Threshers thrashed

This week saw another two major retailers fall victim to the recession. the liquor store Threshers collapsed, leaving 4,000 staff unemployed. the store on Surbiton high street is already cleared out. Also in trouble is the book chain Borders, which has gone into administration but will continue trading until another buyer is found. This seems unlikely at the moment, with Waterstones not very interested. Two publishers have told me that the crisis has seen a collapse in sales of mass market books, as well as competition from internet retailers.
Economic 'growth' figures are due to be released in December, with Gordon Brown predicting that the country will be out of recession and Alastair Darling being more circumspect. But whatever the figure say, it looks as though employment won't be going up any time soon.

London weather

The temperature in the south is clearly much milder than in Manchester. People in London are rugged up when to me it barely seems like jacket weather. It has been a really mild autumn so far, with few chilly days, sunny weather and even mild nights despte the clear skies. And the sunshine is making for very concentrated colours as the leaves turn. Bad weather in London? it's like the Mediterranean down here.

BNP

BNP
The media was in uproar all week about the appearance by the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin MEP, on the BBC 'Question Time' programme this week. Many people thought he shouldn't have been allowed on because of his party's far-right views. The show itself was largely a name-calling exercise in which the other panel members (mostly MPs) and the audience attacked Griffin.
Despite the attacks on him, they weren't really very effective. Griffin was repeatedly cut off, when it would have been fairly easy to let him talk himself into a hole. And by continually cutting him off, the panel gave the impression of a biased event which could only give sympathizers further reason to feel aggrieved about the 'liberal elite' they feel runs the media.
worse still, none of the issues leading people to vote BNP were really addressed, mainly because the large parties are fully committed to the free-trade, deregulated, small-state agenda. At one point the Labour, Conservative, and Lib-Dem panellists were competing with each other about controlling immigration instead of defending it.
the show is very popular and respected here, but it seems to me to be just another version of talkback radio.
In the end, the BNP will probably do better out of it, but I doubt if their performance improves much more. unless the Conservative Party wins government and carries out its plan to massivle cut back public spending, which can only make social conditions worse in areas of BNP support like Stoke and Burnley.

Canadian Wildlife

On my recent trip to Canada I managed to get a few photographs of the local wildlife. It was a little weird...

EDL

The English Defence League held a march in Manchester on the weekend. The EDL appeared recently in other British cities proclaiming opposition to radical Islam and Sharia Law. The media reported several hundred protesters in Piccadilly Gardens, although it looks more than that to me on youtube. They were met by over 1,000 supporters of Unite Against Fascism (UAF - including some of my students), a group which has previously organised actions against the British National Party. The MEN reported some arrests and a few injuries, one serious.
The EDL's sudden appearance, organisation, and popularity has surprised the authorities. It might in part be a manifestation of the economic crisis, although promotional videos by proclaimed members identify radical Islam clerics as their opposition, along with a Labour government they believe has been too soft on radicals. They can be seen singing football songs and the national anthem in the video link. The media reported some members giving Nazi salutes.
For many people in Manchester, it harks back to the late 1970s when the National Front marched in the city. The police were out in very large numbers to keep the EDL and UAF separate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5plhXX0Xj_M&NR=1

Conservative Party Conference

The Conservative Party is holding its annual conference in Manchester this week. The Greater Manchester Transport Executive has very kindly given all the delegates a complimentary weekly travel pass, entitling them to free travel on any form of transport in the city. Not bad. Hopefully some of them will attempt to use the privatised transport 'system' and ask themselves what the benefits are, given that it was their idea in the first place.

Peter Andre

I'm back in Manchester after a summer of travel, during which I sadly missed - once again - the Manchester International Festival, featuring all manner of interesting cultural events. But the UK always delivers in the end, and so Peter Andre's visit to Manchester was greeted with general hysteria.

