Chatshow - Kings Of Confusion (EP)

I swear its deliberate.

You go to Tescos, you spend over £50 and you get a time-limited, one-use voucher for 5p off every litre of petrol you buy.

Great. This offer has been very popular round my way of late - both with Tesco and the punters.

Trouble is.

There is only one Tesco round here that sells petrol so everyone uses their vouchers there.

So what do Tesco do?

In order to reduce the number of staff that look after the garage, shop and forecourt (to 1 apparently!!), they make more of the pumps 'Pay At Pump Only'. (Save you going into the shop you see)

But of course, you can only use the voucher if you actually go into the shop and pay at the till.

Voila! I give you massive queues at the petrol station full of grumbling consumers sat slowly simmering in order to save their 5p-off-a-litre and an overworked and underpaid attendant who is unlikely to see a break before the end of her shift.

Another ounce of control over your life is wrested from your grasp, another five minutes of your life is spent in the pursuit of profit.

Like I said, deliberate.

When I got to the pump at the end of the queue I had chosen and saw it was 'Pay At Pump Only' I got back in my car and drove off in disgust. I exercised my consumer rights and decided to contribute to some other petrol company's vast profits.


Chatshow - Kings Of Confusion (EP) (Federation Records FED008-12 1987) 320kbps

1. Kings Of Confusion
2. Reach
3. Eye To Eye Contact (Live)
4. Western Way (Live)

Death to the supermarkets - pwd: c4ctusm0uth

I'm Working For The Cash Machine

Well who would've thought it? The judge sided with the banks after all thus maintaining that cushy £2.6bn revenue stream.

But that was only for the unauthorised overdrafts.

The authorised overdrafts are proving to be a money spinner as well with the average rate at its highest since the mid-90s: 18.96%

So, they have our money thanks to the Treasury and the law courts, they can get away with charging what they like and there ain't jack-shit you can do about it. Looks like those bonuses will be back on the cards soon enough.

Zig Zag Dec 1980 - Motorhead

Plastic Not So Fantastic

Because my daughter and I both take packed lunches I have accumulated a few plastic spoons which we re-use. (It saves my daughter losing our teaspoons at school - not that I think she would).

So I was washing the dishes this evening when I broke one of these plastic spoons. "Don't know my own strength," I remarked wittily to Mrs H and, as I dropped the two halves of spoon in the bin, I started thinking how many people would regard plastic cutlery as throwaway? How many would regard washing plastic cutlery as just a bit sad?

But at the root of this pondering was the nagging echo of a quote, "Every piece of plastic ever made is still with us." Or something along those lines. And that lead me to think that maybe plastic should, due to its inherently resilient properties, really be regarded as hazardous waste. I mean, never mind when the bastard plastic eventually breaks down, it only forms small particulates that then enter the fucking food chain. It doesn't go away.

I wasn't sure about that quote though so Google was the most obvious next step (a surprisingly common answer in many situations these days) and I came up with this headline in the Independent from Feb 2008: The world's rubbish dump. The hit is due to this quote from Tony Andrady, a chemist,"Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," as he describes a vast expanse of plastic debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. The story is appalling in its depiction of how careless we have been in our treatment of the environment and how our own rubbish may eventually find its way back to our homes - as part of the food on our plates.

Another site I discovered was Midway Journey where, in their own words, "Five media artists, led by photographer Chris Jordan, traveled to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to witness the catastrophic effect of our disposable culture". The Atoll "serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food." The picture at the top is the stomach contents of a dead bird, which have been deposited as the bird decayed, and has been photographed exactly as it was found.

And there you go. For anybody still thinking its a bit sad to wash up plastic cutlery for re-use, I'd rather do that than feed it to the birds or eat it myself for that matter.

Chatshow - Shake It Down (EP)

My union is again, much to my continued dismay, extolling the virtues of New Labour. This time under the guise of the Unite4Labour website.

Having lived under successive Labour/Tory governments from 1971 onwards I am quite confident in my ability to state that there is very little to choose between them. They meddle and they muddle and they try their very best but, in truth, I doubt they make little impact as capitalism rolls on in its circular orbit of growth and recession. They take turns taking credit for the good times and blaming others for the bad times.

The problems inherent in capitalism have always been here and will always be here. That has to be the case for as long as capitalism exists - it is inevitable because history demonstrates as much. Every generation of do-gooder politicians wishes to reform this or that particular area of legislation, dependent upon their particular lobby/politics/side-business/interest, but the problems remain generally the same. Then, give or take a few years, they swap a few seats round and it begins again.

In The Road To Wigan Pier, by George Orwell, he relates the poor diet of an unemployed miner and his wife and makes reference to the campaign of the time (the book was written in 1936) to improve the eating habits of those on low incomes: "Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw?" He goes on, "And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food."

The similarity to the current vogue for the promotion of healthy eating among the masses, in the face of the Obesity Epidemic™, is striking.

Orwell also makes reference to the plight of the elderly and, more significantly, the unemployed. Both of which remain problems today albeit for possibly different reasons. And he also highlights the rise of Fascism as a response to these problems and now, 70 years later on, the BNP are getting elected.

