Temperama

Brown's First Hundred: Days 81 & 82

Does it mean something that Alistair Darling - he's the Chancellor, as you may not have noticed - was the one metaphorically sent out of Number 10 (he and Sibyl live upstairs there) as Northern Rock sank to demand old-fashioned banking and cry, "Don't panic" in vain? Until then it was Gordon who'd made the soothing noises when Bad Things happened: the car bombs, the floods, the foot-and-mouth. I recognise that money markets are Alistair's patch and all that, but isn't it a little odd that Gord has disappeared from sight since the squalid episode with Margaret Thatcher, except to utter warm words about Darfur?

Maybe the panic withdrawal of two billion quid - two billion! - doesn't qualify as a big enough crisis for the PM to call for calm. On the other hand, perhaps he anticipated that young Dave would try to pin it all on him and went into hiding accordingly. If so, his self-preservation instinct was sound. Yet Cameron's piece in today's Sunday Telegraph and George Osborne's remarks to the BBC have a wishful-thinking feeling about them. There will have to be worse things for Alistair to defend before enough people start blaming Gordon for them. But what if those things are on their way?

He's Leaving Home, Bye Bye

Fourthborn and Secondborn having a break from arseing about on the mud mound where our new kitchen will go. I took this on Friday afternoon. Today, the lad is settling into his room in his new home - the University of Manchester. Good luck from us all.

The Start Of A Novel

No, I'm not writing the start of another novel - just dreaming of completing several - but next time I do I'll refer to the advice of Susan Hill.

"The first words are important. They lead the reader in. BUT there are many novels which I not only love and re-read but regard as very great novels, whose opening lines are nothing special. They do not go flash/bang, they do not show off, they are not clever. They lead the reader in quietly. They may be discursive.. which used to be more fashionable than now. The one thing we now find off-putting at the very beginning is a single very long paragraph and especially a complicated one which introduces several characters, or characters and places/buildings/rooms, which describes something, someone, some-place in great detail, which introduces abstract or philosophical discussion."

Not sure how Susan would characterise the following first paragraph from a novel I've just picked almost at random from my shelves. But it does the trick for me:

"I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy in Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me. She was small and blonde, and whether you looked at her face or at her body in powder-blue sports clothes the result was satisfactory. 'Are you Nick Charles?' she asked."

Yes, the narrator is a MCP (in those days what guy wasn't?) but he - well, his creator - knows how to seduce the (probably male) reader. The setting is evocative and the presence of a young woman there, intriguing. The "girl" herself is both beguiling and bold. She's with "three other people". Who are they, and what does the woman want? And there's the reference to "Nora", who we (correctly) assume to be our protagonist's wife. The mention of her adds a twist to the scene's sexual chemistry: we learn that Nick Charles is spoken for, know that the woman doesn't know that yet and know that Nick thinks her attractive. And we'd quite like to know if he is capable of infidelity. So there's three sentences that earned their keep.

Which novel is it? Warning: this link is to a spoiler.

Brown's First Hundred: Day 80

Apart from outsmarting the Tories, what is Gordon actually for? I've been as mesmerised as anyone by his tactical know-how and repositioning skills of a deftness that seemed unlikely in a man who'd previously appeared about as manoeuvrable as a concrete sideboard. But here we are at the start of autumn and apart from a welcome change of tone from Tone, what has there been to get excited about? And what other changes does the change-maker envisage?

Assuming that young Ed Miliband is still filling pages of his brand new exercise book with Wizard Ideas For The Manifesto, what thoughts could it possibly contain? Ways of correcting the corrosive effects of inequality? Addressing the institutionalisation of gang crime? Boldly facing up to the inadequacies of our education system and their implications for too many of our children? If it were, that would be an exercise book I'd like to read. But I've a feeling Gordon has other priorities.

Crewe Blog

They're redeveloping the middle of Crewe. Now read on.

Northern Rocked

Commenting at the Westmorland Gazette, a Mr Douglas asks:

"Why are people panicking? Their money is safe, just listen to the news casts and experts. Their actions will only cause more problems. Northern Rock aren't the only bank to have a loan off the Bank Of England recently. People really need to wake up and stop being so gullible."