In fact, the local police held such fears for public safety that they switched Mr Andre's appearance away from the Arndale Centre in the city. To where? Bolton ASDA, of course. But despite the last minute shift, 4,000 people still turned up to hear him speak and sign autographs. Unfortunately I missed it, but maybe next time.

Heatwave

Oh my God! A heatwave! Yes, the government has officially declared a heatwave today. With temperatures 'soaring' to 32C, the 'heatwave alert' is now at level 3 amber in London and southern England. There is only one more level before we hit extreme danger, Level 4 red alert.

"There are four key things to try to remember during a heatwave. If possible stay out of the heat during the middle part of the day; cool yourself down; keep your environment cool; and look out for others, especially older people, those living alone and babies and young children."

Everyone stay calm!

The Guardian also reported the following statement from the unions:

"Staff should be encouraged to wear shorts during the sweltering heat to make work more bearable and prevent them "collapsing" at their desks, the TUC urged."

Help, I'm wearing trousers and might collapse at any moment! HMV are leading their new radio advertisement with the promise of 'air conditioning' in their stores. Oh, and they also sell CDs.

I just hope I can survive the extreme temperatures without spending all my savings at HMV.

Although, I should note that here in Manchester, it is 24C and very pleasant.

Cuts

The UK economy shrank by 2.4% percent in the first quarter of this year, much more than expected. Companies continue to shed jobs and there predictions of another sharp decline later this year. Nonetheless, given the massive intervention to stabilise the banking system and prevent a total collapse, all parties are now engaged in debate about the extent of necessary cuts to public sector spending to balance the books.

A Conservative shadow minister accidentally blabbed on TV a few weeks back that the Tories planned a 10% cut across the board to public services from 2011. Labour says they're not going to cut that much, but it seems generally agreed in the media that they will also have to cut spending by that much (in the event that they win, which is of course highly unlikely).

However, I heard that some agencies are preparing contingency plans for a budget cut of up to 20%. This would be equivalent to the drastic cuts of the Thatcher government in th early 1980s. Most likely, the Conservatives will take government next spring and, shortly afterwards, delcare that they opened the books and were 'shocked' at the 'unanticipated' scale of public sector overspending, and that even more drastic cuts than planned at the election would be necessary. Just like the Australian Liberal government's '$8 billion black hole' mantra that we heard after their election, year after year.

Public opinion polls are already reporting that the public would accept public spending cuts and minor tax rises to pay off the debt, so Labour's pro-spending argument is unlikely to get very far with the voters. In two years' time, all public sector employees are likely to be squeezed, and I imagine I will be thinking about how to squeeze another dozen students into my tutorials.

Labour

The Labour Party did extremely well in the recent European elections, gaining around 16 percent of the vote. Its support is clearly strong, and it is now the third placed party in the country. If its results improve slightly at the expense of UKIP, it may even achieve major party status at the next general election. Along with the results for the left across Europe, I predict great advances for the future of the labour movement.

Elections

After the last two weeks of political scandal over expense claims, the European elections in a couple of weeks are promising to be interesting. Labour is doing disastrously in the polls (17 percent), but other major parties have sunk dramatically as well.
Minor parties are placed to do very well, including the fabulously wacky folks at the UK Independence Party. If they gain as many votes as suggested, we can look forward to whole plane loads of MEPs heading over to the mainland to tell those Europeans to take their laws and stick them. And once the Conservatives win the national elections next year they say they will hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. And all this should prove, once and for all, that Europe is a very, very, very long way away from here.

Trains

I went to Colchester last week for a workshop at the University of Essex. The workshop was interesting, but the train journeys were something else. I don't know what the prices for train travel were like here before privatisation, but the current prices are eye-wateringly expensive.

Colchester is an hour north of London, in Essex, near the sea. It is pretty much a commuter town for London workers, and several trains go every hour. The train leaves from Liverpool St station, and I travelled outside of peak hour (9.30pm), so I received the off-peak rate.... 20.30 pounds... one way! How much does it cost during peak hour?! Two one-way trips and a tube ride to Euston cost me around 45 pounds, for which you can travel from Manchester to London and back if you book ahead.

