A Facebook friend recently bemoaned the number of leftovers she had after the Christmas holiday. "We always overestimate the amount of food we need", she wrote.
I wondered what her ancestors in the valley, who would have used every part of the family pig except the squeak, would think. As to traditional Yule sweetmeats, the load of sugar in them acted as a preservative.
Coincidentally, in a recent Book Club on Radio 4, Marina Lewycka, born in a refugee camp and brought up by Ukrainian refugee parents in Yorkshire, reminisced about her student days. She had been surprised at the quantity of stuff which her colleagues in neighbouring digs threw out. She said that if her parents had been living with her, they would have raided those dustbins - and I don't think she was entirely joking.
I have rather more sympathy with today's single parents who rely on packaged meals. There are too many who blame poor people for not being able to cook. What those critics fail to realise is that the food bank clients are not only money-poor, but also usually time-poor as well, having to either work long hours or to juggle two or more jobs.
However, it is certainly true that people of my generation have a different cast of mind when it comes to using and re-using basic ingredients. My motto is that of Bernard Spear's music-hall creation, Loupy Lou. This character was a Greek or Italian immigrant cook, a forerunner of Harry Enfield's Stavros. One didn't question too closely the contents of meals in the local caff in the days of rationing. Spear used to sign off the act with this chorus:
Here we go Loopy Lou;
Here we go Loopy Lie;
What I don't put in the stew
Goes into the shepherd's pie.
So there are two or three stews and curries in the freezer (a luxury few post-war scrimpers and savers possessed) which should see me through the next few weekends.
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Friday, 9 January 2015
I agree with Dave Brown
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/charlie-hebdo-cartoon-i-knew-i-had-to-express-defiance-because-i-wanted-to-be-true-to-the-spirit-of-the-magazine-9965467.html
The Independent cartoonist writes:
Some people are now calling for newspapers to print depictions of Mohammed, but in this case it's not really the subject. It wasn't Islam, or Muslims in general, who carried out this atrocity. It was a small group of madmen. We have to point out their insanity. You've got to see who the real culprit is, and target them, and resist taking this rather more scattershot approach. There's nothing wrong with offending people, but in this case it's not the religion that we should be mocking. It's a particular strand of a criminal, barbaric, medieval mindset that has access to modern weaponry.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-murders-dave-browns-second-cartoon-in-response-to-the-atrocity-9966249.html
The Independent cartoonist writes:
Some people are now calling for newspapers to print depictions of Mohammed, but in this case it's not really the subject. It wasn't Islam, or Muslims in general, who carried out this atrocity. It was a small group of madmen. We have to point out their insanity. You've got to see who the real culprit is, and target them, and resist taking this rather more scattershot approach. There's nothing wrong with offending people, but in this case it's not the religion that we should be mocking. It's a particular strand of a criminal, barbaric, medieval mindset that has access to modern weaponry.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-murders-dave-browns-second-cartoon-in-response-to-the-atrocity-9966249.html
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Unfair to Green Party
I am not a great fan of the Green Party. I believe that more can be done to achieve its more sensible aims through Liberal Democracy. It is not only too extreme, but also of recent years has attracted an authoritarian socialist element which is not able to make headway in any other English party.
However, I also believe that it is a more coherent and relevant organisation than UKIP. The decision by Ofcom that UKIP is a "major party" for electoral broadcast purposes but that the Greens are not suggests a worrying bias, either conscious or unconscious. The Greens run an English council and are challengers in at least one other. UKIP's highest council representation is at 29% according to this Channel 4 News analysis. The Green Party is longer-established (founded 1985 as against UKIP's 1993) and its predecessor, the Ecology Party, goes back ten years further. Only in its slavish following in our corrupt media is UKIP ahead of the Greens.
If we are to have TV and radio debates featuring the party leaders - and it is not certain that they shed any more light than heat on electoral issues - then surely the only criterion for inclusion should be whether a party can theoretically form a government, i.e. that they field candidates in a substantial majority of Westminster seats. I suggest that it is too early to rule parties in or out.
