GPs unhappy with provision of Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Tories think it is fine.

Mock the week

Dara O'Briain has a weekly rant about Labour supporters complaining of BBC bias. 

I suspect that Labour supporters are not fussed about a satirical show being satirical. The problem is the news programs which have almost universally adopted the Blairite hate campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. 

Andrew Marr was practically alone in trying to report accurately on the NEC retreat over the examples which had been tacked on to a definition of anti-semitism. The examples have been used by the Netanyahu government to forbid any criticism of Israel. 

BBC news has persistently construed opposition to Zionism as "anti-semitism". 

Every time Labour is ahead in the polls the news refers to this as "disappointing". 

Bog-standard Blairites like Alistair Campbell seem to be constantly giving their opinions - as if anybody cared.

And an attack on Jeremy Corbyn is an attack on all socialists

Python moves in a mysterious way.

Consider (or run) the following program:

family = ["Paul", "Nick", "Niall", "Peter", "Michael", "Liz", "Beth"]

print (family)

print (sorted (family), "is defined as the list sorted")

print (max (family), "is defined as max of the list")

print (min (family), "is defined as min of the list")

#one way to make a list

for family in ["Paul", "Nick", "Niall", "Peter", "Michael", "Liz", "Beth"]:

print (family, "is a family member")

#add rafa and theo

family = ["Paul", "Nick", "Niall", "Peter", "Michael", "Liz", "Beth"]

family=family+["Theo"]

family=family+["Rafa"]

print (family)

print (max (family), "is defined as the new max of the list")

#to be continued

Peter was the max of the family until Theo and Rafa came along!

I am more interested in manipulating strings than numbers. One of the exercises is to write a program to solve quadratic equations. That would be like writing a program to do crosswords or soduko so you have no fun!.

Amazon Author Page

Tobias Ellwood

I hate Tories. I think it's in the genes.

However Tobias Ellwood tried to do something useful. That makes him unique among Tories.

Amazon Author Page

The moon magazine

Did you know that the United States spends more on its military than the next ten nations combined? 

With just 4% of that budget, or $30 billion/year, the UN estimates we could end world hunger. With 20%, or $150 billion/year, we could give every person on Earth safe drinking water and sanitation—simultaneously slashing disease and infant mortality rates and boosting productivity. 

Might providing food, water, and sanitation to the people of the Earth not provide better security than threatening them with ever more horrific weapons?

In fact the article is full of "did you know" moments. Here is another:

U.S. elections are the worst among Western democracies and ranked 52nd, out of 153 countries worldwide in the 2016 Perceptions of Electoral Integrity index. The Perceptions of Electoral Integrity study measures things like how difficult it is to vote; how reliable the vote collection and counting methodology are; how much influence money has in determining outcomes; etc.

There are other possible measures of democracy, of course. Unfortunately, the United States doesn’t fare as grandly as we imagine in any of them. The British-based Legatum Institute ranks the United States 18th overall in “prosperity” and 28th in “personal freedom.” The U.S.-based Cato Institute ranks the United States 24th in “personal freedom” and 11th in “economic freedom.” The Canadian-based World Freedom Index ranks the United States 27th in a combined index of “economic,” “political,” and “press” freedoms. The CIA-funded Polity Data Series gives the U.S. democracy a score of 8 out of 10, but gives 58 other countries a higher score. Finally, researchers at Princeton and Northwestern University conclude that the United States is more accurately identified as an oligarchy, “in which the wealthy elite largely determine government policy,” than a democracy. No doubt most citizens would agree.

Amazon Author Page

#whiterthanwhite

The gutter press has highlighted the case of a police officer who was disciplined ostensibly for using the phrase "whiter than white". Predictably they called this "political correctness gone mad." The story elicited a knee-jerk response from the far right on social media.

This story is deliberately trivialising the issue of racism in the police force. The number of deaths in custody is at a ten year high. Those who died were disproportionately from ethnic minorities.

The Sun and the Mail decided that death in custody
was not a story. The "whiter than white" one was front page material.

The term "whiter than white" could be used quite innocently or ignorantly but in the context of policing it is designed to raise a snigger from officers who understand full well the intention behind it. According to the BBC black people are four times more likely to be beaten by Met police officers than white people.

