With the recent hot weather, sleeping in the city centre has become a little uncomfortable, so I’ve been watching late night reruns of “Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant”.

One thing that stood out for me – perhaps as a fan of Thomas Tallis, not surprisingly – is the music. Based on music at the time, specifically on tunes and lyrics produced by Henry himself, the production seems to have got a new scoring and recording of them done to fit, and the result is beautiful.

Thankfully, you can listen to it for free online over at Philip Sheppard’s blog and I’m hoping they’ll release a CD of all of the tracks at some point – there is at least one track missing from this sounding like a stronger/fuller “Adieu Madame” without lyrics and trumpets in the background.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a letter in response to the Manchester Evening News’ campaign against the British National Party. They printed a highly edited and mangled version of my letter a week last Saturday before the Thursday European election. Here is the letter I wrote in its original form:

Whilst I agree with the MEN that the BNP are a party of ignorant racists, I feel that the campaign you have started has not yet addressed the core issues.

The reason why the BNP are in a position to potentially gain a seat at the European parliament is not because there is an increase in racism in our society, but because the mainstream political parties have failed in recent decades to engage with voters on the issues they care about.

As voter turnout has declined, political parties have focused on the narrow margin of swing votes. Swing voters typically fall into a demographic of educated, middle-class professionals. This focus represented in policy and manifestos has left working classes (of all skin colours), feeling disenfranchised and without a voice.

If you no longer feel you have any marketable skills thanks to your life-long employer outsourcing your job overseas, is it any surprise you would feel an inkling of resentment towards those you perceive as taking “British” jobs? What is expected to happen when the Labour Party abandons their traditional base to focus on “Mondeo Man” and “Winchester Woman” – is it conceivable that those feeling abandoned are prone to being manipulated into a racist vote?

Parties must now address the issues of globalisation and the development of a “knowledge economy” in a way that considers the views of those who lose their jobs as a result. They are not there to be ignored, they are part of our community.

I am fortunate: as a young, educated and middle-class male with marketable skills, I feel I have a future. Tens of thousands in the North West currently feel that they do not. Until the main parties start to realise the support for the BNP is of their own making and begin to focus on those disenfranchised by their current efforts, they are going to lose ground both politically and morally.

We need our political leaders to address the facts: a declining birth-rate and deskilling of our population means we need millions of new working immigrants by 2030 to avoid scrapping the state pension and reducing the services offered by the NHS; the majority of immigrants create new jobs and businesses rather than take those currently available to local populations; and that we as a society are not a pure-bred Anglo-Saxon race, but a mix of Saxon, Celtic, Norman, Scandinavian, Eastern European, African and Asian ancestors.

Calling the BNP names is like bullying the unpopular kid in the playground. The MEN should – in fact, must – campaign for the mainstream parties to abandon their fascination with the swing vote and to engage with the British population in a way that begins to convincingly address some of the daunting questions that face our society in the decades ahead.

I stand by my words. The BNP are in the position they are in today because of simple economic factors. If you travel to the Northern mill towns and talk to people about their attitudes towards ethnic minorities, yes, you’ll encounter some stereotypical racism. But the bulk of the resentment is seated in the desire for stable employment in their community. In other words: it’s the economy, stupid.

The fact those of us on the left and centre-left have not sat down and addressed genuine concerns in an adequate way beyond describing any jibe at multiculturalism as ignorant racism, is our own fault. We did this. We didn’t listen.

We now have to completely engage and explain the situation as it is: this country will die without inbound economic migration. It won’t just make life inconvenient for the middle classes, but make the welfare state completely unviable in just one generation. Yes, illegal immigration needs to be dealt with and we could start by actually implementing the Dublin Regulation which would mean those who claim asylum in the UK after transiting through other European countries are processed for asylum by the first EU country they entered. Implementing that one regulation alone would immediately cripple the BNP and their ridiculous policies.

And for me, the fight is now on. I have sent letters, memos and written essays on how the far-right need to be challenged, and how to do it. Nobody has listened. So now I’m going to start shouting a little louder.

It is the responsibility for the left to help the working classes, not ignore them. For the last two decades we have failed. Now the time is ripe for addressing these issues and showing just how flawed the thinking of the far-right is.

I hope you’ll join me.

I’ve decided to make some big changes. I try and avoid making this blog about me too much but I think this one works here.

