Second UK election in November?

I decided not to let Sunday escape in the same way as Saturday, so started the day somewhat earlier. I could feel smug that by the time most people were starting their day I'd already been out for a bike ride, done some modest shopping, watched a short video (I'm re-watching the whole Cowboy Bebop Sci-fi series in sequence at the moment) and caught up with the news.

The main story this morning is about that Nissan car full of explosives found in Times Square. Worrisome that a few tanks of propane and some domestic fireworks can be rigged up so easily.

The Times Square story pushed the UK electioneering from top story, but I've decided its time to start speculating about the post election actions of the 'winning' parties.

Intriguingly, if there's no proper majority, Mr Brown can attempt to stay on as acting PM and Whitehall could delay reconvening Parliament. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Next Friday could be very interesting.

But assuming we reach a point where there's some kind of improbable coalition not involving Mr Brown, there needs to be a contingency plan about what next.

My speculation is an extra budget to look decisive to the money people, a boundary review of constituencies and then another election in November. Questions on these actions could have been good content for the recent debates, but it all seems to be embargoed by the spinners until the results are in.

in which my woolly thinking makes me listless

It's supposed to be a long weekend, but I had a rather late Saturday start. I suspect the efforts of the week had somehow piled up and forced me to take it easy.

That's good in some ways, but also means my 'down time' isn't being spent doing 'my' stuff.

In addition, there's an increasing pile of domestic paperwork to ripple through and sort out. Sometimes it's like there is a conspiracy around Bank Holiday weekends which become extended rainy domestic administration times instead of fun style decompression.

Well, I suppose I this afternoon managed to cycle over a few hills to look lambs frolicking in the fields in keeping with today's new report that says even five minutes of exercise in green spaces is beneficial. Part way along a mad rain soaked my underprepared clothing and I had to shelter under a tree until a big brown dog told me to move on.

It was the second tree that had a good view of the sheep, followed by the reappearance of the sun.

This could all have been a tick in the right box if I'd planned it; what's the old saying, "No lists make me listless"...?

pull the other one?

I wrote my last post before the debate aired on television and then amused myself watching the HDP (High Definition Perspiration) as our three heros scuffled it out against a swirling acid-hazed Parliamentary backdrop.

We were told that the politicos had not been given the questions in advance, but it was clear that they had been given the topics of the questions as 'one worders' like spending /taxes /bankers /reconstruction /real people /immigration /housing /benefits /children so they knew which groove to play for a particular theme.

Some will have spotted that responses were deflected in some areas where the briefing and the question didn't quite align.

It was also interesting to see the debate tactics in use. Marginalise Clegg by ignoring his responses. Cameron to challenge Brown on everything. Brown to say its dangerous to switch captains when we are in the middle of the icebergs (He didn't say that but you get my drift).

I'm annoying myself though that I'm deconstructing the debate rather than analysing the content. I suppose that because there's so much time in negativism. I know we have the populist worm thing, but it would be more interesting if we had something like they do in soccer, where there's something about minutes spent saying something constructive and explaining agenda vs minutes attacking each other.

Still, its all good material for caption competitions.

open mike night

I've been whizzing back and forth through Heathrow the last few days and not had much time for blogging activities although the little kerfuffle yesterday with unexpected open microphones reached my ears.

The "brown toast" headlines and similar are good at keeping the main agenda away from any proper debates and its almost as if the main parties have decided to stay away from anything too difficult or to brush it away in a non-auditable soundbite.

Is the economy is really all messed up? Is the public sector out of scale? Is the private sector struggling? Are the banks operating like pirates? Can the rich operate offshore for a modest payment to the political party of their choice? Could errant MPs retire with cash and free access to Parliament? Have house price changes created huge negative equity? Are there more people unemployed than at any time since 1994? Can new entrants to the job market get work?

We can all fill in our own answers to these kind of questions, but I'm not really seeing through the bickering to concrete examples of how anything is supposed to get fixed. It begs a question about who presided over us getting to the current position, but an equally important one about who could get us to a better place.

I'm out and about again tomorrow, so it will be a whole week since I've seen the rashbre duck house.

chipping in

Well, I said I'd use my novel royalties in a way that captured the spirit of the original writing experience. So I did decide to gamble the initial royalty cheque and to see what would happen.

I'm pleased to say I'm ahead at the moment. Let's say the original stake was extremely modest in any case and I've spread out its deployment over a number of weeks. The good, though hardly life changing, news is that I actually won some cash at the weekend.