The story is here

Socialist Reviews 

#supportpeoplenotcuts

West Sussex County Council has announced that from next year they plan to cut their entire Housing Related Support budget, a decision which is likely to mean the closure of every homeless shelter in West Sussex and the loss of support for many vulnerable and elderly residents at home.

This will cost money down the line when the homeless victims of this callous policy develop social and health problems which the Council is legally obliged to deal with.

They blame central government for their disgusting cuts to homeless services. Tory Council blames Tory government. Beelzebub accuses Satan? 

Thank God, Labour are fighting back with a campaign  #supportpeoplenotcuts Charities cannot make up the inevitable shortfall although we know they will do their level best. With the Council stabbing them in the back it will not be easy.

Socialist Reviews 

First Order

Not THAT First Order.

My first order from Bertram Trading Ltd - a major bookshop - arrived yesterday.







Amazon Author Page

The Faithful by Juliet West

It is hard to imagine a time when "Fascism" was not synonymous with evil. It is in such a time that this novel is set.

It tells the story both of adherents to the British Union of Fascists and of a young man who turns his back on them to fight against the Spanish Fascists.

Some of the characters have a sympathetic enough reason for supporting Mosley: there is the mother who wanted to save her son from war and calculated that Mosley was the best chance to do so. However, the book also charts the disillusionment of the loyal Fascists and the growing realisation of the consequences of the increasingly racist policies of Mosley's "New Party".

It is a revelation to hear Fascist ideology not couched in foreign accents but in upper-class and even aristocratic British ones. The thuggery of the Blackshirts is not emphasised but rather the reasons for the attraction of Fascism -  the theory that a corporate state would bring an end to class conflict. 

The narrative follows the characters into the Second World War. Suddenly the Nazi bombs weren't falling on Spanish Reds but on British homes. It brought about a different perspective.

The background to the story is factual but the characters are fictitious. It is a book which brings history alive. 

Amazon Author Page

Chuka Umunna burns his boats

Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour Party. Chuka Umunna's chum Prince Charles was not elected. The right wing hope to ditch Jeremy Corbyn without the embarrassment of a leadership election. 

70 percent of Daily Mirror readers disagree with Chuka Umunna's assessment of the Labour Party.That is because it is nonsense.

The right made a song and dance about the refusal of the NEC to adopt all the examples tacked on to the international definition of anti-semitism. When the NEC retreated by adopting all the examples, the right just continued with their offensive offensive.

By denouncing Labour as "institutionally racist", Chuka Umunna has burnt his boats. It is clear his future lies with Tony Blair's fictitious moderate party.

I don't know if Tony Blair is thought of as a moderate in Iraq or as a mass-murdering war criminal. It is clear that Chuka Umunna thinks he would be better off with Blair, with the trademark austerity and privatisation of Blairism, than with the Labour Party he calls "dogs". We will just have to manage without him.



Amazon Author Page

Mary Don't

A short story on 101words.org

Your challenge should you choose to accept it, how many words in length is the story?

Amazon Author Page

NEC retreat

The NEC retreat will only encourage the hate campaign against Jeremy Corbyn to demand more. Margaret Hodge explicitly opposes free speech on Netanyahuism. AN ATTACK ON JEREMY CORBYN IS AN ATTACK ON ALL SOCIALISTS. 

Local Author Fair

I received the details from Kirsty Franks about this event:
We attended the last one of these and I recommend other writers to come.

Frequently Asked Questions
Registration & Fees

How do I register for a table at the Author Fair?
Registration is available via Eventbrite until 30th September 2018. Spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so please be aware that registration may close earlier than 30th September if all spaces have been filled.

How much does a table cost and how do I pay?
Tables cost £20 and payment will be taken in cash on the day. We unfortunately cannot accept pre-payment or payment in any method other than cash.

Can I bring people with me to help set up and run my table?
Due to limited space, we recommend that authors bring no more than one additional person with them.

Why is there a charge for tables?
This event is chargeable for authors to cover the cost of room hire and of additional staff to manage and oversee the event. This event requires a significant amount of planning, promotion and set-up on the day, for which we do need to charge.

However, registering for a table will enable authors to:

    • Promote and sell books to customers
    • Network with local authors and publishers
    • Benefit from our online marketing, including social media posts and our county-wide eNewsletter, which reaches x (where x="a large number") people
    • Have their work displayed on a scrolling presentation screen throughout Crawley library
    •
Do the public have to pay to attend the event?
The event is free for the public to attend and does not require registration.