However, I also believe that it is a more coherent and relevant organisation than UKIP. The decision by Ofcom that UKIP is a "major party" for electoral broadcast purposes but that the Greens are not suggests a worrying bias, either conscious or unconscious. The Greens run an English council and are challengers in at least one other. UKIP's highest council representation is at 29% according to this Channel 4 News analysis. The Green Party is longer-established (founded 1985 as against UKIP's 1993) and its predecessor, the Ecology Party, goes back ten years further. Only in its slavish following in our corrupt media is UKIP ahead of the Greens.
If we are to have TV and radio debates featuring the party leaders - and it is not certain that they shed any more light than heat on electoral issues - then surely the only criterion for inclusion should be whether a party can theoretically form a government, i.e. that they field candidates in a substantial majority of Westminster seats. I suggest that it is too early to rule parties in or out.
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Magna Carta's dirty secret
Melvyn Bragg's otherwise extremely informative introductory series on Magna Carta does not touch on the clauses we were not told about in school.
The British Library has an English translation of the charter which King John put his seal to - but later repudiated - in 1215. The offending clauses are:
(10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.
(11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly.
As Jonathan Romain lays out here, there are other clauses which do not mention Jews by name, but clearly do apply especially to the Jewish money-lenders who the rebel barons wanted to be free of. (I did suggest some time ago that substituting "pay-day loan merchant" for Jew in the foregoing might justify reviving the clauses.) However, they were dropped from the last revision of the charter, the one that matters, the one that was agreed to by the governing council of Henry III in 1225.
The British Library has an English translation of the charter which King John put his seal to - but later repudiated - in 1215. The offending clauses are:
(10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.
(11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly.
As Jonathan Romain lays out here, there are other clauses which do not mention Jews by name, but clearly do apply especially to the Jewish money-lenders who the rebel barons wanted to be free of. (I did suggest some time ago that substituting "pay-day loan merchant" for Jew in the foregoing might justify reviving the clauses.) However, they were dropped from the last revision of the charter, the one that matters, the one that was agreed to by the governing council of Henry III in 1225.
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
“Electoral reform could, like Lazarus, rise from the dead in 2015”.
The words of Professor Vernon Bogdanor in an article in a recent Financial Times – http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f0628f0-8220-11e4-a9bb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3NwEFBTh8 – drawn to out attention by Anthony Tuffin of www.stvAction.org.uk.
He also reports that:
There is a lively debate about electoral reform on http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2015/01/the-conservative-push-for-tactical-votes.html. Although Conservative Home seems an unlikely forum for it, it has happened before and I have no doubt it will happen again, especially if the Conservative Party loses seats, and perhaps power, to Labour in May because it loses votes to UKIP.
There is also an excellent article in the The International News of Karachi - http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-294140-The-worst-electoral-system - where the writer argues persuasively for Pakistan to scrap FPTP.
It seems to me that it will be difficult for any measure to restore faith in its legislature on the part of Pakistanis, but that a fair voting system would make the best contribution to doing so.
He also reports that:
There is a lively debate about electoral reform on http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2015/01/the-conservative-push-for-tactical-votes.html. Although Conservative Home seems an unlikely forum for it, it has happened before and I have no doubt it will happen again, especially if the Conservative Party loses seats, and perhaps power, to Labour in May because it loses votes to UKIP.
There is also an excellent article in the The International News of Karachi - http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-294140-The-worst-electoral-system - where the writer argues persuasively for Pakistan to scrap FPTP.
It seems to me that it will be difficult for any measure to restore faith in its legislature on the part of Pakistanis, but that a fair voting system would make the best contribution to doing so.
Monday, 5 January 2015
Nick Clegg's new year message: a core of truth, but the wrong emphasis
http://www.libdems.org.uk/national-interests-first contains a video of Nick Clegg's 2015 curtain-raiser.
In times past, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats would present manifestos as if for a party of government, costed and all (please note, Chris Bryant), even though the chances of coming to power were much lower then than they are now. Today's message reminds me uncomfortably of the pitch of the German FDP, whose highest aim appeared to be to secure at least one ministry in a coalition government, either with the conservatives or the social democrats. The FDP is no longer represented in the national parliament, and may not have any regional seats after this year's round of elections.
