Thursday, December 9, 2010

Reasons For Loathing

Here are the reasons I am not writing a blog today* :

1) Transport today has become my arch nemesis. With the exception of the W7 bus from Finsbury Park station that carried me home like a chariot of joy on the final leg of my marathon, every type of vehicular experience has been bad. Well ok, Olly (the promoter of the Riveria Comedy Clubs) drove us to the airport at 8am this morning and that was fine. There was a moment when he pointed out that the Nice drop off point is called 'Kiss and Bye' then puckered up and locked the doors, which was a tad scary. Apart from that, he skillfully navigated the mad streets of Nice and its blindly kamikaze drivers and cyclists (yesterday I saw a man not only reverse onto a busy main road, but straight across it and into a parking space.) From then on it went wrong. Easyjet once again proved that there is little easy about them unless you take the term to mean derogatory for promiscuous in which case, yes they are easy as they are more often fucked than not. Today's flight, along with some very petty issues about Glenn's laptop case and Carol's bag of coats that had to be placed in another bag while she carried the coats in her arm therefore taking up the same amount of space, was an hour late to take off. Luckily some lovely views of the snow covered Alps and general fun banter quelled the full extent of rage during airtime. This was short lived when on the other side the Gatwick Express was very inexpressive being stuck behind a broken train for ages, then the double whammy of Victoria tube being closed due to some 'gas leak' that seemed more like an excuse for the police to secure the area and allow more blame to pass onto today's protesters. Imagine the film 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' if it was written by Nazis. That's sort of today. Now I have an hour before I have to head to Hertford. Tomorrow I might try and stay in just one spot in my room until Saturday. True story.

2) I'm gutted about the decision to rise the tuition fees today in Parliament, and even more upset that the police once again attacked and kettled peaceful demonstrating students. To be honest I'm not surprised the motion was passed, though it is at least partly pleasing to know it was only a majority of 21 that allowed it to happen, rather than 80+ as was predicted. Hopefully that 21 will dwindle and as the Tories continue to peel off their Scooby Doo villian mask to reveal the scary old evil man who thinks very much of the kids as 'pesky and meddling' those 21 may well realise what they've done. There is still time for this policy to change and we can only hope it does so before any young people with hopeful future educational prospects are driven away from such desires by unachievable costs. I however was surprised again that the police, despite evidence now being spread across the net of their extremely violent tactics against defenseless and more importantly, young protesters, have done it again. Further news of broken collars, images of a disabled demonstrator being pulled from his wheelchair and videos of police on horse charging at school children are all harrowing. Do they not care about being represented as up keepers of the law? Are we now destined to have lawmen that run things by fear and intimidation? I fully expect Cameron to announce a new Judge Dredd like uniform and Scotland Yard to gain its own Room 101. Terrifying. All we can do is not let it stop us from complaining and voicing opinions about how wrong this all is and how much we oppose it. Much kudos once again to the student demonstrating today and hope you are ok and stay safe.

So yeah. That's why no blog.

* Yes, I know this is a blog. Last point:

- Nothing has still been funnier than watching the women fall up the escalator on Sunday. I fear I may have now peaked in terms of what I expect from humour and will never laugh again unless it can be replicated.

2 comments:

  1. I'm Canadian. My wife went through 8 years of university. Or more. I can't recall. I guess I could ask her. Anyway, we'll be paying off that education for the next 25 years. It's impossible to get a decent job WITHOUT a university education. Jobs that at one time only need secondary education now require college diplomas or university degrees. There are so many people looking for jobs, the competition is high, and without a good education, chances are pretty bleak. In addition, traditional jobs in manufacturing were shipped to countries where workers are paid far less means that there aren't jobs out there for those without an education, unless it is in the service industry. And what kind of future is that? Then, add on to that, less and less companies are actually hiring people fulltime. They are preferring to go with contracts. Oh man, this rant is getting long. I should put this in my own blog.

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  2. Um. Anyway, the point was that if fees go up and cuts are made to education, meaning fewer seats for students...at least those that can afford it...opportunities will dry up even faster.

    There. That's it. I'm not really adding anything to this debate. I'm just writing. Okay, to my blog I go.

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