Traditional values

I am firmly of the opinion that tradition stifles creativity and progression. Tradition is for those who are moribund of thought and can’t or won’t cope with progression. Unfortunately there are far too many people in England who seem to want to return politically to a mythical bygone era. A perceived golden age. Such thinking is dangerous. The reactionary is a person to be feared and challenged. Reactionary politics is destroying the entire economic fabric of the country; we have high levels of poverty, poor health, homelessness, illiteracy, stupidity and crime. But hey ho we mustn’t complain as we’ll be getting blue passports soon. Hip fucking hooray!

I suppose it could be argued that using the word reactionary now is reactionary in itself. It’s not a word that is bandied about much these days. A bit of a blast from the past. But I can’t actually think of a better word to describe those sort of people that hold political beliefs based on nostalgia rather than reality. The sort that only see things in black and white, concrete thinkers who are incapable of abstract or critical thought and tend not to be particularly creative. Concrete thinkers and other narrow-minded sorts tend to fear change. They don’t adapt easily to new or different ways of doing things

If you’re a Tory, a Brexiteer or a Neoliberal then you’re a reactionary. Perhaps for a brief period the Tories were modern enough to just try and maintain the status quo, but that sort of Tory ‘thinking’ has long been despatched to the dustbin of history. Reactionaries fear progression. They yearn for the ‘good old days’, which of course weren’t good at all. They’re the sort of person that thinks in a very rigid way. If they’d been around when the wheel was invented they’d have been dead against it; no good would come of such a revolutionary idea (excuse the pun). That is why there is no deep and meaningful philosophy behind conservatism and why those that voted brexit couldn’t actually explain in sound philosophical or practical terms how it would actually benefit the average person in the street. Right wing politics is all about maintaining the position and wealth of the elite. Its about obscurantism, oppression, coercion and indoctrination of the majority using propaganda and the age old tactic of divide and rule. It's never about improvement or equality. Those concepts are totally alien to the reactionary Tory.

The reactionary elite are kept in office by the chimerical middle-class; an example of artifice in the extreme. There is no middle-class. Start thinking people. The greatest resource you possess is your mind. Please start using it.

Elitist art fuckery

As an artist I find the approach to art by society's self-styled elite very frustrating. There's a lot of pretentious bollocks talked about art and I refuse to take any part in the charade. Art is just art. Everyone can be an artist. It doesn't require mystical powers. It doesn't require a degree. So please can we cut this utter nonsense out?

Art is only ever in the eye of the beholder. There's no Beaufort or Mohs scale for measuring art. Art is subjective. You can't pitch one work of art against another. Art competitions and art prizes are meaningless. You either like a piece of art or you don't. You don't even need to know what a work of art is about. If you get something from a piece of art then all well and good. If you don't then move on to some different art. You don't need some pretentious art critic or art historian telling you what to think.

I suppose I'm in the fortunate position that I have never sold my soul to the money god. I've never put myself in a position where I needed to earn a living from my art. I produce my art for the sheer love of it, for wanting to create, for wanting to express myself. When it comes to the art I produce I rarely compromise. Artists need to stop pandering to the whims and fancies of the rich who treat it as just another investment, just another collectable. Stop this elitist art fuckery!

Should you vote Tory?

Have you ever asked yourself this question?

Fanny my arse!

I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about advertising at the moment. A couple of things have caught my eye recently that I find particularly distasteful.

I’m rarely offended by swearing although what I consider to be misuse of or lazy language upsets me terribly; ‘can I get’ instead of ‘please may I have’ being one of many examples. But I’m never happy when the subject matter is what I deem to be offensive.

The raison d'être of all advertising is to influence. And if in the process it reinforces bigoted stereotypes then I think it should be challenged and defied.

Yesterday I wrote a small piece on my real ale blog complaining yet again about Shepherd Neame’s distasteful advertising: an advert for Spitfire has been refused permission to be aired on TV. ‘The sketch, which stars comic duo Armstrong and Miller, makes reference to "Poles" and "Paddies" laying patios.’ My blog posting lead to a shy and retiring anonymous green ink merchant* leaving some amusing comments on that blog. Some people do look at life from a very bizarre angle. But hey, it takes all sorts.

Green-inker’s latest comment asks:

“Can't sexism, racism and every other 'ism' be portrayed by a fictional character? Or do we have to ban every fictional character from being a bigot?”

My response:

Dear Green-inker, it’s all about context. A subtlety possibly lost on you. Bigoted fictional characters in art can be acceptable. We may find them uncomfortable at times but I believe art should sometimes make us feel uncomfortable. But, despite the fact that the advertising industry probably considers what it does to be art, I’m afraid art it ain’t. Advertising is there to persuade. It is not there to ridicule a person’s birth circumstances. Advertising is too powerful a tool to be put into the hands of the reckless and those that seek to oppress.

 with practice you too could be a swivel-eyed loon!

Today I’ve discovered that Barr those producers of that disgusting drink Irn-Bru are going to be putting the word ‘Fanny’ on their cans. How cheap and nasty a gimmick is that?

Whilst not particularly offensive it is in very poor taste. But then I suppose in my humble opinion anyone who drinks the stuff is severely bereft of taste. Crass pop for crass populi!

