Push it Along!


It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it seems to me the Modfather still cuts it in his dotage.  Hats off to Mr Weller from Davies the Pipe Jnr.

See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HyBZUNybU

MPs Pensions NOT Under Threat

Money is the Cause of Poverty

Both Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs had, before the 2010 UK General Election, emphasised their belief that MPs pensions were too generous and should be reformed. What has actually happened since the election?

They raised the retirement age for women and men to 66. As a result 4.5 million people will have to wait longer than expected before they can pick up their state pension. Some women will receive their state pension almost two years later than they had expected.

What about the reforms to MPs pensions?

They continue to reward themselves with up to one fortieth of their final salary for every year’s service if they contribute 11.9 per cent of their salary. This reduces to one fiftieth if they pay in 7.9 per cent and one sixtieth if they pay in 5.9 per cent. An MP could work for just 15 years and build up a £24,000 pension, based on his salary of £65,738. A worker in the private sector would have to build up a pension pot of £700,000 over a lifetime to get the same income at age 65. MPs’ spouses also receive generous benefits when their husband or wife dies – including a lump-sum worth four times their annual salary and an income of five eights of their pension. In 2008 the state contribute three times more to MPs pensions than its members did themselves.

More than a third of UK Pensioners Live Below the Poverty Line

MPs are still discussing recommendations made by the Senior Salaries Review Board last summer. This recommended moving from a final salary pension to a less generous one based on career average, and increasing MPs’ pension age from 65 to 68. It also said their pension should be built up more slowly. By dilly-dallying over reforming their own pensions while taking swift and punitive measure over everyone else’s (including replacing the RPI link with CPI) MPs have revealed once again that whatever their political colours their prime cause is feathering their own nest. The hypocrisy of our MPs would appear to know no bounds.

Come into the Garden Maude

(And Don't Make Yourself at Home!)

Consider the obnoxious, mendacious and utterly duplicitous Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, the MP for Horsham in West Sussex, who has claimed £35,000 in mortgage interest payments on a London flat complete with 24-hour concierge and gym . This is close to a house he already owned. He also boasts a house in the country and one in France. Maudes' personal net wealth is estimated at £3m. Despite this, during a discussion on Newsnight on 22 October 2010 he argued that a 5% cut to his £65,738 salary was equal to the 'pain' suffered by Britain's poor. He previously worked in banking as Managing Director at Morgan Stanley from 1993 to 1997. He was also appointed a non-executive director of ASDA Group Plc in July 1992, and served as a director of Salomon Brothers from 1992 to 1993.  This Capitalist freak is being paid by you and me.

Big Society - Big Con

Maude was tasked by the Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the publicity drive on the Conservative leaders' pet policy fetish which he calls the Big Society.  This ridiculous notion involves the idea that people should start rolling up their sleeves and helping out in their communities to the benefit of all concerned.  Obviously, this is all about restoring profitability to UK Capitalism PLC as vital local services are slashed so that Cameron and his friends can continue to screw the rest of us. 

Never minding that a vast number of working class people have for many years volunteered their time and energies as school governors, youth group leaders and active citizens in many respects.  As this agenda is rolled out, Ghost of a ne'er do Well feels less inclinded than ever to do any voluntary work whatsoever, which I have done alot of in the past.  I have no compunction to serve as a school governor, youth leader or private eye for the reactionary state.  Cameron's Big Society is dead in the water.  Because it is a Top-Down AUTHORITARIAN agenda, predicated upon the rich taking idle advantage of the poor.  Not only that, Cameron's world-view extends barely beyond his pathetic little Oxford constituency and his Central London Power Base.  I'd love to meet the prick on the streets of Tipton.  He'd barely last two minutes - before his fluffers would put him back into his car.

Meanwhile, Maude was given a slot on the BBC PM programme to push this Big Society idea.  When asked by interviewer Eddie Mair what he had ever done in a voluntary capacity to serve his community he was completely stumped.  He eventually, and quite pathetically, stated that he is 'involved with his local church'.

The Ruling Elite - Out of Gas!

It is time to bundle the know-nothing likes of Maude, Cameron, the Millibands, Clegg, Cable and all the other mendacious Millionaire Capitalist lackeys and their bastard offspring together and do away with them for good, ideally democratically using Parliament and the voting system. 

They know their system of wage slavery for us and personal profiteering for them is over and their days are numbered.  These duplicitous, vacuous hypocrites and their profit system supporting counterparts across the globe could be swept away in short order leaving an opportunity for a thorough going refreshment of world democracy.  Then the field will be clear for a new and genuine World in Common to emerge, in a truly human society.