Casting my own mind back to the 1980's the predominant themes are (Cold) War, unemployment, the NF, the disparity between rich and poor, manufacturing recession/financial growth and the failure of the Labour party to mount a challenge to Tory dominance. Swap some of the words around and they could be current headlines and I daresay anybody born from around 1920 onwards could say the same.

So if we accept then that there are certain problems inherent in capitalism that are, in some cases, essential for it to function- do we cease to regard them as problems or do we tackle them side-on with all our parliamentary power, legislate like we have never legislated before and then subject them to a less-than-thorough, temporary reform?

Or do we just face the simple fact that you can't polish a turd. And never have been able to.


I originally had a copy of this record from the long-defunct 1978's Attic which started promisingly but tailed off quick.

Chatshow - Shake It Down (EP) (Federation Records FED007 1986) 320kbps

1. Shake It Down
2. Betrayal
3. Shake It (Gaddafi Mix)
4. Junk City
   

Reform is futile - pwd: c4ctusm0uth

Zig Zag Dec 1980 - Toyah & John Stalin

Ignorance

Ignorance

Strange to know nothing, never to be sure
Of what is true or right or real,
But forced to qualify or so I feel,
Or Well, it does seem so:
Someone must know.

Strange to be ignorant of the way things work:
Their skill at finding what they need,
Their sense of shape, and punctual spread of seed,
And willingness to change;
Yes, it is strange,

Even to wear such knowledge - for our flesh
Surrounds us with its own decisions -
And yet spend all our life on imprecisions,
That when we start to die
Have no idea why.

Philip Larkin

The Brilliant Corners - Joy Ride (LP)

Looks like The Brilliant Corners might finally be getting some of the reissues they deserve.

That can only mean one thing: the corresponding downloads available from this blog are now living a very precarious existence.

Don't say you haven't been warned.


Davey Woodward - Singer, Electric Guitar
Robert D Morris - Drums
Christopher Galvin - Electric Bass
Antony Forbes - Electric Guitar

Clare Mactaggart - Violin
John Parish - Acoustic Guitar


The Brilliant Corners - Joy Ride (LP) (McQueen Records MCQLP4 1989) 320kbps

1. You Don't Know How Lucky You Are
2. Emily
3. This Girl
4. Nothing
5. Grow Cold
6. Hemingway's Back
7. I Didn't See You
8. Accused By The Angels

Joy Ride

Lowest Of The Low

In one way those who cross picket lines are to be admired.

And I am not talking about temp labour bought in for the duration of any strike but those employees of the company who are not members of the union and do not wish to take part in action.

They, at least, have the courage of their convictions and possess the balls to turn up for work and face down the picket line in order to do what they think is right.

They are not pretend members of the union who enjoy the opportunity to moan about the company and decry every new policy implemented to reduce the employees terms and conditions.

Those people who profess support for the union but, when push comes to shove, are unwilling to take part in democratically called-for action.

They come out with such excuses as:

"I didn't vote for strike action therefore I am not striking" - No, you didn't. But the majority of members did and, as such, you should be willing to support your fellow members and your union.

"I'll be taking part in non-strike action" - Yes, on strike days. So where those who are willing to give up their pay to fight for what they consider to be worth fighting for will be doing so, you will be quite happy to draw your pay and answer "How High?" when some manager or other barks "Jump!" down the 'phone at you.

The sort of person who maintains their union credentials while scabbing quietly and discretely from the comfort of their own home. Like a coward.

Capitalism Makes You Sick

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have calculated the cost of stress related workplace absence at £28bn. That figure being a total derived from the 13 million working days lost a year to depression and other mental illness.

Apparently lousy managers were the single biggest problem but such simple solutions as thanking someone for a job well done or flexible working could significantly reduce the problem.

A system which induces people to forget such simple things as manners surely has to be rotten to the core. But I interject...

Another recent survey by the Chartered Institue of Personnel and Development confirmed these findings: "a quarter of UK workers describe their mental health as moderate or poor, yet nearly all continued to work regularly."

So the constant pressure to produce, coupled with the recession, the bad debts and whatever else baggage you're carrying does not a happy worker make. But that's OK. The system can patch you up with anti-depressants, not fix you mind, and send you back out to work. By the millions. Apart from the unemployed of course, who are a faceless commodity under capitalism, an unpalatable necessity useful only for their role in the supression of wages (full employment not being desirous you see).

The fact that it is individuals, and their friends and families, who are suffering is lost somehow in the fact that someone had to slap a figure on it to make it easier for the businessmen to understand.


Can anyone really say they are surprised by (yet) another survey which showed that Monday was the most common sick day? I'm no doctor but if I had to put money on it...

The research showed that 35% of all sick leave is taken on a Monday. We're not all exactly leaping out of bed to get there then. Researcher Phiroze Bilimoria said: "Monday sickness and frequent short-term absences can be a symptom of low employee engagement and morale within certain teams or departments."


As long as we endure in a state of endless, mindless, soulless, production and consumption through to the eventual destruction of the planet according to the economic laws of low wages, debt, privatisation and the free market and the states laws of surveillance, force, coercion and bribery then I suspect there will always be mental health and employment reforms to discuss.

Capitalism as a possible cause is unlikely to be bought up.

Zig Zag Dec 1980 - Theatre Of Hate & Tenpole Tudor