Fracking/Climate Change – The Tentacles of Greed and Lies – Know Your Enemy

You know how it is; you’re idly flicking through the newspaper trying to maintain control in the face of so much unpleasantness and the plight of the England cricket team on top of all that and an article catches your eye…

Viscount Monckton of Brenchley has come onto my radar before. Apart from his appearance (which is quite startling and is maybe a warning shot across the bows of the perils of in-breeding but, he is what he is and makes the most of it) it’s really his quirky views that have attracted my attention previously. With him being a prominent climate-change sceptic, I’ve followed, albeit loosely, his occasional outbursts but it was the article in The Independent of Thursday 21^st May (‘Climate-change sceptic Monckton claims tombstone artwork is a ‘death threat’) that arrested my attention. VERY briefly, His Lordship (his words not mine) took exception to an artwork completed by a student at Anglia Ruskin University on a plywood sheet mounted at an angle on a plinth. On this surface were chiselled the words; ‘Lest We Forget Those Who Denied’ followed by a list of six names of prominent climate-change sceptics, including Lord Lawson, Owen Paterson, James Delingpole and his noble Lordship (his words not mine) Christopher Monckton. Down the surface of this sloping monument runs a constant stream of oil which, not surprisingly, won the Anglia Ruskin Sustainability Art Prize 2015.

Using his now familiar rhetoric of snobbish belittlement and Nazi overtones Christopher Monckton made an effort to have the artwork taken down, conjuring up visions of the Third Reich to add weight to his case. He also made the following remark when dealing with the university’s vice-chancellor who had mentioned that Lord Monckton was a climate-change ‘denier’:

‘It mattered not to the vice-chancellor, nor the “artist”, that I do not deny the existence of climate change…I do not even deny that man may have some as yet unquantifiable but probably insignificant and even net beneficial influence on the climate.’

You wanna read that again?

I can wait…

OK, now, I don’t know about you but that sort of statement sets alarm bells ringing in my head. I’m reminded of a one-man show I wrote and performed years ago and in it I had my character say, ‘Be very suspicious when a politician tells you that what he’s doing to you he’s doing to you for your own good’. I mean, why come up with this stuff in an interview that was, ostensibly, about discussing a work of art that you don’t think is very good…? When all else fails, turn to Mr. Shakespeare; ‘methinks he doth protest too much’. So, I did a little research as I wanted to work out just what Lord Monckton’s qualifications were for making such statements and why he and others (later) are so set on denying the existence and level of seriousness of both fracking and climate-change…

Pour a coffee and kick back; it’s detailed and lengthy so you’ll need to pay attention but at the close I trust you’ll know why it’s important to know the details and just what we sign up for when we vote.

Viscount Monckton was educated at Harrow School and then went to Cambridge where he gained a B.A. in Classics then went to University College, Cardiff to gain a diploma in journalism studies. So, from that, we can rule out a knowledgeable contribution concerning climate-change from the said Lord on the grounds of educative excellence in such disciplines as climatology, geology or earth sciences. Thing is, you see, the noble Lord has ‘previous’ when it comes to making claims about which he has no knowledge and is not averse to ‘being economical with the truth’ to back up his claims.

In 2011 he was advised by the then Clerk of the Parliaments, David Beamish, that he ‘should desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member without the right to sit or vote.’ You know, sort of one-upmanship in impersonations, like impersonating a police officer…but, as he’s one of the upper crust, he chose to impersonate being a member of the House of Lords instead…yes, he was a peer of the realm, but…

Then there was the time on the BBC in 2011 (not a vintage Monckton year this) when he claimed that one of the companies he was a director of (Resurrexi Pharmaceutical; still is, I believe) had followed his methods when he had cured himself of Graves’ disease and had, to date, had found cures for multiple sclerosis, influenza, herpes and had reduced the viral load for HIV (more later). To be fair he backed off from these claims on Australian radio but…

Then there were his claims that he’d served as science advisor for Margaret Thatcher (I mean, sure, with those degrees you’d snap him up, wouldn’t you) something that John Gummer (of all people) called ‘laughable’ and searches by far more ‘connected’ people than myself have failed to unearth even a single mention in either government papers or biographies of his involvement in this or any other position of advice, scientific or otherwise.

Then there was the time (2012) when the noble Lord ran a scam that allowed him to take over the seat allocated to Burma at the COP18 Climate Change Conference in Doha where he made a speech attacking the idea of man-made climate change saying, amongst other things, there had been no global warming in the last sixteen years; he was escorted from the building and given a lifetime ban from attending any future UN climate talks…

Then there was the time Lord Monckton advertised his scientific qualifications when he proposed (this, a board member of a pharmaceutical organisation remember…you know, as in ‘making decisions on how to develop and use drugs for the betterment of mankind’) that; ‘…there is only one way to stop AIDS. That is to screen the entire population regularly and to quarantine all carriers of the disease for life. Every member of the population should be blood-tested every month…all those found to be infected with the virus, even if only as carriers, should be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently’ also claiming that ‘…official survey after official survey…’ (never once mentioning which ‘official surveys’ he was quoting)  ‘…had found that homosexuals had an average of 500-1,000 partners in their sexually active lifetime, and that some had as many as 20,000…’ (…sexually active and ‘out’ at, say, 14 and an expected lifespan that saw you dead at, say, 80…that’s 66 years of sexual activity…that’s…303 sexual partners per year…every year…that’s a shag every 1.2 days…; oh, for the energy)…

Then there is the ‘project’ he runs called ‘50 to 1’ who’s key purpose is to communicate the noble Lord’s recent calculations on the cost of climate mitigation versus the cost of adaptation. That is the cost difference; it is 50 times more expensive to attempt to stop climate change than it is to adapt, in the event that adaptation becomes necessary, and heaven forbid we should spend a bit of money.

