who says poetry's dead?

burn baby burn

how does a fire make you shiver? well perhaps it doesn't. maybe though the recent destruction of california woodland might send just the slightest tremor through your bones. especially when one of the grandest blazes was set by a ten year old boy playing with matches.

pretty scary i guess, the raw fire power of ... well, a fire. all that property destroyed, kids made homeless and lives derailed. but hey, lets not get too morbid. its relative after all. no matter how much destruction the affluent citizens of california have had to endure in recent weeks its really a drop in the ocean when compared to the devastation caused by the spending flash-over thats been scorching the planet recently. ever see a hedge fund go up?.

of course the blame for the recent economic bonfire can hardly be laid at the feet of any particular individual. or even group of individuals. can it? surely it is inconceivable that some cabal in its anonymously opulent suite in washington, or edinburgh, or genoa or wherever stealthily agreed that interest rates should be kept to the absolute minimum while the resultant brush fire of consumption was milked for all it was worth? until it burnt itself out? thats not what the G8 does. is it?

i mean to say there are people out there pulling down massive, and when i say massive i mean massive, remuneration whose responsibility it is, when not advising governments, to run the banking and investment institutions competently. surely they know how an economy works? surely they understand the concept of boom and bust?

following years of an adrenaline spend rush on the back of fabulously low interest rates, all of a sudden we seem to have run full pelt into a 'credit crunch.' now i suspect that this 'credit crunch' has had a minimal effect on the blazing conifers of california but as far as sterling, dollars and yen are concerned it seems to have jammed the brakes on pretty hard. its all a bit difficult for joe soap to get his head round. isn't it? except to say that even the most ignorant ignoramus could have seen this coming a mile off.

surprisingly enough it won't be stan, or chuck or even peter who is really going to pick up the can here. nope. those guys may lose their jobs but as usual its good old joe soap again on the sharp end. as in california the peripherals, the illegal workers, the not too skilled and the low paid are going to find themselves out in the cold, along with their wives and their kids. their dreams of home and family razed to the ground as they learn how a fire can make them shiver while the corporate generals make sure their ticket to safety includes a big, and when i say big i do mean massive, severance package.

thats whats giving me a chill.

or is that shaking feeling my blood boiling?

definity 4

Q. what do you call someone who does it for money?

A. a social worker


or is that just a tad harsh?

time for a change ........

where me?

.... on an existential trajectory.

where you?

p&l

information technology?

the death of archaeology? and therefore history? unless you want it virtual of course.

p&l

definity 3

to say it gets harder as one gets older is not entirely correct.


peace and love

conversion

so we are finally rid of phony tony. allelujah. a change long overdue. but more importantly the chance for our deceitful (remember weapons of mass destruction anyone?) ex-prime minister to own his true colours.

it seems that the belligerant boy has decided to bite the bullet and come out as a roman catholic. surprisingly it seems the pope is not all that enthusiastic. might be something to do with hubris perhaps? which doesn't readily translate as humility no matter how hard you spin it. or perhaps his holiness is keen to protect his own job. after all tone is looking for career development in a role which reflects his obvious talents and abilities now that he's left gordon behind to pick up the pieces.

it may not come as a surprise that saint tone has waited until now to reconcile his faith with his conscience. after all it could well have limited his personal trajectory as leader of the british government to come out as a papist. especially when dealing with the likes of messrs paisley and robinson. and there is at least one thing he can be relied on for above all others and that is never to let morality interfere with his pursuit of his own personal and political aggrandisement.

it is of no concern to this writer what faith he holds. he could be a buddhist or a baptist or a jew, a muslim or a martian for all i care just so long as he is what he says he is. although i wouldn't complain if he was a buddhist. on the grounds that we might now have less innocent blood on our hands.

of course it may be that his holiness needn't worry too much for the mo. now he's established his credentials god's anointed (not the pope silly, the other one) is being sent to meddle with the middle east. a new testament to the insensitivity with which western governments appear to treat the islamic world. altho could the consensus be that he can't do much more damage there than he has done already? and at least if he's in the middle east he's not burning his brand onto anything else.

and he does like to leave his mark on the things he touches. the uk national health service for one, which has recently had a hefty funding surplus squeezed out of it despite staffing levels that only function if the nurses manage to consistently levitate at least six inches above floor level to minimize frictional drag.

also not forgetting the institution he was elected to lead. re-formed in his image the labour party now attracts the likes of erstwhile minor thatcher minion and iain duncan-smith shadow front bencher quentin davies to jump ship and join his soul mates on the opposite side. these days free-marketeer quentin has more in common with blaire's version of labour than he does with the conservatives. gulp.

this however is history for tone. from here its onwards and, particularly, upwards. with considerations of electability no longer determining his path to heaven perhaps our good ex prime minister will soon re-surface as the natural born tory he's been all along. once having dealt with that minor detail he'll have shaken off the shackles of both religious and political disguise and be primed for forty days and forty nights admiring himself in the hot dusty wastes. then with a toss of his head and the scent of freedom in his nostrils the re-structured holy tony really will have the chance to consolidate his career ... as the virtual saviour of mankind.

so on second thoughts, if he wants to hang onto his job perhaps the pontiff had better look out after all.

and so had his boss.

peace and love.