But it's not only in Kendal they're panicking. They're at it everywhere from Edinburgh to London, and all over that thing they call "the markets". How exciting. I'm learning more about subprimes and the global credit squeeze every day, albeit starting from a shockingly low base.

Gum Solution

The Guardian reports that scientists at Bristol University have developed a non-stick chewing gum which can be washed off pavements easily and is biodegradable. It adds:

"Councils in Britain spend £150m each year cleaning gum from the streets, with Westminster council alone spending £90,000 a year. A survey by Westminster found it took 17 weeks to clean chewing gum from Oxford Street in London, but within 10 days, cleaners counted 300,000 new pieces stuck to the street."

I'm delighted by the Bristol boffins' breakthrough, but left wondering if it solves the whole problem. After all, if an average 30,000 lumps of Wrigleys are gobbed onto the paving slabs of a single street every day (300,000 divided by ten) that's still a lot of grubby gum spots - sticky fresh ones, too. I say slap a green tax on it. Are you listening, Dave?

Brown's First Hundred: Day 79

It's hard to put into words the moral bankruptcy this picture epitomises. I mean that in a different way from Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, who said:

"This is a huge political mistake which will cost the Labour party credibility with their core voters and communities up and down the country that still bear the scars of the damage she caused."

Dream on, comrade. Plenty of your members voted for her - unfortunately. No, the offence is both subtler and deeper. Gordon is, in fact, the least stained by the stunt of inviting Margaret Thatcher round to Number 10 for tea a few days after saying how much he admires her: at least he could claim it was a wizard political ploy that has further wrongfooted Young Cameron.

Thatcher, though, has no such excuse. Her acceptance of Brown's tactical invitation was itself tactical, designed to fuck over her latest successor as Tory leader for daring to deviate from her path. The arrogance. The malice. The disloyalty. It takes your breath away.

And, of course, the media is shamed by the "story" too. For it is not a story - at least, it's no more than a piece of quirky, down-the-page filler. Thatcher may represent a strand of Conservative opinion, but her visit to Number 10 was, of itself, of no political significance. It has acquired some only because the BBC and others deciding to invest it with some. A grubby little episode all round.

Understanding The Subprime Crisis. Or Not.

One of these days I'll take a year off and find out what the subprime crisis is. Until then, I have Chris Dillow to help me understand what it might - or might not - mean. He writes:

"There's lots of evidence that economic inequality makes people suspicious of each other. People in unequal societies trust each other less, and societies that have become more unequal suffer a loss of social capital."

Good. I've always thought so.

"And there's good reason to think that a lack of trust is bad for an economy...It diverts potentially productive resources into keeping an eye on one another; look at how spending on security guards and CCTV has risen. And it makes people less willing to lend and invest. This much, I guess, is pretty well agreed upon by the Left."

Yes indeed. Absolutely. So true.

"But it doesn't fit with this year's big economic story - the subprime crisis."

Shit. How inconvenient - for we economics know-nothings, that is.

"This arose because lenders were way too trusting...So, what's the explanation? Is it that inequality doesn't always reduce trust, even when it should? Or is it that a lack of trust doesn't have the growth-depressing effects which it should in theory - because competitive market forces (the pressure to sell loans) outweigh untrustworthiness?"

Duh...can I phone a friend?

"If so, the subprime crisis - far from being evidence of capitalism's instability - is actually evidence of how healthy the system is; competition can overcome the barriers to growth generated by inequality. Or is it that trustworthiness - and by extension social capital - is not as economically beneficial as thought?"

Two friends, maybe?

"Or what?"

You've no idea how comforting that "Or what?" is.

Kitchen, Kitchen, Kitchen...

This was the view straight down from my office window earlier today. Mick and Jaime are digging the trench on the right because, Jaime says, they've decided they don't like the one on left which they dug yesterday. The real reason is that we're having our kitchen extended. And we are not alone. According to the Halifax, one in four British homeowners are having improvements done, an increase of seven percent on last year. Enlarging kitchens is a big favourite, but our reasons for doing so are atypical.

We are having ours done so it's easier to fit all the kids in at mealtimes. Other folk, especially first time buyers, are doing it purely because they think it will add in instant £5,000 to the value of their property. But how much are they borrowing to have the work done in the first place? And has the property market made us insane?