Can I cancel my place at the fair?
If you no longer need your space at the fair, we politely request that you cancel your space to enable us to open the space to others. You can cancel on Eventbrite via the following steps:
    • Login to your Eventbrite account
    • Click on your name in the top right-hand corner and click on “Tickets”
    • Click on “Local Author Fair” in your list of tickets
    • Click on “Cancel Order” and confirm cancellation

I’ve registered my space on Eventbrite. Is there anything else I need to do?
Once you’ve registered your space, please also send us:
    • A JPEG image of one of your book covers
    • Your name as you would like it to appear in our programme
    • A description of your writing in under 140 words
This information will be used in promotional material and on our scrolling presentation boards around the library.

Travel/Parking

How do I find the library?
The library is situated in Crawley town centre on Southgate Avenue, postcode RH10 6HG. Head for the Denvale Retail Park at the Bath Store and you’ll find the library car park on the right. Crawley train station is a 5 minute walk away and a bus station is available on the opposite side of the shopping mall running regular buses. Further information including a map is available online.

Where can I park my car?
Authors are able to use the limited staff parking onsite, but this will be first-come first-served. Once this is full, there is a small pay and display car park outside the library that allows parking for a maximum of 4 hours. Alternatively, the RCP car park on Telford Place allows 24 hour parking for a fee – please click here for more details.

When can I arrive and start setting up?
Authors may arrive anytime from 10am. Doors will open to the public at 11am.

When does the event finish?
The event finishes at 2pm and we politely ask that authors vacate their tables no earlier than 1.30pm and no later than 2.30pm.

Who do I report to when I arrive?
The event will be held in the meeting rooms on the first floor of the library. Please follow signage to the meeting rooms where a member of library staff will greet you.

Is there a loading bay I can temporarily leave my car in while I unload my equipment/books etc?
We unfortunately do not have any suitable spaces for authors to leave their cars while they unload. However, the library car park is situated next to the library, and other pay and display car parks are a short walk away.

Will someone be available to help me unload my car?
Library staff are unfortunately unable to help authors unload materials. The event is on the first floor of the library but there is a lift you can use. However, if you need assistance due to an accessibility requirement, please contact us.

On the Day

Will you provide tables and chairs for authors?
Each author will be provided with half a table and one chair.

Where will my table be?
Unless you have an accessibility requirement, we cannot guarantee an exact location for your table. Tables will be allocated after author registration has closed, and authors will be appropriately grouped, most likely by genre.

How large will my table be?
Authors will be allocated half a table each, allowing for approximately 75x75cm per author.

Will a display board (for posters etc) be provided with my table?
Tables will be left plain with a sign displaying your name. Display boards will not be provided with tables, but authors are encouraged to bring display materials such as pull-up banners.

Are there any restrictions on what I can bring with me?
We recommend authors decorate their tables – you are welcome to bring books to sell, posters, leaflets and pull-up banners with you. You are welcome to bring laptops and electronic equipment with you, but please ensure your equipment is fully charged as plugs are extremely limited.

Can I sell books at the event?
Authors are welcome to sell books at the event. All we ask is that you handle all sales yourself and provide your own cash float if required.

Would the library be able to buy a copy of my book?
We are unfortunately unable to buy books from authors on the day, but would happily welcome donations and will process these in line with our donations policy. A copy of the policy is available from Kirsty Franks by emailing kirsty.franks@westsussex.gov.uk.

Will you be taking pictures at the event? Can I take pictures?
At the event, all authors will be given the option to consent to having their picture taken and used for promotional purposes (e.g. on Facebook). Without your written consent, we won’t take or post any photographs of you. We encourage you to share your own pictures of the event on social media, but ask you not to include any images of other people.

Accessibility

Will the event space be wheelchair accessible?
The event will be held on the first floor of the library. However, Crawley Library is wheelchair accessible and there is a lift and disabled toilets onsite.

Who do I contact if I have an accessibility requirement that may affect where my table is placed or how it is set up?
Please contact Kirsty Franks on kirsty.franks@westsussex.gov.uk.

Comfort & Extras

Are there tea and coffee facilities onsite?
Complimentary tea and coffee will be provided to exhibitors, and there is an onsite café. 