Then there are the paid for speeches he gives to the Republican Party on climate change…oh, OK, hang on… How does he get invited to speak, this man of no scientific qualification, to the men who brought us Big Oil? Well, he gets invited because he is ‘Chief Policy Advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI – more later) in the USA’.

Well there we are then. From the humble beginnings of England’s landed gentry this son of a Viscount (shurely shome mistake. Ed.) with no education in this scientific field is now one of the figureheads of a scientific institution that denies climate change…cripes and bugger me! Well, let’s see how well our boy’s done, shall we?

Remember that old chestnut used by successive governments, world-wide, whenever they want to push through yet more legislation to impinge on the privacy of the citizen? The one we in the UK are going to have to battle against now the Conservatives have got a majority? The one where we’re told, ‘If you’ve nothing to hide then you’ve nothing to fear’? Well, this is where governments and money-men play us at our own game. These people love inventing GROUPS to cover their activities with emotive and cod-official words like Foundation, Freedom and Policy figuring large. They make up ‘institutes’, ‘policy groups’, ‘working groups’, ‘QUANGOS’, ‘research establishments’ and ‘consultancy firms’ then people them with folk like Lord Monckton (pay-offs for the pliable) people who have little or no ability, experience, or social morals, and use them as a mouth piece for their own agendas; so it is with The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI).

An off-shoot of the ‘Frontiers of Freedom’ (great name, huh?) a climate-sceptic organisation which, according to a 2003 New York Times report has an annual budget of around $700,000 and received $230,000 of that budget from Exxon in 2002 (up from $40,000 in 2001 - according to Exxon documents). As an aside, when asked about this level of funding from within the oil industry their president (yet another president) George Landrith, told the New York Times; ‘They (Exxon) determined that we are effective at what we do and they’d like to make it possible for us to do more of that.’ Well, that’s big of them, isn’t it? Cut to the chase. Very basically, SPPI is a lobbying practice run for the benefit of US state legislators to promote the ‘correct’ bills and steer them through congress…and in an effort to show they have nothing to hide so nothing to fear, I’m sure the following will be helpful in maintaining that level of innocent involvement in what could, possibly, be construed as ‘a very shady business’. Let’s see how perspicacious you are in spotting the common thread contained in the following.

On SPPI’s quasi-board are several people who, at first glimpse, seem to be worthy scientific types, it’s only when we turn over the stones we discover just how ‘worthy’ and ‘scientific’ they are.

SPPI member 1) Robert Ferguson is its President (grand title that…these people, people like Lord Monckton, REALLY LOVE titles…I’ve always thought those people who send their title into a room before them are usually hiding a physical inadequacy but, let that pass) who has a degree in history from the Brigham Young University, a worthy place of education that was formed by the founder of the Mormon religion (Church of the Latter Day Saints) Brigham Young (just in case you were unsure, no slouch in the self-advertising dept) who led his people to Salt Lake City in Utah, had divergent views on how to treat Native Americans and people of black, African descent and decided to stop a 55 wives. Mr. Ferguson also has a master’s degree in legislative affairs, which must come in real handy given how the SPPI operates (later).

SPPI member 2) William Kininmonth is an Australian and runs his Australasian Climate Research Institute (titles, titles) from his house with no website or ’phone contact and has the dubious honour of being so clever as to be able to defy the laws of physics when he stated; ‘Greenhouse gases emit more radiation than they absorb and their direct impact is to cool the atmosphere. More greenhouse gases will not cause the atmosphere to warm’. Way t’ go, Mr. Kininmonth.

SPPI member 3) Bob Carter, also from Australia, is on the payroll of the Heartland Institute (institutes, institutes) which is funded by Exxon, the Scaife Foundation (foundations, foundations) and the Koch Family Foundation and here, I’m afraid, we have to digress a little in order to understand what we’re up against when it comes to opposing fossil-fuel stupidity, fracking obfuscation and the serious money backing these self-styled voices of reason.

The Heartland Institute’s president (yet another) is a Mr. J. Bast who, although describing himself as an economist apparently holds no undergrad or graduate degrees in economics and got no higher an education than the completion of high school; all very laudable but… The organisation he is in control of, is the spokesman for, promotes climate-change scepticism, funds climate-change deniers (fair enough, you could say) in their work against the UN climate change reports and dabbles with school curriculums in the science of climatology, oh, and also runs a rapid mobilization group to counter new findings in climate science; what’s more worrying, and what gives an insight into this institute’s social conscience and core, however, is the Heartland Institute’s involvement with the tobacco industry; it also gives an insight into Mr. Bast’s credentials as a person to be relied on to do the best for humankind, which I’m sure he does.