In January, as I wrote at the time, I suffered a bit of a health scare. The final result was that I learned I’m developing stress-related migraines and panic attacks. I’ve never had either before, but I am apparently pushing myself way, way, way too hard. Whilst diagnosing that, my Doctor also warned me my cholesterol and blood pressure was too high, I was overweight (I knew that one already, duh!), and drinking too much. In essence either I needed to change my life, or my life would find a way to change me permanently – probably involving a coffin way sooner than I had anticipated.

It’s taken a few months to settle in, but I realise it now very clearly: I’m very, very mortal. It might seem obvious, but until you really realise that one day you’re going to die – and it could be one day soon – your life can just take on a routine all of its own.

Over the period I came to terms with this simple truth, I realised I was very much in a rut. My average week day would go like this:

7am: Wake Up
8am: First round of email, consider day’s work
9:30-10am: Get to a client site
6pm: Leave a client site and head to pub
10pm-12pm: Leave pub, get food, go to bed.

Every. Single. Day.

I didn’t create my own business or go into business with others to do this. I wanted to do something interesting with my life and escape the daily trudge. What happened?

My weekends faired little better. Whilst I remain a fan of the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester’s theatres and the odd trip to the cinema, these activities all seem to have a sense of routine about them. I was not pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It’s now a standing joke that I can most nights be found in one of a small handful of pubs – one in particular – and people openly mocked me for it.

If I knew for certain next month was my last, wouldn’t I do something fundamentally different? Wouldn’t I change all this and challenge the value of everything in my routine? Yes, of course I would. And when you realise that next month could easily be your last, the impetus is there to actually make those challenges and change. Life is not a dress rehearsal. It needs to be lived, not wasted.

Sounds like a bit of an epiphany, eh? However in truth it’s less a “Road to Damascus” moment and more a calling from my subconscious that we’re bored and it’s time to kick it up a gear.

So here’s the short version: I’m moving away from Manchester. Right now, I don’t know whether I’ll be coming back to live here permanently, ever.

Many people will be surprised at that, especially given my professional outlook of the last 8 years. One local geek even christened me “Tony 2.0″, predicting I would somehow never leave and talk this place up for my whole life in the style of the late Tony Wilson. How will I get to City home games? Won’t I miss the place I love? And what about my friends? All these questions have answers, and in time they will be addressed. But for now, what follows is the longer version of the immediate plan.

At first I’m doing a trial run by moving to a suburb of town (Chorlton if you must know), and using 6-8 months to restructure the business so I don’t need to be on-site as often, if at all.

Ideally I’d like to get to needing to physically see clients a great deal less – that’s still open for discussion with them. The change in location will force a change in lifestyle and hopefully I can start to see real improvements in my health (I’m losing weight, but slowly). This small step alone should mean I’m bang on the Body Mass Index ideal by late Autumn.

It also mean I’m likely to meet some new people (I love all my friends, but I’d love to have more of them), have some new experiences and basically get used to moving to somewhere I know only a little about and settling in. OK, I know Chorlton, but not that well. The point is, it gets me out of the rut and into doing something new. It takes me slightly out of my comfort zone and challenges it.

This bit might fail, and if it does it’s reversible: I can come crawling back into Manchester and accept failure. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s worth being cautious at first.

And then, well, we get to the big stuff.

This is going to sound mad, but stay with me.

I’m currently thinking my next move will be to somewhere I know little about. It will be abroad, but somewhere that is only a relatively cheap flight back to the UK if it all gets too much and also so I can make regular trips back (to make my clients happy).

My first port of call is likely to be Berlin.

Let me be clear about this: I don’t speak nor have I ever been taught German, I don’t know much about German culture or know the logistics of moving there and finding somewhere to live.

This is not a small step.

However whenever I think about it, I know it’s the right thing to do. It challenges everything I need challenging and pushes me right out of my comfort zone.

I will spend 6-12 months there, and then move onto somewhere new. Rome and Paris are both dumps to live in apparently, but I’ve always fancied spending some time in both. I am piqued by the prospect of living in/near Antwerp or Amsterdam. I once applied for a job in The Hague and in researching the area was completely in awe at how beautiful the area around it is. Who knows what will happen next. I might stay, I might come back, I might move on.

It’s all very big, very mad, and very, very ambitious. I don’t mind admitting that typing this all down and committing to it all, scares me slightly. That’s what I need, it’s how I know I’m pushing myself into something new.

All of this will be documented online (here?) so if you ever think you want to do something similar, you’ll have a resource to show the highs and lows and hopefully push you to make the same decision.