Is there anywhere nearby to find lunch?
There is a café onsite, or alternatively cafés and restaurants are available in and around Crawley town centre. Please be aware that hot food is not permitted inside the library, but cold food and hot/cold drinks are permitted.

Who do I contact if I have any other questions?
Please contact Kirsty Franks on kirsty.franks@westsussex.gov.uk if you have any additional queries.
 

Various Pets Alive and Dead

Various Pets Alive and Dead
Marina Lewycka
ISBN: 9781905490912

This book by the author of "Two Caravans" tells two parallel stories
about a 1970's hippy commune and the adventures of two of its children
in the 21st century. A lot of the humour comes from ridiculing some of
the more ultra-left views current in the 1970s and then contrasting
the morality of the parents with the immoral world in which Serge -
one of the children - has become embroiled.

I don't intend to ruin the plot but the banking world is summarised
for Serge thus:

"Imagine gambling in a casino. Everything you win, you keep. And every
time you lose, a kind-hearted donkey called Joe Public comes along
with a sack of gold and pays off your debts .... He just has to keep
the government onside by keeping them running scared."

Drawn into this world because of the easy money, Serge develops a
whole new meaning for the term "fictitious capital." The parts of the
financial plot which seem most bizarre, like making money out of a
downturn, are the parts which are most accurate.

In the hippy commune, the attempts to explain the role of marriage -
or the "pastry arky of the domestos fear" - to young children are a
salutary warning about fitting your language to your audience.

Marina Lewycka does not spare anybody, left or right, from her comic
ridicule. This is a thoroughly good read.







Amazon Author Page

Tis

Tis
Frank McCourt
ISBN 0684865742

Every teacher has a book inside them. In some cases it is as well if it just stays there. In Frank McCourt’s case I can only say I am glad it came out into the open.

In prose a bit like a stream of consciousness, he writes about his life in Limerick and the problems of moving back to New York and trying to make headway against poverty and prejudice. So far so depressing but he manages to make it come alive and make it highly readable.

And then in the second half of the book is his life as a teacher. His description of his first lesson with a sassy New York class is a delightful and frightening evocation of the problems everyone encounters as an NQT. I can recommend it to anyone who has ever come into a classroom and found the pupils know how to handle the situation much better than they do!

He is very open about his feelings even when these are discreditable, especially when these are discreditable. He does not give himself the benefit of the doubt or cloud his emotions. When he wants to be extremely rude to his mother or father he gives his exact feelings but concedes that he didn’t actually say any of these hurtful things.

He compares being Irish and being expected to be interested in “irishness” with being black and expected to be interested in specifically “black issues.” He adds that at least he could (if he wanted) have changed his accent but not the colour of his skin.

(Grammatical note – my use of the word “they”is wrong as any English teacher will readily assert. However the Oxford English Dictionary (no less) acknowledges, perhaps reluctantly, that “they” can be used as a substitute for “he or she” where the latter would be clumsy.)

Every teacher will find something to like in this book




Amazon Author Page

Sexual Harrassment on the subway

An astonishing 81 percent of American women say they have been sexually harassed. And a surprising amount of this harassment is taking place on the tube, called the subway in the US.

The BBC video about this is here

Jeremy Corbyn has been subjected to a torrent of abuse from Tory Party "sock puppets" on the Internet for suggesting a policy of zero tolerance of sexual harassment. It tells you which side the Tories are on over this issue.

Labour policy will encourage the victims to speak out and get action. Sexual harassment in the workplace is repeatedly trivialised but it is just another form of management bullying and should be treated as such.

Two lives

Vikram Seth ISBN 0-316-72774-1


“Don’t take the black man” were the first words Henny Caro first said about Shanti Seth when he was proposed as a lodger in her family home – hardly a promising start to a relationship which was to last the rest of their lives.

Shanti and Henny Seth were not famous, at least prior to the publication of this book. Their lives spanned a fair proportion of the twentieth century and they were dominated and changed forever by the rise of Nazism and the second world war.

Shanti, born in 1908 and brought up in India, was sent to study dentistry in Berlin in the 1930s although he did not speak a word of German. It was there that he met Henny who came from a patriotic “intensely German” family. In addition to her initial hostility, she was also engaged to someone else.

