Elvis Costello…

…has a new one out, with The Roots. It’s laid backish. It’s all I’ve listened to for a couple of days. It’s a bit win win for me. I like Elvis Costello (all the more for producing one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to – Hammersmith Palais, ages ago) and I like The Roots.

Selling the queen’s head

They’re flogging off the Royal Mail. They’ve been champing at the bit to flog it off for ages. It will, apparently, open up all those competition, funding, blah blah things they always go on about when they want to privatise something.

I do have a couple of questions. Those shining examples of successful privatisation leading to better services? Do they include the trains? Do they include the water boards? Just, that, you know, I’m not altogether sure the consumers’ experience has been, like, enhanced in any way?

Don’t the public utilities and nationalised thingies already belong to everyone, and are they actually the property of our rulers to sell off to their already minted mates so that they can get a bit more minted? Is that how it’s meant to work?

Another question. If it’s without doubt such a good idea, and if without doubt it’s better for everyone, why isn’t there a single postie’s voice putting that view forward? Why are we paying a postmistress general one and a half million quid a year. That’s a one and a half million employee who can’t spell. She’s probably all for the idea.

That’s those two questions. I’ve come up with some more.

I know we now have one, general, homogeneous political narrow-centre elite party to ignore right now. The Greens have nailed colours to the mast. Renationalise the railways (no additional taxpayer cost, at the moment we’re subsidising the private companies), renationalise the water companies, stop killing the badgers, and a whole lot of good stuff. When Vince Cable (who was something of a lone voice of reason) goes on about the good reasons for selling off the royal mail, there’s clear evidence that there’s hardly a fag paper between Cable, Osbsorne, and Balls, and it’s way gone time for a change. The Greens seem a sensible option to me.

I think…

…I noted this last year, but anyway:

About 10,000 people attend the party conferences, which get a load of media hype and coverage and all that. The tory party has less than 100,000 members, nationally. To put that into perspective, any given weekend, 350,000 or so go to premiership football (add in the other leagues, add in all those that play) and there’s a stinging fact. There’s care and interest and passion and people out there that are engaged and enfranchised and knowledgeable and…all that stuff, and then there’s politics. Face it guys, no one gives a monkey’s.