I also want to reserve the right to say it might also not all happen. Clients might refuse to let me work remotely or from abroad. I might move out of the city and realise I’ve made a horrid mistake. I might fall in love with a unicorn and decide to settle down and start a family. Anything can happen, but until it does I’m not going to sit around any more hoping for interesting things to find me. I’m going exploring.

Wish me well, and I promise to write and come back and visit regularly.

I’ve not blogged here for a while.

It’s entirely my own fault. I’ve had time in patches, just not the motivation.

I’ve spent the last few months absorbing the World a little more. Stopped trying to argue with it, fight it, or change it. It’s done me a little good. Probably done the World some, too.

I have introduced myself to some wonderful new things: stories, paintings, films, thoughts.

All bloggers say that, and then produce a litany of awful poems, clichéd statements about contemporary art and the occasional review of a Hollywood film.

I don’t mean any of that. I mean I’ve found some really nice things you might not have seen before. Quirky jumping off-points into whole facets of human knowledge and behaviour I didn’t know existed before. They’re not on social bookmarking sites, or linked from BoingBoing. Many of them aren’t even online yet.

I want to share them all with you, in time. I want to discover more too and plan to spend more time in some rather strange second-hand bookshops to do so. However, a few things need to change first.

Those of you who have been here before know what that means. This might be one of the shortest sprints in my history. If you want to, I’d suggest wget… before the weekend… looking back though, I wouldn’t bother. Nothing much here.

I want you to imagine it’s Monday morning.

You wake up and have pretty much 168 hours (7 days) where you are not required to be anywhere, see anybody, do anything. You need a break.

You have some spare cash. The weather forecast for the UK is typically unreliable. You can travel within the EU without any real issues, further afield presents problems. You will not be taking your mobile phone, laptop or any other connection to the outside World. Your baggage will consist of clothes, toiletries and a couple of books.

What do you do? Where do you go? Do you stay at home but take the phone off the hook and save the cash? Do you go somewhere rural within the UK? Do you find a cheap flight (and if so where)? Do you head to bright lights? Somewhere sleepy?

I am the worst person in the World at taking holidays. I don’t get to plan them in advance, and still haven’t picked up the habit of being imaginative.

I need some ideas. And for what it’s worth – between you and me – I need them kind of quickly. Before Monday ideally

Those of you who have read this blog for a number of years (and by that I mean read the previous incarnations of this blog), will know that a few years ago I was riffing an awful lot about getting rid of political parties.

My theory was that the process started by the 1832 Parliamentary Reform Act is not yet complete, and that we do not live in a democracy. Party whips run Parliament, and they work to protect themselves and the parties they serve. In essence, the constituent is just part of the machine that must be satisfied in order to secure re-election and ultimately political power.

So, get rid of the party system, make MPs more accountable, and suddenly the system works better. What could be simpler?

Well, when I proposed these ideas back then, I was generally considered a clot. I was told by numerous people that MPs would group together into parties over time as they shared common interests or viewpoints, and that I clearly hadn’t thought it through. I was told in no uncertain terms by those closer to the established political parties to put my idea down and engage with politics in the real World instead of living in a fantasy.

Well, it seems if I were a knighted Conservative, I would be listened to more carefully and my ideas would be crystallised into a movement pimped by the Andrew Marr show and the Sunday Times.

The Jury Team is the project of Sir Paul Judge, one-time Director General of the Conservative Party. Their proposals are as follows:

1. End of the Party Whips
2. Transparent Pay for MPs and MEPs
3. An independent Politicians Complaints Commission
4. Capping donations to political parties
5. Elected Select Committees
6. European Legislation applied appropriately
7. Term limits for MPs and MEPs
8. General elections every five years
9. Referendums as requested by 5% of the electorate
10. Government departments run by a Board
11. Independent publication of Government statistics
12. Applying these principles

All very noble. However, already the direction and tone is forming in a way the cynics predicted years ago.

The people who seem most supportive of the idea to date on the website are mostly right-wingers who are disenfranchised with mainstream politics because the parties do not support their own anti-immigration, anti-EU, anti-Scottish world view.

And that leaves me in a quandry.

I would have joined up by now, possibly even considering putting myself forward as a potential MEP candidate, because I support all their proposals. However, how do I feel about being part of a political party that seems to exist primarily to hoover up the BNP vote? The conspiracy theorists point to the fact that Paul Judge got on yesterday’s Andrew Marr show as a sign that this is an establishment plot to divert votes away from UKIP and BNP (and possibly the English Democrats). The reality is that he’s just a well-connected man, but there is a likelihood that this is going to be a holding ground for some rather nasty political viewpoints.

