PARIS

I'm gutted at what has happened tonight in Paris.

As you probably know I have a lot of friends there. I'm trying to contact them now to see if they are safe. Some have already replied. 

Paris is a big city.

En espérant que vous êtes, sains et saufs les amis

THE DARK DAYS REFERRED TO BY ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN COULD GET MUCH DARKER THIS YEAR

If Cameron thought that appointing Justin Welby as the new Archbishop of Canterbury would bring him a friend in Lambeth Palace, then he will take no comfort from Dr Welby's final sermon in his old post as Bishop of Durham.

In it the archbishop elect talks of Britain's dark days, of children going hungry and churches organising food distribution centres for the poor, reminding us of a previous Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins  who pointed out during a previous Tory government in the 1980s that some children in his diocese went to school with no shoes, just like it was in the Hungry 30s!

Of course Dr Welby's remit is England, but the same thing is happening here in Scotland. And while the poor get poorer, the rich appear to be adding to their wealth.

During 2013, when the Housing Benefit cuts come into force, we can expect to see people, particular from the richer and more expensive parts of the union, being forced out of their homes, and banished to live in lower cost areas, (where, incidentally, there will be even fewer jobs and no available housing) cut off from their families and support, without the financial means to get their worldly goods transported. So, in other words, chaos. 

(The Scottish government, thank goodness, has found money for at least a year to offset the worst of the Housing Benefit cuts.)

Added to this, if people like Max Keiser and Michael Portillo are to be believed, interest rates are set to rise, possibly quite steeply, in the not too distant future, because of the falling Bonds Markets and the diminishing value of the pound against the Dollar and the Euro.  Relatively steep devaluation of the pound is likely to follow. If, or rather it seems when, interest rates rise,  people on Tracker Mortgages, or those with mortgages about to be renegotiated, will find the cost of their homes sky rocketing. Some will clearly not be able to afford to pay, having taken on far large mortgages than they could in reality afford. They will fall into arrears and will subsequently be evicted. That's business. That's the free market.

In the meantime the queues at the food distribution centres, soup kitchens if you like, will grow and grow. And in some places you can expect to see people living on the streets. And that's no joke. 

A many of you will know, after Edinburgh, Paris is my favourite capital city. I hadn't been there for several years, and 2 years ago, after 4 years of the malevolent rule of president Sarkozy, I returned to the city I love to find it strewn with "clochards" sleeping on the streets (in November) and begging for money. It was a heart breaking sight, and frankly, for the first time ever, I was glad to get away from Paris. It's coming to a town near you.

This, people, is how much Better it is Together.

LET'S NOT WASTE THE ONE CHANCE WE WILL GET

Once again I am indebted to "Arbroath" for pointing me in the direction of a Scotsman article which is worthy of a read. Not often I can say that!

Of course we are all aware of the difference between the standard of living in Norway and that in Scotland, but somehow when it is laid out in print (particularly in a newspaper with an editorial policy that would have us believe that membership of the UK holds the best future for Scotland), it knocks it home.

For me it is a feeling of frustration and anger at the opportunities we have missed to be like our Nordic neighbours, to whom, it seem, I feel more closely related, than I do to London, which I have always felt was pleasantly "abroad". London has much more in common with Paris than it does with Edinburgh... the temperature, kind of natural vegetation, insect life and the lifestyle of the population seems quite alien to one who lives in a cool sub-Nordic climate zone. In contrast Edinburgh and Oslo have much more in common than Edinburgh and London.

We had the same possibilities as Norway, but instead of following the sensible government style of a small and relatively unimportant (in world terms) northern state, which both Scotland and Norway are, the UK used the oil bonanza to deal with massive problems built up because of poor government in the 70s, and to pay for Thatcher's devastation of industry in the 80s. 

The UK simply will not lie down and accept that it is not, and can no longer afford to be, a world power. Its power came from how widespread its empire was (and from the vast monies accrued from the exploitation of that empire's resources). That empire now consists of a few scattered islands, which cost the UK more money than they bring in ...but of course are handy for hiding vast wealth from the taxman, and must be kept at all costs!

Oil wealth has also been squandered on the nuclear race. Since the late forties when Britain was snubbed by America because it did not have its own nuclear programme, vast amounts of our taxes have been diverted to ensure that we obtain weapons of mass destruction, which we cannot ever use (not least because the Americans do not trust us with the firing codes).

Successive prime minsters from Winston Churchill and Harold McMillan to Tony Blair and David Cameron have spent money that might have been saved, or at least spent on our crumbled infrastructure, on this vanity project, because it was more important to them that the UK remain a permanent member of the Security Council, than that old people have heat and kids have schools... or even worse in some ways, that soldiers they send to war on behalf of this quest to remain important, have equipment that works.

One of Cameron's reasons for Scotland stay in the union, as articulated in his Edinburgh speech, was that we "punch above our weight in military terms"... Wow, I'm impressed, but the roads are full of potholes. A recent "No" campaign leaflet pointed out that the UK has well over 200 embassies abroad. Wow again. I'm overwhelmed, but, just what does having an embassy in Côte D'Ivoire do for me? Wouldn't it be better if aged relative (and one day me) didn't have to stay in bed in the winter to stay warm?