An ally of the tobacco industry for many years, the Heartland Institute opposes tobacco control measures and denies the effects of second-hand smoke. Indeed, a Mr. Roy E. Marden, who was on the ‘board’ of the Heartlands Institute, was a key player in Phillip Morris as manager of industry affairs and a specialist in the lobbying of congress. The fierce lobbying by tobacco companies to overturn legislation world-wide, legislation that in any way threatened their profit margins, is well documented et al but it’s worth noting that Mr. Bast is quoted as, ‘ a Tobacco Policy Expert’ by non other than the National Association of Tobacco (association, association).

The Koch Family Foundation is owned and run by two of the richest men on the planet, the multi, multi billionaires (yup, that’s right ‘multi, multi’) David and Charles Koch. It’s worth quoting the New Yorker who described these two brothers as, ‘…longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation’ and who have built up, ‘a labyrinth of tax-exempt groups and limited-liability companies help[ed] mask the sources of the money, much of which went to voter mobilization and television ads attacking President Obama and congressional Democrats.’ So, we know how they stand on equal rights and such then. It’s also worth noting that the brothers have apparently contributed over $7m to Islamophobic groups in the US between 2001/9 so we can also see their credentials for world peace and inter-religious tolerance too then. What have these two generous givers to do with the Heartland Institute? Well, in 2011 they gave $200,000 to fund this institute’s even-handed approach to climate change.

SPPI member 4) Craig D. Idso…(we use the middle letter to differentiate between the family members as it would be so easy to get Keith, Sherwood and Craig mixed up, wouldn’t it)…Craig D. Idso is Chairman (lovely) and founder of the Centre for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (centre, centre) and, coincidentally, the son of Sherwood B. Idso and the brother of Keith E. Idso, president and vice president respectively of ExxonMobil who part fund the Centre for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change…so there’s lucky then, having such high-powered and well-versed people to call on if you need to tease out some details about climate change. Mind, Mr. Idso (D.) has had a good grounding in the vagaries of fossil fuel use and markets seeing as he was Director of Environmental Science at Peabody Energy which is the largest private-sector coal company in the world with total revenue of $6.9 billion.

SPPI member 5) David Legates is Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware and the Director for the University’s Centre for Climate Climactic Research and he and it run on funding from many companies involved in fossil fuel production (ExxonMobil) and various institutes and foundations (institutes and foundations, institutes and foundations) who fight climate change, including the Koch Bros.

SPPI member 6) Joseph (Joe) D’Aleo is a retired meteorologist who has registered the name ICECAP which is an organisation set up to challenge this tomfoolery of global warming. On the payroll of ICECAP are:

Robert C. Balling Jr. who has acknowledged receiving $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade including contributions from ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC.

Sallie Baliunas who, between December 1998 and September 2001 was a Scientific Adviser to the Greening Earth Society (dontcha just love the way they use soft-and-cuddly English) a group funded and controlled by Western Fuels Association, an association of coal-burning utility companies.

Robert M. Carter who is on the advisory board of the Institute of Public Affairs which is funded by the mining and tobacco industry…oh, and Monsanto.

SPPI member 7) Your own, your very own Lord Monckton of Brenchley who we’ve had quite enough of, thank you very much.

And finally, saving the best ’til last, we bring you (drum roll) ExxonMobil. The largest oil company in the world they are heavily involved in policy-making globally, USA politics in particular, have a disturbing role in the exploration (some would say ‘exploitation’…not me you understand, but some would) of oil and gas from Chad-Cameroon and is heavily monetarised in fracking.

So after all that sound and fury, what does it signify? Well, it means that the playing-fields of England, certainly when it comes to fracking and meaningful movement on tackling climate change in the UK (and elsewhere in the world) are heavily stacked against the ‘concerned citizen’ and the proofs of scientific research. There a number of Conservative members who decide on tax breaks and policy for these things who are heavily involved in the smooth progress of fracking and dumbed-down climate-change rules, including our beloved Chancellor of the Exchequer’s father-in-law. My guess is that it was pure coincidence that his son-in-law stated that ‘fracking has the potential to keep energy bills low for millions of people’ and announced a new low tax regime for fracking companies. Aligned with him are such luminaries as Lord Browne, Ben Moxham (until recently David Cameron’s advisor on energy and the environment) Sarah Hogg, Sam Laidlaw, Ian Taylor and David Cameron’s chief advisor, Lynton Crosby. All these people have sunk considerable investments in oil, gas and shale-gas exploration operations, and Mr. Crosby, bless, runs a lobbying company, Crosby Textor, that  is employed by…Phillip Morris! This lobbying company also represents Dart Energy who holds shale gas extraction licences in Scotland…bet he was thrilled skinny with the election results and the cessation of shale gas extraction licences north of the border then… There were calls for Crosby to be sacked, Cameron refused…wonder why?

I think that, in many cases, it isn’t what they do that’s a major part of the concern of how they treat the earth and view the safety of our planet but how they go about it that gives me most annoyance. The brutal methods used and the short-sighted, ‘profit first-well-being second’ that runs through all their dealings with people, countries and environments can never be justified when all it buys is another yacht in Monaco and the ways-and-means to buy a Presidency.

So, there you have it, your cut-out-and-keep guide to the machinations of how our democracies work. Thing is, these people, the companies, the fancy names, the institutes, foundations, freedom, policy think-tank organisations have all sunk millions, nay billions into the continued use of fossil fuels and the extension of fracking, the people best placed to be our planet’s guardians, the folk we voted into power have sunk considerable portions of their personal fortunes into the very industries that threaten our degradation. There’s no way they’re going to roll over and play dead to what they see as the fawn-snuggling lefties. Opposition to what they see as the swelling of their already massive personal coffers (in some cases their billions) will be fought with lies, dirty tricks, the law and scare-mongering; we have a real fight on our hands, and money talks.