But isn’t that the point? If I truly believe in reformed democracy do I not first have to accept that some of the arguments that will be put forward will be ones that I myself consider to be nothing more than small-minded, obnoxious self-interest? And don’t those arguments deserve to be aired and debated at face value?

I’m considering my options. I’m glad that the ideas of more open and accountable politics is being taken seriously by some, but I suspect the people who are lining up behind this project will ultimately be the cause of its downfall.

Have you ever seen the film Ash Wednesday? Set on an actual Ash Wednesday in New York, the characters being Irish Catholic descendents walk around most of the film with what looks to be like targets on their foreheads. A target is how I felt when a child after having gone to Mass on Ash Wednesday, as it meant anybody who wasn’t a Catholic would look at me and my classmates a little strangely.

To most people Lent starts with pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. To those of us who spent our childhoods in the grasp of Catholicism, it’s all about that first day with a great big crucifix smeared on your forehead.

I bet they don’t make kids do that at Catholic schools today, but they should. It teaches you to stand up for what you believe in (even if at the age of 17 you decide not to believe in it any more).

Lent is quite a special time of year for me. What really makes me fond of it is that every time I gave something up for Lent, I gained something new.

As a child, it was giving up sweets and finding myself able to concentrate more in class. As a teenager, it was giving up lunch each day and putting my lunch money into the CAFOD box to gain access to lunch-time computer room sessions where I first learned how to write code (BBC BASIC if you care). As an adult, it’s about giving up something I care about to help gain perspective on what I value. You only value things when you lose them or almost lose them.

You may think this is tosh. Perhaps it is but even as somebody who is agnostic, I still find value in observing Lent. In recent years I’ve at various times fasted entire days, given up alcohol entirely and become vegan.

And this year?

Well, I’ve observed it so far so I don’t see any harm in vocalising it.

In recent months I have taken a fondness after a few pints to having a whiskey & coke (or five) or some gin & tonics, or maybe some vodka by way of a White Russian. In other words when I feel like I’ve had enough pints, I’ve moved to the top shelf. Sometimes I start on the top shelf and stay there.

It’s very sociable but probably not very healthy, but I will actually genuinely miss doing it if I give it up.

So, no more shots/spirits for Lent.

I reckon I’ll save about £250 between now and Easter by just going home early instead. That money will go to charity. CAFOD are a “Catholic” charity, but they are not discriminating towards Catholics only – they go to parts of the World others fear to tread, so that seems like a good choice.

Incidentally, most people assume that Lent is fasting or abstaining all the way from Ash Wednesday through to Easter Sunday. This is incorrect – each of the six Sundays in Lent do not count in Western Churches as they are a “mini-Easter” and it is acceptable to break the fast on those days. I haven’t decided if I want to or not this year. I’ll probably, for the sake of my liver, abstain all the way through.

P.S. I’ve also decided this week to go back fully to a pescetarian diet (i.e. no white or red meat, but fish and dairy OK). That’s not a Lent vow, and I don’t expect to get an earful if I am spotted having a bacon and sausage bap one morning against my doctor’s orders.

Last night I was talking to a friend about the film Amélie and was amazed to find she had never seen it.

If you are in the same unfortunate position, please go and buy or rent it now. It is one of the most beautiful and emotionally satisfying films ever made. Yes, it’s French and subtitled and that might put you off, but I genuinely don’t know anybody who doesn’t like it once they’ve seen it, and I can’t say that about any other film I’ve ever watched.

Thinking about that though, I realised there are a host of films out there I am constantly surprised people have never seen and yet I can’t imagine who would not be touched or changed by them in some way.

For example, Harvey is perhaps one of my favourite films of all time, that I discovered by chance one Christmas morning shown on BBC2 at 8am. It made my Christmas Day, and I watch it at least twice a year. In fact, I regularly quote it without people even realising because it’s so unknown. Some people find it twee, or odd, but I just find it heart-warming. Elwood P. Dowd is who I want to be when I grow up.

I think a lot of people get confused about what Fight Club is meant to be about, but at its heart is a philosophy I think all Western souls should at least be exposed to, even if they choose to reject it wholesale and return to their previous consumerist ways. Hint: it has little to do with actual fighting other than as a metaphor for personal liberation from conformity.