It's a small amount, but still a three times multiple of the original royalty cheque. Thank you, lotto.

shoemending time

Time for some background computer tasks today. Hole prevention.

Its mainly my photo library which has become quite large so I've decided to split it into some smaller pieces. The simple reason is the manageability of it on computer disks. Modern cameras produce large images and my snapshot library is now about a third of a terabyte.

It still works but starts to make its management for backup and similar purposes rather lengthy. Making a full copy is about 4 hours and will only get longer. So its time to chop it into a few pieces. I think archival by year is the simplest and kind of operates at a human level.

Still, its turning sunny, so I can leave the computer to burble away whilst I head outdoors.

Melissa auf der Maur

Turns out there's been quite a few people stuck in the Ash Cloud over the last few days. I was a day ahead of the Ash in getting back to UK, although I did momentarily muse that the Norwegian skies were pretty with streaks of unaccountable grey across them.

Others ahead of the curve managed to get back with long distance taxis (Amsterdam to Calais for one friend, a hire van from Dusseldorf to LHR in another case).

And it disrupted the music we were seeing earlier this week, when half the act couldn't get to the venue. Ironically, the skies over London have been crystal clear and sunny for several days, so I guess the Icelandic stuff is hiding somewhere.

Anyway, one of the acts we saw was Melissa auf der Maur. Her original gigs were cancelled when she became stranded in Helsinki, but when she did get to London she ran a great set on borrowed equipment.

So that's my picture above, from the gig, but below is a short video from earlier, in Helsinki, when the Cloud had grounded Melissa's tour ahead of Oslo and Cargo in London. The hastily assembled video shoot has come out rather well. Whoever had the camera by the bass bin has some intriguingly wobbly shots. All good and check Melissa's website here for some fine wood chopping.

MAdM FINLAND from MAdM OOOM on Vimeo.

so much you can learn, when you're on a pachyderm

I seemed to be awake extra early this morning after dreaming of elephants and frogs.

But I see from twitter that I was not alone.

Have you seen my sister Evelyn?

As I was explaining yesterday, the original objective of visiting the Koko was to see the Evelyn Evelyn act which requires both of the Evelyn sisters in the same place at the same time.

The trouble was, because of the aircraft delays as a result of the swirling clouds of ash, it meant that the second Evelyn was stuck on a 747 somewhere over the Atlantic.

Undeterred, this became an excuse for some complicated technology and so with the power of borrowed London equipment, some wet string and an improbably large aerial, a link was established with Evelyn (Jason Webley) sitting on the plane.

He reached up into the overhead and found a guitar and then, before you knew it, with Amanda Palmer in Camden and him elsewhere, there was singing and general merriment.

Evelyn Evelyn may not have been as together as they would normally appear, but there was still a way to make music. the little video below captures the general chaos of the moment. I do also have another when Jason found the accordion so that they could sing The Elephant Song, but that will be reserved for youtube.

Amanda Palmer at Koko - Volcanic

A gang of us headed to Koko in Camden for the Evelyn Evelyn show yesterday, which was somewhat affected by the Volcanic Ash Cloud, because part of the act couldn't show up and appeared to be on a plane over the Atlantic - more of that later.

The situation created a brilliant and engaging alternative performance with Amanda Palmer mixing some Evelyn Evelyn songs with pieces from Dresden Dolls and WKAP.

I don't really have time right now to write in any detail about what was an excellent evening, with everyone on stage fully on form, Amanda borrowing instruments "does anyone have a nine-volt battery?" - someone did - (probably an effects pedal too). The borrowing later included a brace of ukelele finally tuning one to perform Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees'.

But enough for now, and here's my handheld capture of Amanda introducing and singing the somewhat spontaneous 'country' Volcano Ash Song during the gig.

a fearful frail tour (anag)

"A future fair for all" seems to be the Labour slogan.

There's plenty of anagrams. Here's a few.

A Failure Flat Furor
A Tearful Fail Furor
At foul ruler affair
Our true fall affair
Area liar fluff tour
A fearful frail tour
For a fearful ritual

I know there are plenty more.

And one for Tony Blair:

A fruitful role afar?

Conservative?... vote for change or...

Changeover oft
Craven the goof
Gotcha for even
Hot Fever conga
Oft green Havoc
Arch event goof
Fat Chevron ego

And if they win then maybe...
Torch of Avenge?

And in the interests of balance and fairness I have excluded the Liberal Democrats. I know, too much Chateau de Surville this evening.

quiet pint

Sometimes there's nothing for it but to sit down in the reddening evening sunshine and have a quiet pint.