The Nestle Conundrum

There's been a lot of stuff posted on various Facebook pages and internet sites lately about the ordinary citizen's concern that the people in charge of Nestlé  lack a certain amount of empathy about the well-being of the human race when it comes to the distribution of water. According to the CEO of said company water is not a universal right and should be charged for accordingly. Now, I know that we already pay for our water in the UK via the water rates. These payments, according to the voice of Nestlé  reason, fall well short of what we (and everyone else) should be paying for this valuable commodity...sorry this natural resource And as for those people who have the audacity to dig wells for their village to draw water from? Nestlé  would take over the wells, 'manage' them and charge a 'management fee' for it. Well (no pun intended) as is the way with me, I've done a bit of research to help you on your way. A sort of ‘cut-out-and-keep guide’ to all things Nestlé . I can honestly say that I've not knowingly bought a Nestlé product for the past thirty years, not since that company's unpleasantness over powdered baby milk (same as I've not knowingly bought a Shell product since the Ken Saro Wiwa debacle). I trust the information below (which I pass on in the very best interests of humanity) will help you to make informed choices as to your weekly shop and also allow you to see how the spider’s web spreads. What follows is not exhaustive, not meant to be. I can only work with the information available and so there will be omissions, maybe even some wrong-turns, but I hope it'll be a good starting point for your own research and a correction-graph as to your re-provisioning decisions.

Swiss, Austrian and German companies have a large stake in Nestlé. Pelham Investments AG who, through the good offices of the Georg von Opel Investment Company, took over Athris Holding AG who operated the Seiler Hotels in Switzerland as well as the Molino (Restaurants) and Beach Mountain (sports goods and clothing) franchises until the cousins, ​​Christian and Roberto Seiler, bought back the Athris participation of 91.2% and they now operate the company and the Seiler Hotel.

Nestlé total sales in 2003 were 88bn Swiss Francs (£39bn) with a net profit accruing of 6,213m Swiss Francs (£2,7bn). This was a fall on the previous year's figures, Nestlé blamed the higher raw materials prices, expensive energy and packaging materials and poor weather conditions. To obviate this shortfall, Nestlé plans to cut factories and jobs. Considerable resistance to closures by workers across Europe, especially in French and German factories and also in Staverton, Wiltshire where unions and locals have set up a “Staverton must survive” campaign with support from European and international trade union federations. Nestlé are major shareholders in health companies including up until recently, Alcon, who specialise in eye-care products. Liliane de Bettencourt of L'Oréal is a major shareholder in Nestlé, and Nestlé holds a 26.4% stake in L'Oréal - back-scratchers united...

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe was the Nestlé  vice chair and CEO in 2007 and also a member of the Board of The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and our own, dear Lord Simpson of Dunkeld is also a board member. Ex and serving politicians also figure on the board and the list of Nestlé involvement in food and drinks policy-making and operation is vast as is their involvement with other manufacturers – Coca-Cola, General Mills, L’Oreal, Dairy Partners America… I quote from a descriptive site for Nestlé , not an anti-company one, just one that gives information –

Such partnerships between huge corporations are an interesting feature of an economic system which is said to take competition as one of its defining features. In reality, apparent competitors work very closely together to ensure their common interests are pursued.

Now onto things UK-ish. Should you want to pursue things global: -
Nestlé  Holdings (UK) plc

Nestlé UK Ltd

St. George's House
Croydon
CR9 1NR
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8686 3333

Consumer Services: 00800 63785385
Direct Fax: +44 -1904 603461

Nestlé's UK head of legal is Isabelle Deschamps who also has ties to Unilever.

Fiona Kendrick is Head of Strategic Business Unit for Nestlé' Beverages UK and was made a dame in 2015.

Graham Millar is Executive Director of Nestlé' UK Ltd and he is heavily involved in the Joseph Rowntree Trust who have an excellent record in social housing and tackling poverty world-wide.

You will also find that, after successive searches for information on the aforementioned company, the web pages become unavailable…paranoid? Me? Nope, just ask that bloke who keeps following me.

Right, you have to understand that this is not an easy ride, OK? I now offer you a list of Nestlé branded products for sale in the UK: (and this is only a selection of the brands we will all have come into contact with during our daily shop in the UK, it’s not meant to be exhaustive). You are, however, asked to be on your guard as companies, brands and products are traded and swapped with monotonous regularity.