Likewise, I don’t think even I really get what the story of Donnie Darko is meant to resolve to, other than perhaps point to the precious and fragile nature of life. Ultimately a nervously depressing film in parts, I walked away from it feeling like life was more worth living. Just a couple of years earlier, a similarly jarring film American Beauty was released that left me just a little bit more liberated in my inner dialogue.

Update: I can’t believe I missed out the Big Lebowski from the above list. ‘The Dude’ is possibly the coolest character to have ever existed.

I’m curious as to what else might be out there I’m missing – given the above you can probably work out what kind of films I enjoy, so if you think there’s something I should be watching, please do tell.

Who do you think the young-looking chap is in the above photo?

I’ll give you some clues: he’s a writer called Jon Favreau, an American, he’s 27 years old and his job is to pretend he doesn’t really exist. He should, if he does his work well, be virtually invisible to most of the audience he writes for.

You might have read some of his writing, but you’ve almost certainly heard quite a bit of it. Here’s a sample of the softer stuff to get you going that might help you identify cadence:

“[...] while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure”

The last sentence is a big clue there partly because the sentence structure reeks of this style when you know who it is. How about this:

“There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for their child’s college education. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.”

I bet you’ve got it now. You almost certainly will after the next quote:

“Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.

At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.”

If you’re a writer or a fan of rhetoric (I aspire to be both), this is astonishingly beautiful composition. And by now you will of course recognise these words as President Barack Obama’s. The first two from his victory speech given in a football stadiuam, the last from his inauguration speech.

The man pictured is Jon Favreau, President Obama’s senior speech writer and in recent days there has been quite a lot of attention directed his way:

• The [London] Times
• The New York Times
• The Guardian

What is astonishing – and for those of us who love political speech writing as a spectator sport, is almost galling – is the fact he landed the biggest job in the business, for perhaps the most important President in 40 years, at the age of 27.

It’s clear to me that both he and President Obama have studied the work of JFK’s staff and Favreau is keen to build on the style of his boss as closely as possible. I am mildly jealous, but more generally in awe. I only wish UK politics could allow such style to be accomplished. It seems we are too workman-like in our politics and delivery to allow this kind of rhetoric. Shame.

Hudson Ditched Plane

You know what the really extraordinary thing about that crash is? It’s the first timerare a wide-bodied jet has ditches and everybody survives. Ever. (I stand corrected, see update below).

From the commercial aviation section on the Wikipedia article on ditching:

While there have been several ’successful’ (survivable) water landings by narrow-body and propeller-driven airliners, there is still a good deal of popular controversy over the efficacy of such measures. For example, Ralph Nader’s Aviation Consumer Action Project has been quoted as claiming (though not offering proof) that a wide body jet would “shatter like a raw egg dropped on pavement, killing most if not all passengers on impact, even in calm seas with well-trained pilots and good landing trajectories.”^[1] In December 2002, The Economist quoted an expert as claiming that “No large airliner has ever made an emergency landing on water” in an article that goes on to charge, “So the life jackets … have little purpose other than to make passengers feel better.”^[4][5] This claim was repeated in The Economist in September 2006 in an article which claimed that “in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero.”

What’s more it appears one of the reasons there were so few injuries was because passengers correctly adopted the brace position, which once more kills the myth that it is only used in order to preserve dental records or to ensure death (to reduce insurance medical-paid liabilities).

As somebody who once wanted to be a pilot – enough that I started training at one point before I realised I’d never pass a commercial license medical (I’m still tempted to do PPL) – I am astonished at the skill of that landing.

Bear in mind that the pilot has probably never received ditch training and he knows no wide-bodied aircraft has ever done this, but it’s the only wide, flat, unpopulated/safe area available to him to try it.

So he thinks it through, comes up with a plan of action, confirms it with the other pilot, and they go for it. Miraculously, they get the speed down enough (probably by flaring at the last minute), to ditch without the plane breaking up. One eyewitness report last night suggested it had “skipped” on the water and that it decelerated in less than 5 seconds, which if true suggests that the airframe on that plane has taken a fair bashing (and I guess the engines were responsible for most of the braking). The fact the airframe stayed intact is astonishing in itself, the fact it floated long enough for most passengers to not have to resort to life rafts immediately even more so.

I suspect the black box recordings on this are going to passed around flight training schools the World over – this is the equivalent of the 4-minute mile in aviation terms, and it’s likely that we’re going to see more ditching training, more ditchings, and aircraft designs better able to handle ditching.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim Dobson for pointing out a successful ditching of a DC-8 in San Francisco in 1968.