets for the former and brickbats for the latter make no sense in a rational world. Still, at least Goody has done one thing for the world she is leaving; there are queues of women in doctor's surgeries requesting cervical smears.

The surveillance society

There was an absolutely fabulous article in the The Times recently by Philip Pullman about the Government's attitude towards those who pay their generous salaries and feather-bedded pensions; you and I. I would suggest you read it. Except you can't, because it has been pulled from the Times web-site. I was going to post excerpts from it, but here's the full thing, instead. Hear, hear, Philip.


"Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms"

Philip Pullman

Are such things done on Albion's shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake's prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don't know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don't know who you are

You're mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don't want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation's dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don't mind if we are. They don't think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

Banks and bank bailouts

I am sick to death (and needless to say, spitting with rage) over the collapse of the banking industry, the politicians response to it and the media coverage of it. Put it this way - we're all to blame; the banks loaned too much money, we borrowed it and the politicians allowed it.

Greed and fear, fear and greed; of course the banks loaned too much money to dodgy borrowers. They were all in a race to the bottom. If your colleague is doing something that makes lots of money, you do it too. If your competitors are doing something that makes lots of money, you do it too. If you didn't, your shareholders would want to know why. Indeed, banks were harrassed by so-called "activist shareholders" who wanted to know why they weren't doing the very things that have got us into this mess. Hopefully Knight Vinke are hanging their collective heads in shame - but I doubt it. And now the banks have failed, the hypocrisy of their remuneration schemes is revealed for all to see. OK, in good times big bonuses. But in bad times, there should be sackings, disgrace and ignomony, not golden parachutes.

Greed and fear, fear and greed; we borrowed too much. We knew it. People getting equity release loans to spend on Mercedes and plasma TVs? It had to end in tears. Perhaps that's why we're so puffed up with rage at the bankers; we know in our heart of hearts that we're in part to blame.

Greed and fear, fear and greed; the regulators let all this go on. The politicians allowed the regulators to let it all go on. What politician is going to tell his electorate that the days of Mercedes & plasma TVs have got to stop for people's own good? Yet again, when we needed our politicians to do the right thing, they let us down. What use are they?

And as for the bailouts ... In what way is more (fictitious) money and more (real) debt a solution to too much money and too much debt? The politicians have spent our forebears money, they've spent our money, and now they're spending our children and grandchildren's money. There are not words to express the stupidity of this attempt to reflate the very bubbles that got us here.