Breakfast Products:
Cheerios
Chocapic

Cini Minis

Clusters
Cookie Crisp
Crunch

Curiously Cinnamon

Curiously Strawberry

Fitnesse

Force Flakes

Gold Flakes
Golden Grahams
Golden Nuggets
Honey Stars
Koko Krunch
Lion Cereal
Milo (cereal)
Nesquick Cereal
Nestle Corn Flakes
Shreddies 

Drinks:

Nescafe Coffee

Mountain Blend Coffee

Milo Coffee

Buxton Water

Aberfoyle

San Pellegrino

Stop your whinging! No-one said it was going to be easy……

Vittel

Carnation

Libby’s

Fussel’s

Nesquick

Ovaltine

Nestea

Coffee Mate

Alta Rico

Black Gold

Blend 37

Cappuccino

Decaf

Espresso

Fine blend

Gold Blend

Kenjara

Chilled and Assorted Goods:

Ski

Munch Bunch

Memory Lane Cakes

Nespresso

Mivvi

Nestle Ice Cream

Nesvita Nutrition Drinks

Neston Nutrition Drinks

Carnation Instant Breakfast

Compleat

Optifast

Buitoni Seasoning

Maggi Seasoning

Lean Cuisine Frozen Food

Buitoni Frozen Food

Jenny Craig

Hot Pockets

Jack’s Pizza

Wagner Pizza

Buitoni Refrigerated Food

Nestle Refrigerated Food

Katie’s Pizza

Chocolate:

Aero

After Eight

Animal Bar

Caramac

Drifter

Frigor

Milky Bar

Lion

Kit-Kat

Matchmakers

Munchies

Nestle Crunch (and all varieties thereof)

Peppermint Crisp

Quality Street

Rolo

Polo

Black Magic

Blue Riband

Dairy Box

Toffo

Nestle/Rowntree:

Jellies

Fruit Pastilles

Jelly Tots

Pick & Mix

Randoms

Fruit Gums

Tooty Frooties

Juicy Jellies

Smarties

Toffee Crisp

Walnut Whip

Yorkie

All Wonka Brands

Still feel like cutting them off your shopping list?

Pet Foods:

Felix Cat Food

Friskies

Go Cat

Go Dog

Butchers

Bakers

….and candlestick makers….

Winalot

Gourmet

Pro-Plan

Purina

Luda Pet Foods

Paragon Petcare

Spillers

Cosmetics:

Biotherm

Body Shop

Garnier

Helena Rubenstein

Lancome

L’Oreal

Maybelline

Plenitude

Redken

Matrix

Baby Milk/Foods:

Beba Baby Food

Gerber Baby Food

Neslac

Nestle Good Start

Starter Infant Formula

Nan

Lactogen

And saving the best ‘til last, they are the manufacturers and purveyors of Perrier Water and by that end were the sole funder of the various Perrier Awards, particularly the one that was held in Edinburgh where all those right-on, committed, stand-up comedians vied for the top slot and moolah that goes with it.

Bless.

Sleep Tight.

X!

It's cricket, Jim, but not as we know it....

Not for anyone in particular, this is just me venting my spleen albeit, hopefully, in a helpful if slightly critical way. All open for discussion or demolition; just wanted to say…

English Cricket (there, that’s lost a good 85/90% of readers straight away) is in a parlous state and I wanted to try and offer some advice and observations for those supposedly in charge of this game as they deliberate on just WTF they’re going to do to at least make England look like a team that turned up and where the players are all actually talking to each other.

Three things:

1) The name is ‘The England and Wales Cricket Board’, not ‘Cricket England Wales’. Apart from the second moniker not making sense, rebranding is a waste of time, effort and money, in the present circumstances as useful as rebranding the iceberg ‘coolblox’ for all the difference it would have made to the Titanic. It diverts valuable time, talent and huge sums of money, money that should be used in the raising, supporting and training of future players (and by God we could do with some right now) into the back pockets of slithey toves who, in the main, operate as a herd (herd?) flock…? Herd…OK, operate as a herd of leeches to siphon away funds (multi-millions) from organisations who can, oft times, ill-afford it. These are the geniuses I reckon are as slippery as a shit-house rat who changed the name from ‘Royal Mail’ to ‘Consignia’ and lost both the trust of the people in an organisation once trusted (in order to lubricate the selling off of RM to their mates, double-bluff, see?) and lost the business millions into the bargain (thereby making the shares worth less and so easier and cheaper for their mates to buy…cynical? Moi?) but they still get their fee. Then what happened? They’re rehired in order to change the name again…to ‘Royal Mail’. These are the very same weasels who insist that the dropping of a single letter from a masthead title will make all the difference between profit and loss (not theirs, good or bad they still get their fee). These are the shit-kickers who will alter a well known and easily recognisable logo (‘NHS’) by crossing out the word ‘Service’ (a word that means to serve…offer help to, etc, etc) and replace it with the word ‘Trust’ (see what they did there? Take away a word, ‘Service’, that has an unambiguous obligation as part of its root and add a word, ‘Trust’, whose double meaning, ‘to rely on’ – or – ‘an organisation or company managed by trustees’ is open to interpretation by the reader. The second of these definitions is their reading of it the first our reading of it, but only there to ‘keep us cuddly’). This smoke-screen created round the language by semantics means the friends of friends can slink in, buy up and take over the available healthcare of this country for a pittance, and against the wishes of the democratic populace. In the education system (there’ll be another post from me later about this very thing…bet you can’t wait) extreme military, scientific and religious doctrines and the changing of history to suit political stances and mantras (the first step to making a dictatorship is to change history) many of these doctrines pushed by fruit-loops and killers, are gaining a greater degree of entrance into mainstream schools. It would seem that all one has to do to begin the march to government sponsored, social engineering is by adding the word ‘Academy’ to a place of learning. Conglomerates, NGO’s, government departments, state-owned organisations, they employ these rebranders, PR consortiums and marketers to do these things in order to help our government (any government) soft-fuck over the populace…oh and for a fee. Bill Hicks had it right:

“Anyone here in marketing or advertising? Kill yourself. Seriously. There’s no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan’s little helpers; kill yourself; seriously. You’re the ruiner of all things good…you are Satan’s spawn filling the world with bile and garbage, you are fucked and you’re fucking us. Kill yourself. It’s the only way to save your soul. Kill yourself.”