If it were me, I would have said: "Because of our experience in government in the last four-and-a-half years, we are better equipped to take the reins than we have ever been. We are more united over the big questions of the day than either the Conservatives or Labour*. In a minority government, we have pushed through reform of pensions, reduced taxation for the lower paid, improved civil rights and resisted attacks on employment rights, to name but a few. Just think what we could do if we had a majority.
"But that experience has also shown that the British voter and the world at large have no reason to be afraid of a coalition government. We are ready to do whatever is in the best interests of the nation."
What do I know? Nick is advised by a consultant with an international reputation.
* and certainly more than UKIP who have different policies according to which candidate you speak to
In times past, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats would present manifestos as if for a party of government, costed and all (please note, Chris Bryant), even though the chances of coming to power were much lower then than they are now. Today's message reminds me uncomfortably of the pitch of the German FDP, whose highest aim appeared to be to secure at least one ministry in a coalition government, either with the conservatives or the social democrats. The FDP is no longer represented in the national parliament, and may not have any regional seats after this year's round of elections.
If it were me, I would have said: "Because of our experience in government in the last four-and-a-half years, we are better equipped to take the reins than we have ever been. We are more united over the big questions of the day than either the Conservatives or Labour*. In a minority government, we have pushed through reform of pensions, reduced taxation for the lower paid, improved civil rights and resisted attacks on employment rights, to name but a few. Just think what we could do if we had a majority.
"But that experience has also shown that the British voter and the world at large have no reason to be afraid of a coalition government. We are ready to do whatever is in the best interests of the nation."
What do I know? Nick is advised by a consultant with an international reputation.
* and certainly more than UKIP who have different policies according to which candidate you speak to
The EU explained: What it costs & how it works
Origins: The origins of the EU are in the post-war efforts for European reconciliation and integration. Beginning with 6 countries and 170 million people the EU now has 28 members with about 500 million people, bringing together Europe, from the west coast of Ireland to the east of Poland and from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia. Today the EU is the richest and most influential trading bloc in the world. Britain joined in 1973.
What the EU costs
The UK’s contribution to EU Budget
100% → £1750 billion = size of UK economy in 2014 = £4800 million per day = about £75 a day per person.
40% → £730 billion is UK government spending for 2014-15 = £2000 million per day = £31 a day per person
0.4% → £6-7 billion is UK net contribution to EU budget = £18 million per day = 30p a day per person
Thanks to the European Movement UK for the foregoing. Note that from the opening sentence the Movement is unapologetic about the political dimension of the EEC and EU. There is more here.
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Make straight your ways
Channel 4 News has had some fun comparing the road pictured in the Conservatives' New Year poster with an original taken by a German photographer near his home in Wetzlar. There are many examples of long straight roads on the continent of Europe, laid down according to generally accepted wisdom by Napoleon to facilitate the movement of his armies across his short-lived empire. But he never had his wicked way in England as Chesterton celebrated in The Rolling English Road:
I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made
I am quite prepared to believe the Conservative back-room boys when they protest that the image is totally English. It certainly looks like the product of photo-manipulation software (British, I trust) rather than any real road in England or Wales.
However, there is another explanation which the Conservatives may not care to admit to. They could have used a picture of one of the roads laid out in the early eighteenth century by General Wade (an Irishman, be it noted) to assist in the British subjugation of the Highlands of Scotland. The lack of trees or shrubs points to a wind-swept northern location. If so, it is something which Salmond and Sturgeon could make great use of.
I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made
I am quite prepared to believe the Conservative back-room boys when they protest that the image is totally English. It certainly looks like the product of photo-manipulation software (British, I trust) rather than any real road in England or Wales.
However, there is another explanation which the Conservatives may not care to admit to. They could have used a picture of one of the roads laid out in the early eighteenth century by General Wade (an Irishman, be it noted) to assist in the British subjugation of the Highlands of Scotland. The lack of trees or shrubs points to a wind-swept northern location. If so, it is something which Salmond and Sturgeon could make great use of.
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