Sometimes, there's so much conversation in the kitchen that it's impossible to start early. Frost on the windscreen this morning, first time this year, and I wonder whether it says anything about me, that I like the couple of minutes in the car, engine running, half a mug of tea left, blower on, watching the ice melt. Yes, I know I could get a scraper, yes, I know about jugs of cold water. I like watching the ice melt. Or maybe sitting in a warming-up car with frosted-up windows, womb-like, blah, et cetera. Or just not being in a hurry.
No end to the excitement of living in what used to be called the country and is now rebranded the countryside. Ken Costa on the radio this morning - Weekend FT a week ago, was it the Sunday Telegraph yesterday? Now Radio 4 is in on the act - talking about capitalism and morality. Mr Costa has been talking about that for a while now, and let's hope this isn't just his fifteen minutes. My take on all of it: can't get beyond the notion that one person makes something, then "sells" it to somebody who needs that something; "sells" in the sense of using money as a token of barter, and we're all trading the fruits of our labour. A banker is a facilitator in the same way that a plumber or an electrician is a facilitator.
Do let's not forget that whatever happens now - a (re)turn to morality, or a new set of mistakes, or measures that address everything except the elephant in the room - whatever happens had its beginning in the actions of a bunch or characters who put up tents in the free space around a cathedral. They weren't necessarily articulate in their intentions (demands? grievances?), but the (unintended?) consequence of their actions has been to show up a certain quality in the established church, to bring into speech the unspoken (but widespread) feeling that the resolution of the banking crisis has been unjust, and to reveal the dry rot in another pillar of today's establishment.
I probably shouldn't (sic), but I do enjoy the way certain union leaders, interviewed about their members' pay demands, have taken to asking their BBC interviewers what they're paid. If a certain national broadcaster really was in the public-service business, it would drop the big-cost "stars" and get into the talent-development business. There are enough unemployed media-studies graduates to fill any number of local newsrooms. Cheaply.
No end to the excitement of living in what used to be called the country and is now rebranded the countryside. Ken Costa on the radio this morning - Weekend FT a week ago, was it the Sunday Telegraph yesterday? Now Radio 4 is in on the act - talking about capitalism and morality. Mr Costa has been talking about that for a while now, and let's hope this isn't just his fifteen minutes. My take on all of it: can't get beyond the notion that one person makes something, then "sells" it to somebody who needs that something; "sells" in the sense of using money as a token of barter, and we're all trading the fruits of our labour. A banker is a facilitator in the same way that a plumber or an electrician is a facilitator.
Do let's not forget that whatever happens now - a (re)turn to morality, or a new set of mistakes, or measures that address everything except the elephant in the room - whatever happens had its beginning in the actions of a bunch or characters who put up tents in the free space around a cathedral. They weren't necessarily articulate in their intentions (demands? grievances?), but the (unintended?) consequence of their actions has been to show up a certain quality in the established church, to bring into speech the unspoken (but widespread) feeling that the resolution of the banking crisis has been unjust, and to reveal the dry rot in another pillar of today's establishment.
I probably shouldn't (sic), but I do enjoy the way certain union leaders, interviewed about their members' pay demands, have taken to asking their BBC interviewers what they're paid. If a certain national broadcaster really was in the public-service business, it would drop the big-cost "stars" and get into the talent-development business. There are enough unemployed media-studies graduates to fill any number of local newsrooms. Cheaply.
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