My guess is those sentiments can also be applied to the dedicated members of the ‘rebranding industry’ too; Cheers folks! Suck it up.

The culmination of all this marketing and rebranding in rehabilitating English cricket? F.A. Zilch, Nowt, Nada. It’s gonna take hard work, intellect, a deep understanding of the sport you claim you are the best person to represent, not some reliance in the voodoo of a word switch. They’ll try to convince you that, if you wanna make summat that’s disrespectful of the people respectable, have an Awards ceremony to ‘honour’ the people who do it (to us…it’s what the Roman’s knew so well; bread-and-circuses) and use acronyms and name-brand obfustication in your company name to act as a smoke screen for your true corporate spine and core beliefs. These folk, the main thing they rebrand is the rebranding of English into a type of verbal trouser-rolling the Masonic Order would be proud of. So, for the record, stop thinking a new logo or brand name will solve the problems you all seem so inept at sorting out in the game of cricket; it’s ‘The England and Wales Cricket Board’, not ‘Cricket England Wales’; OK?

2) Like a government in microcosm where people with no track record, ability or experience in a field get to run it, the members of the England and Wales Cricket board are a motley crew. Made up of several millionaires their roster of qualification portrays a cricketing desert. Lawyers, accountants, armed forces members, trade’s union leaders, ex-coppers, social workers, marketing execs, banking CEO’s, business CEO’s, one would imagine this has little to do with the world of cricket; not so. Used to be it was and would, but, now? Now it’s not about the game it’s all about the money that’s why the corporate section is so heavily involved with the future planning of the game (done well, aint they?) In amongst these board members are few players of the game, unfortunately only at club level (although, to be fair, they do have 2 people who’ve played the game professionally…and they do have a tennis player and a bike rider so…) Looking at the make-up of this board then, all from the better end of the trench and many the result of a private education (not their fault, I know, but worth flagging up) and whose average age, I’d venture to suggest, is about 65/70 (hope I’m not insulting anyone) one wonders just what their qualifications are for running a sport that has changed out of all proportion during the last 25+ years. Personally, what with their age and front-line experience of the modern game, I’d say they were less than well suited to be put in charge; you? These people were playing the game (all but two at club level only, remember) when it was still considered a sport. When ‘walking’ was a part of the good form embedded in the game; when players would rather lose their batting or bowling hand than be found to be cheating; when you and your team’s credibility were built on the levels of good manners, trust and honesty you and the team displayed all going to made the game what it was; a representative of The Empire’s ideas of itself and it’s role in the world. ‘Play-up, play-up and play the game’ wasn’t a terrace chant; it was a foundation upon which to build successive generations. The modern game should still be formed on those ideologies, trouble is we’ve had Thatcher, the free-market economy and a ‘Fuck ’em over before they fuck you’ mantra to alter the track, and television payments and intrusion have skewed both the meanings of ‘a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ and ‘a fair day’s play according to the umpire’.

Neither of the preceding social or sporting policies has covered this country in glory, not on the fields of life or sport, and I’m sure a middle ground will finally be arrived at, but not as long as the retired major attitude prevails when it comes to picking those who have direct responsibility for the development of the game.

3) The continuing debate about whether Kevin Pieterson should be included into the squad, despite all the vitriol and unpleasantness that has emanated from both dressing room and biography, is a panic driven distraction that will do nothing to set England onto a team and player rebirth. Yes, he’s a very good player but you can’t have one player carrying a struggling team because the rest are, to put it politely, underperforming, otherwise it won’t be long before, IMHO, before they’d have every right to say;

‘Hang on. I’m out there knocking myself out match after match, just what the fuck are you lot doing?’

Yes K.P. can revitalise an innings that’s on the ropes; he’s also 34 so on the down slope of his career so hardly a long-term prospect for building a team around. And as for his inclusion being ‘vital’ to the England team, it all smacks of the Zola Budd syndrome to me where rules are bent, twisted and finally altered to accommodate some super-star or other who, in the end is just a person with a shelf-life, and then what are you left with? A has-been who’s siphoned away time, money and support from a corrupted system that’s now ripe for exploitation by others because…well because the rules were altered to suit a greedy minority who can only ever see winning as acceptable because they want to bathe in the reflected glory of the success of others. A way of progressing their own possibilities beyond their natural level; of a hierarchy unable to resurrect the idea that the taking part and competing well is as important as the winning; that it takes two teams to make a game memorable. Having nothing but the continued ‘match-drawn’ outcome only serves to bury the sport and so, in the end, someone’s gotta lose; how you lose, compete and shoulder that defeat is what defines you as being worthy of the epithet, ‘sports-person’, the clue’s in the name, dummy.

I wrote a while ago (2010) about football and of how, IMHO, Danny Blanchflower got it right when he said;

‘The day they take the ceiling off players’ wages will be the end of football as we know it.’

