Why do I read the papers? Why can't I be like my students and just ignore the world and live in blissfull ignorance of everything...
I went to bed really early and very tired, when I woke up I had a stonking headache and spent about 15 mins trying to remember how to focus my eyes.
I read in the guardian that "in a series of little noticed moves, the Coalition has scrapped or stalled Labour initiatives to improve animal welfare, some weeks before they were due to come into force" - and that The Lib-Dems were already planning on backtracking on an election pledge ( look up the word pledge in the dictionary, Nick ) to abandon education fees.
There was a very clear conservative pledge ( there's that word again ) to grant anonimity to men accused of rape - that's also been dumped.
By scrapping the Harrier and restructuring the armed forces on economic lines, we are in the process of inviting the Argentines to invade the Falklands - for fun ( go on chaps, we've left the back door open and my wallet is on the kitchen table ) and The department of health is getting is direction and advice on food and health policy from companies like McDonalds and PepsiCo.
Watching Nick and David on day one in the garden at Downing Street reminded me of seeing the grainy security footage of Jamie Bulger being ushered away by Thompson and Venables ( I'll probably get Frankie Boyle style hate mail for that one ). I have a very clear mental picture of Britain in the late 70's. Dark - shabby, grim and depressing. The streets empty and cold - everything grim and threadbare. I never thought I'd revisit my childhood in my mid '40's.
The rest of the news is pretty shit. I can't get my head around the Met Office's self destruction, I really think Mirian O'Reiley is taking the piss by sueing the BBC for kicking her off Countryfile - she was shit and it's much better without her. The twitter 'stoning' row rumbles on pointlessley, I don't care about Pontins, I really don't. I don't give a shit about X factor contestants or 'I'm a nonentity' - although talking of which - in a unique cross-over, mashup scenario - one of last years X factor contestants 'stacy Solomon' is going 'into the jungle'. in her own words "I'll endure hunger and humiliation to give my son a better life" - here's an idea, why not just get a fucking job.
I've just had a glimpse of hell. Imagine, when you die - you spend eternity on TV game shows - from X Factor to Weakest link - then 'Celebrity' - and then onto Countdown, then 'Joseph' and 'Strictly'... and so on without a break, singing, dancing, gurning your way to the end of time......
3 comments:
I loved the late 70s, but maybe that's because I lived in leafy Richmond-upon-Thames. I find the place far more depressing today, as nearly everyone I grew up with was driven out by the high property prices during the late 1980s.
alas...for me, the 70's were all about The Yorkshire Ripper, the Pub Bombings, Power Cuts and my parents fighting.
On the other hand... The Sex Pistols on Grundy, Abigail's party, The Naked Civil Servant and the absolute certainty that as soon as I was 16 or 17 I was going to get as far away as possible.
That's the key - I was 16 in 1980, so the late 70s were a time in which I was sussing out how things worked and looking forward to gaining control of my life. It was also, artistically, a mini-golden age.
I associate the early 80s with the bliss of freedom without responsibility and the late 80s with the creeping realisation that I wasn't destined for greatness and that my life was going to be shit, against a backdrop of yuppies, the miners' strike the poll tax and Rick Astley.
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