The UK's mad privatisations policy meant that, when we finally did set up a state oil company (following the Norwegian example) it lasted a few years in public ownership, was sold off into private ownership, as was Mrs Thatcher's wont, and shortly afterwards bought by BP... Big business wins again. 'Twas ever thus!

Norway now has an oil fund of £330 billion. Scotland on the other hand, has an oil fund of £0.

With 59 MPs at Westminster out of a total of 650, even supposing we could get them to talk for Scotland instead of for their various bosses in London, we wouldn't get anywhere with the notion of an oil fund, despite us being the only oil rich country, or region of a country, in the West that doesn't have one.

Well, it's never too late. In 2014 we can, for the first time, make sure that our politicians speak for us. 

Let's not waste it.

STILL IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE; IT COULD HAVE BEEN THERESA MAY

For a nausea inducing few minutes of "we're just ordinary people" you'd go a long way to beat the right honourable Justine (the only pretty one in the cabinet) having a "good old walk up to cabinet".


And if that doesn't do it for you, a bit later there's the jolly old right honourable Francis the minister for creating crises, and this time he's dusting off the jolly old bike and pumping some air into the jolly old tyres and getting his chauffeur to pick him up, no sorry... he gets a bit out of puff, ho ho ho, but it's jolly good for the old circulation, what! 


So what is the purpose of all this carry on, I hear you ask... Well, I don't but I'll tell you anyway...

Well, you see, the muppets who are supposedly organising the London Olympics, in addition to:
* not considering the need for security in the whole of the last 8 years since they were lumbered with, I mean of course, since they took to London the honour of hosting the Olympics and beat the Frogs; 
* not considering that Heathrow couldn't cope with the inevitable influx of passengers;


also took until now...about 6 weeks before the whole thing kicks off..to remember that some people don't have chauffeured cars to get them around and that London's public transport, which was falling to pieces 20 years ago, still has had almost nothing done to it.


So the jolly old wheeze is that they are asking Londoners to get up early, go to work in the middle of the night to avoid the rush hour when the roads and trains will be needed for the Olympics. 


Alternatively they want Londoners to work from home (difficult when you flip burgers for a living, but they probably didn't think about that). And, failing that, they want people to walk to work, or cycle... or swim up the river, or any other means of travel, as long as they don't block the metro and the buses and show the world what a chaotic mess they have made of the whole thing.


But Londoners, have no fear, you are not alone...you are all in it together, and, just to prove it, your betters are showing an example. If these important and highly bred people can walk or cycle, or turn up at 6.30 in the morning, then so surely can you. It's for London, for England and St George...and the Queen!


Pfffffffffffffffff!


Oh, and the bloke at the end, yeah the one with the... erm...uh, 'interesting, and somewhat daring'... orange tie... yeah you...if you're reading this, it's a good idea, just before you go on camera, to make sure that you brush the dandruff off your suit.


You see, you'll find that once people notice that you have dandruff on your jacket, they lose interest in what you are saying and concentrate on 'les petites pellicules'. Specially when you're terminally boring.

YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO BE ON THE SAME PLANET AS SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WRAPPING THEMSELVES IN THE OLYMPIC FLAG

Photo courtesy of War on Want

While companies like Nike, Puma and Adidas make millions from the London Olympics, their workers are paid on average 16p per hour, with some getting as little as 9p.


What's more, workers in all three companies have been beaten, verbally abused and some even sexually harassed by their managers.


Some workers had to put in 80 hours a week to earn enough to feed their children. One Nike supplier employee told the charity War on Want that she had to get up at 4 am to cook breakfast and get her child ready for school. It is compulsory to be at the factory gate at 7 am, although work doesn't start till 7.30. She then works 9 hours before she can take her bus home, a journey which takes her an hour.

Adidas is the official outfitter of the London 2012 Olympics, supplying the GB team's uniforms, which were designed by Stella McCartney, and the uniforms for the 70,000 volunteers (Big Society) who will help run the Games. It also sponsors many sports "stars", including David Beckham and Jessica Ennis. It is hoping to sell around £100,000,000 worth of Olympic themed sportswear.


Nike has apparently sponsored 25 national teams including the high profile ones like Germany, China and the USA.


These companies are making vast amounts from the Olympics while abusing the workers who actually produce the merchandise.


I wonder what the original Olympians would make of the foul and disgusting business practices that the Games have now attracted.
*****


Despite what some of the commentators here would like to think, everyone that I spoke to in Paris about the Games is delighted that the disruption, dirty, noise and unpleasantness that is the Olympics has gone to London and not to Paris. 

DOWNTOWN--WHERE ALL THE LIGHTS ARE BRIGHT

At Number 2 in the Irish Republic's charts, some 47 years after its first appearance there and  22 years after its last appearance there, it's back, proving that you can't keep a good song down. They filmed the video in Downtown Galway, she filmed it in Downtown Paris, but they met in Downtown London to record it.