Same thing’s happening in cricket, and will in rugby too. Those marketers, advertisers and rebranders will have their noses buried deepest in the trough, and the loss of sporting behaviour by those playing the game will only bring a smile to the well-buried faces of the sport PR and management gurus. The speed with which the modern game changes will also continue to overtake the collected sensibilities of those challenged with managing this modern game; those whose qualifications, in nearly all of their cases, come from a limited (very) experience of involvement in a game they played 40 years ago; of what it actually takes to play now.

The modern game of cricket bears absolutely no resemblance to their distant, rose-scented, cress-sandwiched memories and nothing will change until and unless they cease playing their endless round of uncoordinated catch-up, undertaken in hand-wringing sessions in far-flung meeting places, step down and give way to contemporaries of the modern game; when they cease dancing to the tune of the ‘star-performer’ and realise that cricket is still a team game will the available time and effort be spread across the board; when these people have the courage and nous to stand at the front when the shit hits the fan, not hide behind the bat of a 24-year-old; not unless and until, just like in politics, the old-boy network and unattributed ‘experience’ of wearing the right tie acts as a qualification for membership to exclusive boards (rooms and gatherings that still carry on the ‘Playing Fields of Eton’ way of doing business but for all the wrong reasons) only then will we even begin to start rebuilding a team that can actually compete at cricket in any form, long or short.

Hello - Goodbye. That'll be £12.50 thank you.....

So, musicians charge their fans for a meet 'n' greet huh? Excellent article that posits a status quo of what musicians of my generation (stop sighing at the back there!) believed and operated under. What follows isn’t a pretty read and could cause a stink here but, fuck it, I've written about it a lot on my daily blog on music last year so... Anyone who believed the Punk movement was built on a cuddly franchise of equality between musician and fan was not only fooling themselves but were also perpetuating the myth and making it ‘real’. Yes, there were/are certain individuals/bands who's ethos was right-on with the message (Black Flag come to mind, although there are one or two questionable episodes even here) but, in the main? Follow the money, my friend.

All rock/pop musical movements believe themselves to be the new, unheard voice of their society, built on the dangerous oppression they perceive themselves to be living under, and a desire to change it, usually, for the better. A belief they try to hold onto in the early years of their career. Thing is, this lamp that is ‘fame’ attracts both moths and bugs. The praise and back-slapping, given to you by people who depend on your position as a cash-cow to keep refilling their bank accounts, gradually takes hold and, before you know it you cut the word ‘no’ from your dictionary and start to believe in the brown Smarties lifestyle and your own press cuttings. Easy trap to fall into; of a sudden one goes from ‘an appreciation of your situation’ to ‘knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing’ in just a few steps. This can (and does) lead to a level of resentment of the intrusion into your life by people who consider you public property, an intrusion you invited, let’s not forget, because you were told this was the only way to get noticed. And, no, you didn’t have to do anything; you did it through either your inexperience or your ineptitude and shallowness; if I may paraphrase the WW1 bon mot, ‘you were a lion led by a flock of gannets’, and ‘X-Factor’ or ‘Search for a Star’, or ‘The Voice’ etc, etc, etc, and the abysmal Simon Cowell promulgates this parade of the mediocre as the presenter becomes the story and everyone else a disposable commodity. This was something allured to in another article posted on FB, about how bands and solo performers were bypassing the circuit slog and becoming ‘stars’ overnight (literally) where the auto-tune demon worked miracles and where no work ethic or dedication was required to ‘get to the top’, just the right connections and a willingness to prostitute your art; a world where you charge people for your time and pay to play, a form of bribery by any other name.

And so we find ourselves here; a destination so far removed from the point where music that meant something, meant so much to us, now means nothing; where the desire to become rich and famous (those words aren’t written that way round for nothing, you know) overrides the desire to be excellent in our chosen field first. And, in honesty, it was probably ever thus just that now it’s easier to become the bloated carcass of stardom, and the hyenas are just as greedy but now more tenacious and cunning.  Malcolm McLaren was a con-man par excellence; it wasn’t about changing the world but making some change. Elvis had Tom Parker, Jimi Hendrix had Chas Chandler and then Michael Jeffery (and the leech’s still make money off’f his corpse by writing books – books they sell – suggesting Hendrix was murdered by his manager) Slade chopped and changed their image to suit the trends, the list goes on. Thing is, you see, in order to get your message across to as many people as possible (if indeed a message is what you want to spread and, I mean, why write songs, poetry or prose if it’s not to let people know of your take on love, life and liberty) any band or performer has to become ‘popular’, and as a doorkeeper in a little play by Mr. S. once said, ‘There’s the rub’; to be popular and yet innocent is an oxymoronic state of seemingly unachievable proportions. So, in the face of all this, how can anyone keep their social beliefs and musical truisms intact?

Well, it might be useful to take a peek at 17^th Century England. In the 17^th century, when you stripped away all the façade where, just as now and, in Rush’s words, there was ‘so much style without substance, so much stuff without style’ all a woman had, in the end, was her honour, and all man had was his word. Without those you were nothing. So, simply put, keep your word and your honour. Jettison all the hype, hangers-on and blood-suckers with your ‘best interests at heart’ and stay true to your principles; those almost childish principles that made you go into this crazy, wonderful world of music in the first place. Unlike politicians, remember who put you there, be kind to people on your way up ‘cos you never know who you’re going to need on the way down.

Maintaining your innocence in such a fucked-up business is hard, few have managed it, very few, you have to want to be one of the few.

Who y' gonna trust....mythbusters?