*apparently there is a tradition of disgusted of Tunbridge Wells types of writing in to radio and television programmes in green ink. I suspect green ink is the official ink colour of the UK Isolationist Party.

Norwich tomorrow

#wearenorwich Tell the EDL that they are not welcome in Norwich:

please RT

EDL Not Welcome Here

This Saturday will see the EDL marching in Norwich. Those fascist hate merchants of low IQ infamy.


Free speech is a tricky blighter. It should be everyone’s right. Unfortunately free speech allows those whose extreme opinions seek to divide and oppress others. We have laws that deal with incitement and hatred but if those whose obnoxious message offends all decent people stay within the law they have the right to speak. But those of us who find what they have to say offensive have the right to challenge them. And challenge them we will.


People of Norfolk please do your bit before you have no bit to do.

Camel goes through eye of needle shock!

As you age it becomes very tempting to inhabit the past. I try not to. I try to be forward thinking. Progressive even. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t learn from the past. As long as we don’t view that past through rose-tinted spectacles that is. It can be argued with some confidence that the 1960s were a golden age in the UK. Sgt Pepper was released on my twelfth birthday. It was the decade that working classes flexed their muscles and many broke free from the chains that bound them. It was a decade when many working people experienced a relative affluence that could only have been previously dreamed of. Our family did. It was a decade of major innovation and thought. So many of the thoughts on equality and respect came to the fore during the 60s. We had, in modern terms, a progressive Labour government. And with that came high rates of tax for high income earners. Sadly Thatcher blew a lot of the good away, and given half a chance this fucking Tory government will do the rest.

I don’t buy this nonsense about how you need to pay obscenely high wages to attract the right sort of people, or that taxes need to be kept low so as not to de-incentivise or drive talent abroad. It is all capitalist spin and bollocks. If you control excessively high pay and people go elsewhere so what? Plenty more very apt people to take their place. British industry and commerce is littered with over-paid ignorant shits who operate in a poor or mediocre fashion. It is a total myth that they are somehow special. Most of them aren’t. Excessive pay is way out of control and the only people who can stop it, apart from the perpetrators are the government. Shareholders won’t. In the main shareholders are either in the same ‘fat-cat’ boat or they have been neutered by the system.

Today’s announcement of the RBS chief Stephen Hester's £963,000 bonus is an insult to all those suffering up and down the land. This is public money we are talking about. Tax-payers money. Tax that thing that every man, woman, child and hermaphrodite contribute to. Robert Peston has been “...reliably told that they feared Mr Hester and much of the board would have quit, if the payment had been vetoed by the government as the majority shareholder.” So? Let the selfish bastards resign. Good riddance I say. We are talking about the sort of people and their ilk that are responsible for the ‘high-pay’ culture and the ‘persecution of the average person’ culture that we find ourselves in. Let’s enforce extreme pay restraint at the top and cull the parasitic and obese leeches that have caused us all these financial woes. We’ll be all the fitter financially for it. All we need is the courage.

Iconography

Since the days of cave dwellers, icons have been an important part of communicating with each other. In these days of computers, smartphones and touchscreens icons are a big part of the processing command chain. Icons like pictures are capable of representing many words. They allow the receiver to interpret amounts of information very quickly. Much quicker than a wordy equivalent. But then I’m telling you what, as a computer user, you already know. Icons enable you to evaluate and take action fast.

Just before Christmas we had a few days away in Chichester. When we have the odd night or two away we tend to stop at Premier Inns. In terms of chain hotels we find them very acceptable. They're clean, efficient and offer value for money. This trip in particular certainly offered all those things as we managed to book their £29 per night deal. Didn't think that was possible. Premier make a big play of brands. They use well known brand leaders or top brands. It occurred to me that this is probably quite a hard trick to pull off. In a four star (or plus) hotel this sort of in yer face branding would be seen as tacky and tasteless. But for Premier it is a great selling point. In the bathroom the shower gel is Imperial Leather and the hand wash is Carex. At the breakfast table it’s Costa, Heinz, Kellogg’s etc. Brands with a track record convey a perceived quality. They are icons. Icons that say these products are of a known quality.

When it comes to shopping I rarely buy branded products favouring shops-own brand. But then I suppose shops are a brand, as are hotels. Marketing people really do run things.

Another icon of the modern age is the designer label. Whilst a brand normally suggests a certain quality, depending on reputation, the designer label conveys much more as it speaks volume about the consumer of that label. It says I’m a complete twat with more money than sense. I have a deep distrust of anyone who buys a designer labelled product purely because it has a designer label. The same applies to certain brands as well. Many people seem to buy certain brands just because they are fashionable, the thing to have. They have the mentality of sheep. On the rare occasion that I got out shopping for clothing I try my hardest to avoid buying anything with a visible brand on it. I don’t always succeed but I do manage to keep it to a minimum. Some of my coats are the exception to the rule.

