This page represents only my own views, and not those of any university or other body.
Posted Wednesday 28th December 2011 at 12.17pm
A boy bowls a ball in Chittagong
There are some great photos in the Guardian's photos of 2011 feature.
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Posted Thursday 22nd December 2011 at 9.44am
I wish
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Posted Saturday 10th December 2011 at 9.38pm
The Matt Roberts economic manifesto
This article by Will Hutton got me thinking some more about the situation Britain finds itself in post-veto, and more generally post-recession.
The government's argument is that if we heavily tax the financial services sector, then the bankers and hedge fund managers will up and leave. And so we have to make a decision: do we want to keep these people, with their big contribution to our tax receipts; or do we want to lose them, because their avarice sets a bad example which damages the moral and economic fabric of the country? The second option is the scarier one, because the downsides of their presence are subtler than the very measurable effect on our GDP (and on the Tories' campaign funds, but that's another story). You will probably not be surprised to hear that I would choose it regardless.
The (supposed) logic behind the coalition's economic policy is that the state has grown so big that it is drowning out the private sector. Cutting back on government spending will, in the long term, actually increase the number of jobs and the amount of money in the economy, as the private sector sees the opportunity to expand, increasing competition and choice for the public. That's the theory, and while the signs are not good so far, it is not clear whether it is the right or the wrong approach to take. What is clear is that it is unintuitive. Sacking people means more people will have jobs? Taking money out of the system means there will be more money in the system? Sounds crazy. Almost as crazy as "driving out some of the financial services sector could increase tax receipts".
France's GDP per capita is either similar to or higher than the UK's (depending on how you measure it), from a similar population size; this despite the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of France's brightest young people working at banks in London. Why is it that the French can manage without this sector, but the British can't?
Learning to cope without the big banks would be a hard road for the UK economy, no doubt. Revenues would certainly drop in the short term. But it might mean that hard work would once again become a prized quality; talented young people might aspire to carve out a successful career, or make their millions from some brilliant innovation, rather than spend a few years working in a bank - a few years which turn into a lifetime.
It might not work. Perhaps a decade of negligible growth would turn into a decade of depression. But we're risking that anyway - no-one knows the right answer, and I'd rather risk it with the potential reward of a balanced economy than just the prospect of a return to the good old days of 2006. The infrastructure in Britain is better than most places in the world, and most places in the world manage without being a centre for the financial behemoths to whom Downing Street panders. So could we.
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Posted Friday 9th December 2011 at 6.08pm
"Politics is for boring losers. I like fast cars and ladies!" says UK prime minister
I'm paraphrasing, admittedly. But...
"I don't actually think the world is waiting with bated breath about what was the exact nature of the institutional relationship. I don't believe they're sitting in the trading rooms wondering whether there's going to be a new reverse QMV article on integrated budget setting of blah, blah, blah."
That's a genuine quote. Oh dear, David. All this talk about how we couldn't introduce a financial transactions tax without everyone else agreeing, and it turns out that not only are we (i.e. you) the only ones in Europe not agreeing, but we (i.e. you) are willing to toss away our place at the table in Europe just to protect our banks from taxes. And how do you explain this decision to the country? Basically by saying "they used long words and long words are stupid!" I've never been more embarrassed to be British.
There's also a good article in the Guardian by Marina Hyde about Nick Clegg's position.
Of more ghoulish fascination, though, is the next Lib Dem manifesto. What could this document possibly include? There are whole areas that in any sane universe it would be literally too embarrassing to mention, and given that these include major planks of what used to be called Liberal Democrat policy, such as Europe and education, I've genuinely no idea where they'll go with this one. Blank pages? Something nice and inclusive about fish? The mere fact of something appearing as a Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge has come to symbolise that it is terminally doomed as an idea. Perhaps the best way to eradicate poverty would be to draft up a Lib Dem manifesto commitment to perpetuating it.
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Posted Friday 9th December 2011 at 11.36am
How to say goodbye
One of the problems with the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs is that it contains 69 songs. 69 is a pretty huge number. I could post a song every week from the album, and it'd take me a year and four months to get through to "Zebra". I've owned it for 9 years, and there are still songs that I'm only just discovering. "How to say goodbye" is one of these. I'm not sure I've ever heard a song that's so angry and so sad at the same time.
I'm overjoyed to hear about your wedding.
I'm writing you to wish you every blessing.
And I'm so happy I could cry,
Oh baby, you know how to say goodbye.
And here's a happier song, that I've loved for a long time.
So you share secrets with Lou,
But we've got secrets too!
Well, one -
I only keep this heap for you...
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Posted Sunday 4th December 2011 at 9.53pm
Asterisms
I went to see Joanna Newsom play in Paris last year. My friend Christian, who was also my officemate at the time, saw me printing off the ticket. He asked what it was, and I said it was a ticket for a concert.
"Who?"
"Joanna Newsom."
"Ah... something for the heart? Like Sarah McLachlan?"
I was horrified by this question on at least two levels (mostly the inherent sexism, but also the prospect that he had me pegged as a possible Sarah McLachlan fan). I sent him a link to "Emily", the first song from Joanna's second album. I'm pretty sure it wasn't what he was expecting.
"Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen -
Loving him, we move within his borders:
Just asterisms in the stars' set order."
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Posted Monday 28th November 2011 at 10.28pm
From little acorns...
It seems someone in the UK has realised that it might be a good idea to teach kids how to program computers. I learnt basic, C and html from the internet while at school they made us use the paint program on our Acorns to design logos for fast food companies. (This turned out to be the wrong piece of coursework, which meant that my entire year at school got dud IT grades at GCSE. I got a B, despite being able to create a Flash game based on Breakout during exam leave that saved high scores to the web via php. I'm by no means claiming that this takes wunderkind levels of computer literacy, but one question on our mock GCSE exam involved correctly labelling a mouse, monitor and keyboard on a picture of a PC.)
Putting programming on the curriculum could make school much cooler and much more useful. So bravo to whoever came up with this idea. Years too late, but better late than never!
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Posted Saturday 26th November 2011 at 11.09pm
I don't think a few words of sympathy are gonna make your world go round
Never a man to take subtlety over beating you about the head: it's J Spaceman!
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Posted Thursday 24th September 2011 at 12.13pm
Dolly
Amidst the uproar as the idiot Blatter decided that racism was fine as long as we apologise and shake hands afterwards, Basil D'Oliveira chose a most appropriate moment to pass away. His is a story that reminds us that, on one matter at least, sport and politics do mix; and that sport can, occasionally, do the right thing, even if it takes two attempts.
It's interesting to read the Economist's original report on the affair from 1968.
"The D’Oliveira affair caught Mr Vorster in mid-act, and immediately after the party’s Transvaal congress, that of the equally reactionary Orange Free State. But there will be a backlash too. White South Africans are crazy about sport, and now they face the prospect that the barring of Mr D’Oliveira could mean the end of all South African participation in international sport. It is a thought which appals them as nothing else could."
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Posted Wednesday 23rd November 2011 at 4.58pm
At random
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