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS BEFORE A WINTER BREAK

I was interested to read in the Daily Telegraph that Prince Michael has revealed that members of the royal family were not obliged to take part in the lottery of tickets for the Olympics. They were simply asked what event they wanted tickets for, and they got them. What it is to have connections, huh?


Staying with the Royals and the Olympics, I expect that when Blair put so much effort into securing them for London, it never occurred to him that they would be taking place at the same time as the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Apparently, when the Olympics are on, they will be the only show in town. No one will have time or energy for anything else, and so the Queen has been forced to concentrate all the celebrations of her jubilee in the first 6 months of the year. I guess that means that come August in Scotland we can expect to have wall to wall Olympics rammed down our throats. Yippee, I can hardly wait.

Apparently the jubilee celebrations will include a horse pageant in London, with 500 horses from all over the world. Alan Titchmarch described it as "the most wonderful and appropriate celebration". So, I suppose it must be then, seeing as Alan Titchmarsh said so.

Talking about royalty, David Cameron has chartered a Virgin plane for a tour of the Middle East. What his staff neglected to take into consideration was that he will be flying into Saudi Arabia, and that Virgin planes have a model of a scantily dressed redhead as their motif. The arrival in Saudi of a British Prime minister on a plane with a half nude female isn't thought to be a great idea, especially when the trip almost undoubtedly a 'begging bowl, please buy our stuff', kind of visit. I wonder how much we pay these people.


Harriet Harman's husband, Jack Dromey is in a spot of bother over the small matter of forgetting to declare his salary from Unite in the Commons register of interests. £27,867 may be chicken feed to him, but for a lot of his constituents it's two or three or even four years' income. Socialists...pffff?

According to the Daily Mail, Foxy was seen yesterday skulking outside the Carlton Club where his young friend,Adam Werritty, was taking luncheon, dressed, apparently, in an expensive hand-made suit. Maybe they only had enough money left for one of them to eat, and the other one just hung about outside? And maybe not.

Well that's it...I'm heading off to Paris for a few days to indulge in some of my favourite occupations: speaking French, enjoying decent coffee, meeting up with mates from all over the world, and going to a big Petula Clark concert. So these few random observations comprise the last post for a week or so. I'll see you quand je serai de retour. Au revoir pour le  présent!

La Tour Eiffel est tombée... oh no, wait a minute... it's the latest piece of Brit-Art!

Good Lord!

They were looking for something that would be a legacy of their games in London in 2010, and the best they could come up with is this?

Mr Eugenides covers it so brilliantly on his blog, I won’t attempt to better it:

"First London stole the 2012 Olympics from under Paris's delicately upturned nose. Now, it seems, the capital is stealing the concept of her Eiffel Tower as well. For the Olympic Park is to get a mini-Eiffel at the behest of Boris Johnson, the mayor of London.


Nicknaming it the "Hubble Bubble", because it looks like a giant shisha pipe, he said of Kapoor's design: "He has taken the idea of a tower, and transformed it into a piece of modern British art.

"It would have boggled the minds of the Romans. It would have boggled Gustave Eiffel. I believe it will be worthy of London's Olympic and Paralympic Games, and worthy of the greatest city on earth."

Haha, lovely. Like anyone would spend millions putting this twisted piece of crap up as a symbol of our - oh, shit, it's real!"



.... Oh how they will laugh!

WATCH WHO YOU PICK UP IN BARS GUYS

Thirty year old Jessica Davies showed no emotion as she was jailed for 15 years for unpremeditated "voluntary homicide" of Olivier Mugnier, 24, after having picked him up in a bar in St Germain-en-Laye, Paris in November 2007. She was high on what the prosecutor called a "destructive cocktail" of alcohol and drugs. The pair returned to her first floor flat and started to make love. When he failed to "perform", she went to the kitchen and returned with a knife, sinking it almost five inches into the victim's thorax all the way to his spine.

Describing her as a "sulphurous seductress", solicitor for Monsieur Mugnier’s family accused Davies of having a "selective memory" about the killing and shifting her version of how much she remembered. The lawyer referred to a psychiatric report on Miss Davies which described her "ambivalent feelings of desire and hatred towards men", which she often saw as "pure sexual objects".

Miss Davies’ lawyer said her act was the result of displaced self-harm, born out of unbearable psychological distress: "This was not the crime of a thief, or a pervert, or a sexual crime. It was a suicidal act". (Erm, no, it was a murderous act, she killed the lad, not herself!)

The nine-man jury heard expert opinion that she was in an "altered state" when she committed the crime. They accepted that she was sincere about a claim of a total blackout during the killing except "the sensation of the knife going in."

Davies said before the verdict: "I want to express the extent of my remorse and just say that I assume my responsibility and the consequences. ”What I did terrifies me. I dare not even ask for forgiveness from Olivier's family. I can assure you that it will never happen again," she said. However, minutes after the verdict, she could be seen smiling and joking with police minders, which is more than poor Olivier can hope to be able to do.

We hear a lot about women being warned to take great care over who they go home with, but not so much about lads. So let that be a serious warning to you guys. Be very careful who you pick up in bars....