Apparently David Cameron doesn’t know what a tw*t is. At last, an explanation for George Osborne’s career.
Hopi Sen
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
My favourite villain

Scott managed to come up with something fresh in the footsteps of Forster and Orwell and no-one has ever bettered his portrayal of the brittleness of the British Raj in situ. The social divisions within the ruling class are as acute as the racial ones between the rulers and ruled. It is so well drawn that it is as painful as it is perfect. Scott created his Indian colonial landscape knowing that the original had come to an end. That's what allows us to wallow a little -- it is historical so we need feel no guilt.
Guilt is not an emotion I want to encourage but sadly Scott was wrong in consigning all those colonial attitudes to the past. I am off to Zanzibar in a couple of weeks and could, should I so choose, spend my time being as Merricky as I like. White expat society in Zanzibar, and many other outposts of the poverty and development industry, is as far divorced from local culture and local people as anything in British India . These neo-colonialists will be snooty and condescendingly uncomprehending with me because I choose to spend my time with Africans in Africa. I have "gone native" and that's simply not "pukka". The language may have been tempered but the underlying attitudes are as raw as they ever were. The Neo-Cols really do seem to despise those they lord over. They just wrap it all up in ghastly management speak and KPIs. Whatever the dressing there are still, as Kipling said over a century ago, two worlds which shall never meet. Nonetheless I think I get a better deal with the locals than I ever would with the earnest sahibs and desiccated memsahibs of the poverty industry.
Labels:
Africa,
Granada,
India,
Jewel in the Crown,
Paul Scott,
poverty industry,
Raj Quartet,
Ronald Merrick,
Zanzibar
Friday, 24 July 2009
Monday, 20 July 2009
A Great Discovery

False Dentistry
A barrister friend is currently representing an Iraqi dentist from Merthyr Tydfil. It turns out that the client was a senior figure in Sadam Hussein's Baath Party. At home in Wales he had pictures of himself with Sadam and other members of the Axis of Evil. Somehow he escaped justice or retribution in Iraq and washed up in Merthyr. That's quite an achievement but he then managed to set up as a dentist -- entirely bogusly -- and fool the good people of Mid Glamorgan for years. I can imagine a Baath Party sadist ripping teeth out but repairing them...! What can the mouths of Merthyr be like? It is a bit like Radovan Karadic the healer!
Friday, 17 July 2009
Popularity
"On the ratemyteachers website, Mr Harvey from All Saints, Mansfield, had enjoyed a top rated 5.0 from pupils at his school. After being charged by police for hitting one of his students on the head with a heavy object, his score only went down to 3.7. By today, his reputation has rallied, Harvey is back up to 4.6. Which means even though he's up on an attempted murder charge against a fifteen year old pupil, Mr Harvey is significantly more popular with his students than most of the other teachers, average rating 3.6."
Who do I have to hit to get popular round here?
Who do I have to hit to get popular round here?
Thursday, 16 July 2009
I wrote a little while ago about the complete losers that are white supremacists. I see from the news that one of their number, Neil Lewington, has been convicted of plotting to cause explosions in pursuit of his sick beliefs.

He fits the mould perfectly. It is difficult to find anything"supreme" about him
Age 43 and still living with his mum and dad
Alcoholic
No girlfriend
No friends
Lives in a fantasy world
Arrested for urinating on a station
Makes bombs with a child's chemistry set
If that's not enough listen to how his own lawyer described him: "a silly, immature, alcoholic, dysfunctional twit, fantasising to make up for a rather sad life".
Long live the master race!

He fits the mould perfectly. It is difficult to find anything"supreme" about him
Age 43 and still living with his mum and dad
Alcoholic
No girlfriend
No friends
Lives in a fantasy world
Arrested for urinating on a station
Makes bombs with a child's chemistry set
If that's not enough listen to how his own lawyer described him: "a silly, immature, alcoholic, dysfunctional twit, fantasising to make up for a rather sad life".
Long live the master race!
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Comment of the Month
From Will Self...
"The only way you will catch me twittering is if a live songbird lands in my mouth."
"The only way you will catch me twittering is if a live songbird lands in my mouth."
Willard White in Llandeilo

Sitting at the front watching these incredibly skilled performers at work just makes me appreciate true professionals. There is a depth, an ease, a roundedness and above all a "music first" commitment that only comes with all the hard work, practice and experience of pros. Something we may be in danger of forgetting in the scramble for celebrity of our "Britain's got Talent" culture.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Music Week


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