She was able to get out of Germany and went to reside in London where they became close friends. He lost his arm at the battle of Monte Cassino but went on to pursue a successful career despite his disability. It was only after the war that she learned that her mother and sister died in Auschwitz. The book traces her search for the truth about their fate.

This close intimate portrayal of their lives by their nephew is a powerful work of art and will not leave any reader unmoved.

Interestingly as well as dealing in detail with the plight of the Jewish families in Berlin during the war it also deals with the less well-documented suffering of Germans in the post war period.

It also deals with the effect on Henny’s group of close friends in Berlin, Jewish and non Jewish, one of whom became an apologist for the Nazis. The personal is political in this novel but there is nothing but the most superficial of political analysis on the part of the writer; the reader has to provide that.

In addition to spanning the century, the narrative spans the globe, from India, Germany, Israel and Palestine to Britain where they lived most of their lives.

Reflecting on the story which he has been telling, the author concludes, “Behind every door in every ordinary street, in every hut in every ordinary village on this middling planet of a trivial star, such riches are to be found.”

Read it.

Amazon Author Page

Unison fights bullying of police staff

There is now a Unison report on the sexual harrassment of police staff.

UNISON is the main union for police staff with 33,700 members across all forces, apart from
the Metropolitan Police and the Police Service in Northern Ireland. They do not represent police officers.

The figures are astounding and thank God Unison are taking up this issue. Without a union these workers would have nobody to turn to.Codes of ethics are very nice but only a strong trade union can make sure anything is done about them.

One can't help wondering, if this is how the police act towards their own staff, how do they treat the general public?

 

The Girl who kicked the Hornet's nest

The Girl who kicked the Hornet's nest
Steig Larsson
ISBN 978-1-84916-274-6

The Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson is a fascinating series of books which deserves an audience beyond the devotees of crime fiction.

The girl of the title is Lisbeth Salander. She is a victim of horrifying childhood abuse at the hands of a respectable psychiatrist. She develops skills as a computer hacker which she uses to wage a campaign against men who torture women.

The 21st century slave trade – in which girls from the former USSR are duped into working as prostitutes in Sweden and subjected to rape and torture often by respected members of society – is one of the less-documented stories of the collapse of communism loudly trumpeted by the apologists of capitalism as “the end of history.” .

The books themselves develop as exciting detective dramas with a background in fact. They talk openly about the corruption at the very highest levels in Swedish society. The author was himself a campaigning journalist who exposed the dirty work of Swedish and international capitalism.

So it is hardly surprising that Salander's co-worker is the charismatic journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is also portrayed as being irresistible to women. You might think this is a little wish fulfilment by Mr Larssen, I, of course, couldn't possibly comment.

The links between big business, the security services and neo-nazis are explicit in the books but all under the guise of fiction of course. Stieg Larsson himself met an untimely and unexpected death. Truth really can be stranger than
fiction!

The first two books “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl who played with fire” have been turned into excellent films and I for one look forward to the film
version of this one.


Journalism (noun)
telling a story the people in power do not want to be told. Anything else is just advertising.

Matter by Iain M Banks

Iain M Banks' Sci Fi novels novels are a romp through the ideas of Science Fiction – always interesting and always surprising. In that he resembles E E Doc Smith for the sheer exuberance of his writing. Fortunately he does not have Smith’s obsession with projectile weapons.

Banks’ novels often centre on a socialist society – known as “The Culture”. It is a society of abundance in which there is no poverty or war. "Matter" concerns how The Culture relates to the rest of the galaxy where war and poverty have not been abolished.


The Culture is a society where artificial intelligence has reached its highest expression and is regarded as equivalent to human beings – or vastly superior depending on your viewpoint! The wit and wisdom of the AIs and their relationship with the human members of the culture is part of the novel’s attraction.


The Shell Worlds are a theme of this novel. They are artificially created worlds which host a variety of life forms. One character from a shell world joins The Culture and then returns home to the relatively primitive society into which she was born when her father is assassinated. However in her absence she has become a member of the part of the Culture called “Special Circumstances” – an organisation of humans with enhanced powers. Special Circumstances alternately upholds and violates The Culture’s principle of non-interference with other life forms at every turn.

Instead of going back to grieve for her father she ends up with a mission to save the world. This is a book for science fiction fans and socialists. Iain M Banks is always good value for money.