2015 Resolution – Pay Attention to the Small Details –

Codicil: - I am not, never have been and never will be a UKIP supporter or voter, I haven’t heard all the interview and can only go on the news as it was reported so the following is just me trying to make sense of the reaction of politicians to recent events.

I was struck by the headline in the Independent today with the strapline ‘Party leaders unite to decry ‘point-scoring’ by Farage’. On reading the article it turns out that all our major party political party leaders had, supposedly, sung from the same hymn sheet as they condemned the leader of UKIP for his remarks concerning the dreadful events in Paris over the past few days.

They said:

David Cameron – Con – ‘Today is not the day to make political remarks or arguments. Today is the day to stand four-square behind the people of France’.

Theresa May – Con – “I think it is irresponsible to talk about a fifth-column”…“we must ensure that we deal with and eradicate extremism, wherever it exists”.

Eric Pickles – Con – “…it is utterly wrong for any politician to be making political points when our neighbours in France are grieving. If we fight amongst ourselves…then the only winners are the gunmen”.

Nick Clegg – Lib Dem – “His (Nigel Farage) first reflex is to make political points…many, many British Muslims are very proud of their faith …to see them as part of the problem rather than part of the solution is grabbing the wrong end of the stick”.

Ed Miliband – Lab – “I don’t think Nigel Farage or anyone else should be seeking to divide us in this way…”

Tessa Jowell – Lab – “Sickening comments from Nigel Farage. The murder of innocent people is criminal plain and simple”.

Now there’s much to be made from the above; like the fact that all concerned made ‘political remarks and point scoring’ in their statements, or that the ‘killing of innocent people’ vox-pop came from an MP who voted for the Iraq war and against an enquiry into it and who belongs to a party that brought you the ‘it’s a good day to bury bad news’ gem, but, that aside, Mr. Cameron trips out the usual weightless platitudes and non-statements, Ms. May ratchets up the agenda with the use of a Putin-ism that wasn’t present in the reply, Mr. Pickles edges the ratcheted-up agenda with a touch of hysteria, Mr. Clegg walks a line of non-committal balm (so what’s new?) Mr. Miliband inserts something that actually adds weight to the Islamist jihadist cause and Ms. Jowell just seems to be screaming into her mobile, but, IMHO, they all missed the point; what Nigel Farage actually said in that clip from the interview that fuelled their righteous indignation was:

“We in Britain, and I’ve seen evidence in other European countries, too, have pursued a really rather gross policy of multiculturalism. We have encouraged people who come from different cultures to remain within those cultures, and not to integrate fully within our communities.”

No mention of a fifth column, no abrogation of empathy for France, no mention of division or that murder of innocent people wasn’t a crime, no support or succour for the perpetrators, none of that in the radio interview clip these politicians singled out.

What he’s saying, IMHO, if we read his words carefully and pay attention to the detail, is that the UK, along with many other European countries, have ghettoised whole groups of immigrants and by treating them as a separate group have set them apart from white society, giving fresh ground for the isolationist, underdog ideology to root and fester. Immigrants who were either brought over to the UK or emigrated here of their own volition know and understand this; that they were welcomed because they provided cheap labour and would ‘do the jobs white folk’s won’t’ (still do) for the businesses that have since become fat on the proceeds of this cheap labour as they found grounds for stifling wages and fucking over the unions, and this deliberate policy of cutting labour costs meant profits were left over to fund the political parties so these self-same companies could ‘lobby’ government policy and maintain the status quo. Placing groups of immigrants into poor housing based in run-down inner-city areas helped kick-start the kind of communal segregation we have now in certain cities; whole immigrant communities are gathered into several interlinking streets and, instead of the host nation’s and immigrant nation’s cultures being allowed to percolate and mix slowly and gently over time to create a diverse and rejuvenating cultural mix, are set apart to become almost a state-within-a-state with its concomitant feelings of resentment and fear and we, as a nation, have tacitly encouraged this state of affairs by our all-consuming pursuit of the ‘new’.

A sceptic, a conspiracy theorist would say this segregation policy was deliberate, that the last thing politicians and conglomerates want is a coming together of the people which could spell an end to the divide-and-rule ideology which is promulgated by our political classes…not me you understand, just some other sceptic or conspiracy theorist… What I will say is we all have an opportunity to reverse this trend in our everyday lives and interactions, indulging in Random Acts of Kindness we can break down barriers set in place by a society subservient to class. It’s no good blaming others for our own shortcomings or short-sightedness (divide-and-rule in action) and politically we can control our own destiny and the policies of those who espouse to represent us because that’s the real point: they work for us.

Integration, cultural understanding and the tolerant embrace of our differences will only be made possible if we’re truly prepared to welcome people from other cultures into our ‘hallowed halls’ and share equally the bread on the table, at the same cost and no matter who provided it. We’re all of one Earth, we’ve nowhere else to go if we screw this one up with pollution, genocide and racial hatred and, if you ask, 99% of the world’s population would tell you they just want to live a life, have some kids, grow old and see some good emanate from their time on Earth in peace and security, not see their families and children blown into several small parts in a squabble brought about by some power-crazed, already-rich fuck’s desire to possess someone else’s mineral wealth.

Nigel Farage is just another not-to-be-trusted power-broker on the hunt but if you reread the quotes above from our politicians, it’ll highlight their collective agenda and create even more puzzlement for the forthcoming election…