Want can be replaced by plenty, war, hunger and worry can be supplanted to the past as a rational, stateless, moneyless, co-operative world society becomes the true expression of our common will.  A form of society which has hitherto never existed.  And the earth will belong to us all.  It's our choice.  Come on - Lets Go!

The Dalai Lama


Recently the esteemed Tibetan spiritual leader The Dalai Lama had a raging toothache and walked to his local dentist to get an emergency filling. Although old and  frail, he walked often, and in keeping with his monastic, asethic lifestyle he walked barefoot, as evidenced by the thickness of the dry skin on the soles of his feet. It is for this reason he is referred to in the tea rooms of Tipton as the "super-calloused fragile mystic vexed by halitosis."

Spiritual or Political Buddies?

When the Dentist inspected the Dalai Lama's tooth, and said he could fill the cavity immediately with the use of pain killing Novocain, the Dalai Lama declined,  saying he wanted to "transcend dental medication."

N.B.  Coming soon on Ghost of a Ne'er do Well:
Davies the Pipe Jnr in conversation with Arthur Sultan the table tapping Tipton Mystic.

On Being a Mod

It isn't a question of labels when one comes to understand the fundamentals of Modernism. Being a Mod is a statement of attitudinal detachment from the Status Quo, not some ridiculous affectation or hankering for long ago nights with Mels Mods' at the Barrel Organ, old Jam records or trips to the Wigan Casino.





Davies the Pipe Jnr
(Far Right upon his SX200)

 

Being a Mod is a thorough going attitude of mind, in which rare groove, RnB, The Kinks, The Who and The Small Faces all matter just as much as well cut cloth - but not only.  Ultimately, being a Mod is all about the future - and whilst it may be an individualist creed, it is also collective in nature, gathering around the idea that the future will be better than the past.  Standing out is important to mods, not just visibly but intellectually.  We have our own code.  What Pete Meaden once referred to as Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances. 

The Mod Movement has moved on significantly since the late 1950's and will continue to thrive as style driven young people invent new and powerful means in which to subvert the meaning of the received wisdom of the day.  In the meantime I'll be collecting my newly adorned Lambretta SX200 from Irish Jack next week.

For a great side of Mod check out Dobie Gray below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DXNvyPIeXg&feature=related

The Riddle of the Sands

The Riddle of the Sands is a novel by Erskine Childers.  It is an early example of the espionage novel, with a strong underlying theme of pre-world war 1 militarism.  It has been one of Ghost of a Ne'er do Well's favourite novels for many years.  So much so that I have navigated the sands and mudflats of the Frisian Islands alone and stayed overnight in a one-man tent on the island of Nordeney.

This is a novel that owes a lot to the wonderful adventure novels of writers like Rider Haggard, that were a staple of Victorian Britain.    Perhaps more significantly, it was a spy novel that established a formula that included a mass of verifiable detail, which gave authenticity to the story – the same ploy that would be used so well by John Buchan, Ian Fleming, John le Carré and many others.

Carruthers, a minor official in the Foreign Office is contacted by an acquaintance,  Davies, asking him to join in a yachting holiday in the Baltic Sea.  Carruthers agrees, as his other plans for a holiday have fallen through. He arrives to find that Davies has a small sailing boat named The Dulcibella, not the comfortable crewed yacht that he expected.

Davies gradually reveals that he suspects that the Germans are undertaking something sinister in the German Frisian islands, based on his belief that he was nearly wrecked by a German yacht luring him into a shoal in rough weather.  Carruthers and Davies sail back to the Frisian Islands and spend some time exploring the shallow tidal waters of the area, moving closer to the mysterious site where there is a rumoured secret treasure recovery project in progress. They are watched by a German navy patrol boat, which warns them away from the area.

Taking advantage of a thick fog,  Davies navigates them covertly through the complicated sandbanks in a small boat to investigate the site. They find that it is actually the centre of a German plan to invade England. The invasion plan is master-minded by a renegade Englishman, but Davies has fallen in love with his daughter and he does not want to hurt her by revealing her father's treason. Eventually they manage to escape with the information and the invasion plan is foiled.


N.B.  More on this subject is to come.

Man in the Corner Shop

As I stated earlier I will be providing an ongoing commentary on the brilliance of The Jam.  In the opinion of Ghost of a Ne'er do Well one of their most prescient and enduring songs is Man in the Corner Shop.  It is a slice of British Life which exposes the Class Divided nature of our declining island in a very succinct form.