Last February we had a fantastic holiday in Iceland. The island not the supermarket chain that is. So this time last year I went looking for a decent, warm, water resistant coat. I almost bought one made by The North Face. I was prepared to look a twat for the sake of comfort. But what finally dissuaded me from making what was a very expensive purchase was the zip (zed-eye-pee). Yes the zip. You pay above the odds for a man’s coat and they can’t even be bothered to get the zip right. It would appear that all coats made by/for The North Face zip up on the girls side! Now I’m quite at ease with my sexuality and being in touch with my feminine side that I wouldn’t worry about that sort of thing per se. That’s not really the issue. If they are so fucking arrogant that they can’t be arsed to accommodate the British (possibly European???) market then why the hell should I be bothered to lash out on something that is going to cost me that deep in the purse? Besides I’ve spend fifty odd years buttoning and zipping up coats etc. the ‘man’s way’ why should I change for some lazy, arrogant, capitalists? I ended up buying a Berghaus ski jacket instead. Admittedly it is branded. But the icons of Berghaus branding are relatively subtle and I’ve never been disappointed with their products in the past. It proved to be a very good buy, especially as it was cheaper than what I was proposing to buy from The North Face.

The only other fashionable brand that I have spent money on in the last couple of years is Apple. I bought an iPod Classic. And the only reason I bought that was because there just wasn’t anything else that will hold that much music. I have a very large record collection. I have no intention of buying anything else with the Apple brand if I can help it. Especially as Samsung stuff, in my opinion, seems far superior.

Don’t be fooled by the brand name myths and the brand name hype. Owning certain brand named products doesn’t make you a better person. It doesn’t make you attractive to others, unless they are equally as shallow of course. Don’t sell your soul to devil of consumerist bling. Be more sensible shoe and less plimsoll. The golden idol is a false idol. If you worship iconography then there is probably no hope for you.

The knob Clarkson

We must thank Jeremy Clarkson. Not for his utterances but for awakening the spirit of right-minded people. Thousands complained to the BBC and Twitter went ballistic. This has to be good. The left need to learn from this. To win the hearts and minds of the majority we need to convey our reasoned arguments via every means possible, and in great numbers. We need to speak to the masses as if as one voice.

Don’t do that George

Tuesday’s Autumn Statement delivered by the chancellor the Right Honourable Knob-head George Osborne didn’t really come as much of a surprise to most right thinking people. The only astonishing thing is that he seems pig-headedly resolute to carry on with this failed strategy.

There is only one thing to say at a time like this and that’s Keynesianism!

“Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone...”

I’m not a particularly gregarious chap. I like to socialise, sometimes, but I’m certainly no party animal. When I do socialise it tends to be in small groups, because that’s how I like it. Huge gatherings irritate and bore me. I don’t like being told that I need to ‘have fun’ or ‘have a good time’, and that a large gathering of morons eating and/or drinking is the way to do it, because for me it ain’t! Unfortunately those further down the food chain who like parties just can’t comprehend that some people don’t. They think that parties are the only way you can have so called ‘fun’. They think that you can’t be happy unless you enjoy parties. Well let me shock you pea-brained party-goers. You can and I am. I may come across as a grumpy old sod but for the majority of the time, and particularly when I’m not at work, I am happy. I like going out. I just don’t like lowest common denominator entertainment, but if you do then that’s fine by me. You have a right (and you don’t need to fight) to parteee!

We are now entering a period when people manage to find flimsy excuses to have a party. Please spare a thought for those that are not afflicted with the need to waste hours on such nonsense. Please remember that one-size does not fit all!

#hackgate

Anyone who uses the term or hash-tag (as it is popularly known) ‘#hackgate’ on Twitter is a complete tosser. To which gate might they be referring to, and what is its relevance to the hacking scandal that hangs over the murky Murdoch Empire?

Pedestrians are worthless scum

Well that’s certainly how it feels to me. As a car driver, very occasional cyclist and mostly pedestrian type person it would seem to me that the liberty of the latter has all but been lost. And no doubt this ConDem government will with its actions consign us to permanent perambulatory serfdom. This government is supposedly pro-motorist. Their idea of being pro-motorist is a strange one, but then they are Tories so why wouldn’t it be? Basically their big idea about being pro-motorist says, ‘if you commit a motoring offence we’ll ignore it’. In the name of liberty they are encouraging people to break the law. Motorists are being given the freedom to oppress; a very shallow freedom indeed. The removal of speed cameras, the cuts in police numbers and the financial castration of councils has and will continue to drive us down the road to total motoring anarchy. The evidence is very clear for all to see. Too many motorists now just ignore the law. They drive like speeding maniacs and then just park where and how the hell they like. In its urban homeland, the habitat of choice for the law-abiding pedestrian is the path and the pavement. unfortunately today’s motorist has no respect for the domain of others. Parking on the pavement is the fashionable thing to do these days, it is so prevalent, and  it’s going to get worse I have no doubt. Mark my words!

Tabloid twunt

witnessed an oaf on the train this morning reading the Daily Mirror (other tabloids are available). He turned a page and a couple of leaflets fell to the floor. Seemingly oblivious of this fact he carried on reading, or looking at the pictures. He was aware though, as a little while later he moved them under his chair with his heal in a nonchalance and thoughtless manner. What a rather sad world we live in now...

...or is it me?