No wonder people from the south-east are always complaining about transport costs. I met a student from Sussex at the conference who lives in Brighton. I remarked to him that it must have been a quick and cheap trip. Wrong! It took himi four hours to get there because he had to go through London (my journey was quicker and probably twice the distance) and the return trip was costing him 70 pounds!

It is amazing that anyone can afford to go anywhere in this country.

London

Tripadvisor released the results of its consumer survey this week, detailing opinions of the best travel destinations. Among European cities, London did very well, of course. Heathrow airport ranked equal top of the worst airport list. And the largest proportion of respondents ranked it the most dirty and the most expensive European city, along with the most poorly dressed citizens. But you don't need a survey to tell you this - 5 minutes on London streets is all you need.

Sunburn

I have been in England for 2 1/2 years now, and it seems that I have lost any trace of tolerance for the Australian sun. I went to Ireland for a few days last week and was sunburned. And all this under a weak March sunshine and a scorching 12C. Winter in Australia would probably cook me like an egg.

Bankers

Bankers have never been popular people anywhere, although at the moment it's fair to say that they are among the least respected people in the country. When I arrived here the press was triumphantly proclaiming that the city of London had usurped Wall Street as the leading world financiers. This reputation has now been trashed, as the said bankers have been fingered as liable for the economic mess that the country, and the world, is now in.

The figurehead of the disaster, symbolising the looting of the collective wealth by pin striped criminals, is the former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank is one of the country's premier financial institutions. In the recent economic collapse, it managed to lose stupendous piles of money and is now majority-owned by the national government. As a reward for such excellence in economic performance, the former head of the bank, Sir Fred Goodwin, was awarded a large pension - performance-based, of course - totalling around £700,000 per year. Given that we taxpayers are propping up the entire bank, people have generally found it a bit much that Sir Fred has walked away with a footballer-esque annual salary in retirement. Someone was so upset that he or she vandalised Sir Fred's house and car.

In light of the Fred incident, other banking executives were encouraged to hand back their annual bonuses, notably some staff members of AIG. This hasn't led to a sea-change in attitude, however. One of my colleagues was recently at a seminar on the crisis in London. He was speaking with a senior banker, who told him that people don't appreciate how important bonuses are for financial executives; 'They need bonuses to pay their children's school fees'. Indeed.

Broke

Recent media reports suggest that many Poles are leaving the UK and Ireland and returning home to Poland. Apparently the Polish economy continues to grow - the state maintained strong regulation on Polish banks - while ours goes down the proverbial drain. Sinking ships, anyone?

The investment arms of major banks have racked up so many losses that they have been wholly or partly nationalised; major retailers are going bust, for example Woolworths, with well over 20,000 job losses; over 100,000 people per month are losing their jobs; and the IMF has just reported that the UK economy is shrinking at the fastest rate of any Western nation, the biggest contraction since WWII. And why? Because financial services make up a larger proportion of the UK economy than any other country. So, the entire economy is collapsing at a rapid rate, and the public sector is propping it up more than ever. All sorts of forecasts about unemployment are coming out, the latest being 3.4 million by the end of the year. That would be more people unemployed than in the darkest days of Thatcherite economic reform.

Still, it could be worse...like Ireland. The joke in Ireland goes like this: 'What's the difference between Ireland and Iceland? One letter and about 6 months'. Their banks are broke, house prices are collapsing, and the EU hasn't come to the rescue. So much for the Celtic Tiger.

It's all a debacle, really. But my prediction is that very little will change in the long run. At least Gordon Brown is talking about a new international agreement on financial regulation, but apparently this hasn't even come up in the US. And the City continues to pay out bonuses to bankers even as they beg the Treasury to bail them out with taxpayers' funds.

It's times like this that being a public servant is a big advantage.