See Below:

Puts up the closed sign does the man in the corner shop
Serves his last then he says goodbye to him
He knows it is a hard life
But its nice to be your own boss really

Walks off home does the last customer
He is jealous of the man in the corner shop
He is sick of working at the factory
Says it must be nice to be your own boss (really)

Sells cigars to the boss from the factory
He is jealous is the man in the corner shop
He is sick of struggling so hard
Says it must be nice to own a factory

Go to church do the people from the area
All shapes and classes sit and pray together
For here they are all one
For God created all men equal

 To hear this wonderful song -
See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPdFQc1w5Ys

N.B.  This post is dedicated to my wonderful friend Annie Sands.

Interview with Paul Mattick Jnr

I was teased by Paul's statement about what were once referred to as 'Developing Nations' now being generally referred to as 'Developing Markets'.  Not only that, his analysis of post WW2 Capitalism is absolutely correct in my view.

See here: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/06/express/the-economic-crisis-in-fact-and-fictionpaul-mattick-with-john-clegg-and-aaron-benanav

And if you care to discuss I'd be delighted to hear from you!

Nuts in May

Do You Sing, Ray?

Well Done Ray!

I am no expert a la Dr Mark Kermode as a film critic and like most people I have my own singular tastes.  Nuts in May being one of my favourite films.  This Mike Leigh classic has much to recommend it and more will follow upon this subject as Ghost of a Ne'er do Well develops its' film criticism.

For a taster see here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daEocG2dKCU

And enjoy!

Fork Handles?

The genius of the Two Ronnies meets the quiet desperation of the Labourer and the Petit Bourgeois Shop Keeper. 

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ

Lieutenant Colonel Kojak Slaphead the Third

The Bald Brummies Against the Bigfoot Conspiracy Party appear on a political discussion panel during Partridge Over Britain.  Fascinating tactics!

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdZOGEU1qw

Child Poverty - Who Cares?

In the UK, 3.8 million children live in poverty, defined as a family surviving on less than 60% of the average household income  - that's one in three under-16s in the UK.  

Meanwhile, 1.6 million youngsters live in severe poverty, defined as surviving on less than 50% of the average UK household income.  The charity Save the Children says more than one in five children now lives in severe poverty in 29 areas of the country.  The highest proportion – 27% – is in Manchester and the London borough of Tower Hamlets. More than 20% of children experience severe poverty in Birmingham and Liverpool.

An eight-year-old from the north of the UK explains... 

"I won't be doing swimming or having any Ice-cream. We don't go to the Seaside.  About this credit crunchy thing. It's stopped all the money and we've got no food."   A quick check of the fridge reveals two small bottles of medicine and a two-litre jug of milk. "We had to have tea at, like, almost 12 o'clock at night… and we've got no cereal, nowt, and I could go, like, another week with no food, but I'll at least have to have a biscuit or something. My mum says… she's gonna try and fill the cupboard up as much as she can, and that she's gonna put some money away,"

Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy, said ... "Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning. No child should be born without a chance. It is a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty."

 

Ghost of a Ne'er do Well  has heard it all before - ad nauseum. When will these well-meaning, sincere but deluded critics of poverty begin to understand the cause and the cure and start demanding real solutions and stop the needless suffering of children and young people?  That's the real scandal !

The Capitalist Mode of Production

Karl Marx gives us a useful description of the capitalist mode of production.

“Capitalist production rests on the fact that the productive worker sells
his own labour-power as a commodity to the capitalist, in whose hands it
then functions simply as an element of his productive capital. This
transaction (the sale and purchase of labour-power) does not just
introduce the production process, but implicitly determines its specific character.

The production of a use-value, and even of a commodity
(something that can also be undertaken by independent productive workers)
is here only a means for the production of absolute and relative
surplus-value for the capitalist.

In analyzing the production process, therefore, we saw how the production of absolute and relative surplus-value determines  the duration of the daily labour process, and
the whole social and technical shape of capitalist production. It is within this process that the distinction emerges between the mere maintenance of value (of the constant capital value), the actual reproduction of value advanced (the equivalent for labour-power), and the production of surplus-value, i.e. of value for which the capitalist neither advanced a previous equivalent, nor advances one after the event.

The appropriation of surplus-value (of value over and above the equivalent
of the value advanced by the capitalist), even though it is introduced by
the purchase and sale of labour-power, is an act performed within the
production process itself, and forms an essential moment of the latter."

.”

(Capital Volume II, p461 – Penguin Classics edition)