It is Sunday September 25th 2011 just before 10 am. Things have gone well in my little world during the past week although I remain behind in the programme of writing and other activities I have set for myself before the three months to Christmas commenced. I am trying to do three things at this moment, redrafting the opening of this writing which I will work on during the day as I also devote time to reorganising my important papers following a search for the papers on the defunct refrigerator on Friday.
There are also a number of sports TV programme which will I keep half an eye or command full attention- Scotland’s World Cup Rugby game against Argentina which they are winning at present by three goals to two and which will take them into the next round of the competition. Argentina has just missed a penalty kick with the ball hitting an upright and bouncing back. Scotland go ahead with a drop goal and then disaster as in the final minutes Argentina score a try and then convert to take the game 13-12. Scotland still could qualify although permutations are against then with the first failure to progress from the preliminary stages since the competition was established.
Meanwhile I discover that I have erased the first episode of the New Orleans post Katrina series Treme in tiredness yesterday, another disaster and all I have so far been able to establish is a clip, I stop this and spend time on making progress in the master document update and reorganisation. This occupied my time until mid afternoon, taking longer than expected to cover Income issues, the occupational pension, the state pension and a small annuity together with income tax. I am missing documents from recent years which suggest they were files in the ongoing Household files. Fortunately all the current information is available.
For breakfast I enjoyed some cereal, mushrooms in the microwave and coffee and for lunch the steak bought the previous day, some more mushrooms and a mix vegetable small pack of frozen mixed vegetables followed by a small carton of raspberries.
The accounts activity also took longer because of the plethora of sport available throughout the day and evening.
The most outstanding sporting achievement of the weekend was that of Mark Cavendish who became the first Briton to win the extraordinary World Road race championship for the first time since Tony Simpson in 1965, over 35 years ago. I say extraordinary because the riders cycle for over 5 hours and 40 mins and journey more than 200 miles and then if someone or some group has not broken away from the rest there are some dozen riders all sprinting to finish of the last 500 meters. In order to be in with a chance it is necessary to be nursed by other members of the team to be in a position to charge in the final moments of the race. Briton had sent a full team of eight of its best road racers and although Ian Stanard’s claim to fame was a mere half a mile during which he punched a hole through the grouped riders ahead to create the opening for Cavendish to break through as the finishing line came to view. The hero was Bradley Wiggins who having tortured himself to gain silver in the men‘s Time Trial the previous day stormed around the circuit in the last lap to ensure the rest of the British team were in a great position to help their team mate to a win and all along captain David Millar ensured that everyone kept to position and did their planned piece at the appropriate time. It is British cycling which is dominating arena and road racing in the same sport and provide a great opportunity for the most medals in 2012. Wow.
There is also wow for Somerset and Derbyshire who have moved into the next phase of the Club Cricket world championships and presently looks as if they could finish one and two in their mini league to reach the quarter finals. The games are being shown on Eurosport as was the cycling and the latest round of the women’s Tennis circuit. I watched Somerset overtake the good standard 161 for 3 by the Kolta Knight Raiders from the Indian Premier League. Jack Kalis from South Africa was not out 74 with four sixes and four fours. He was then matched by another South African playing for Somerset van der Merwe who made 73 with nine fours and two sixes. Somerset then stuttered when they had a total grip on the game and the result appeared never in doubt. They only had two balls to spare at the end,
It was also the first of the four quarter finals games in the Rugby League Challenged cup where the top eight teams battle it out with Leeds having only a narrow win over Huddersfield after appearing to take command in a game where I saw only the highlights on the BBC on Sunday as England were playing the West Indies in the first of two 20 20 games at the Oval on the same evening. England had smashed the West Indies on Friday and so it seemed they would do so again on Sunday after the visitors could only reach 113. England then collapsed after a good performance by Durham’s Ben Stoke’s with the highest total in the side’s pathetic lowest ever total in the short over competition of 31, second highest in the match out of the 88 all out with more than 3 overs left. Durham’s Borthwick was also given the opportunity with the ball taking his first national wicket in a four over spell for 16 runs. He also looked promising when he came in to bat at the end but was then run out by Captain Swan and with four run outs the young team lost the only match of the season by any of the sides, the last one to bring everyone back to earth,
Because of the clashes between the various events I did not see much of the Formula 1 event where by coming second Button prevented winner Vettell from claiming a back to back World Title. He has 309 points to Button on 185 so it is only a delay of a couple of weeks before he rightly stands heads and shoulders above everyone else for the second season in succession. There was also little time to watch QPR at home against Aston Villa, a game they looked like losing until the final moments when an own goal meant a draw and a continuing good start in the Premiership. The unexpected triumph of the weekend was the win by 15 points to 13 in the ladies golfing match between Europe and the United States who dominate competitions on the annual circuit
I have also ordered a new refrigerator having checked out Argos before going to Curry’s. I debated seeing’ how long I could function without the refrigerator on the basis that the most effective way of controlling the quantity of food consumed and getting more exercise is to walk down the hill and back to Morrison’s purchasing what I need on a daily basis, backed up by the freezer, the ice packs and the cool bags, storing contents outside the house in the garage area or in the kitchen except when using the oven.
I delayed the search for the papers on the defunct fridge to establish if the appliance was covered by some insurance because I knew the search would involve time I wanted to spend on other activities and it would as it did raise the need to bring up to date the financial documents and summary records. I went through the receipts and other household records which had become part of Confidential projects going back two years without success after going through the master documents and copies files kept separately without success and then found what I wanted in one of the two lever arch files on purchases of electronic and electric goods, after remembering that the item had been ordered online and therefore did not involved a traditional receipt. Amazingly over three years have passed since its acquisition and on the positive side had I taken out individual product insurance I would have paid out over the period almost as much as a replacement item now ordered. On the negative side I was offered additional insurance by telephone recently as an add on to an existing household insurance which I rejected although on balance I think I have found a good solution.
I attempted to go back on to Currys site having identified a possible replacement before making the London trip last weekend. I then saw Argos listed and remembering that I had obtained a card and an Internet account sometime ago and switched to see what they had to offer and found what looked a similar item to that offered by Currys except for interest free credit for a year if purchased on line using the card. Alas the card was two years out of date and the account and password not work but renewing both only took seconds and the new appliance will be delivered one afternoon later in the week.
There has been a slight reduction in my weight and a gradual removal in bad eating habits although I need greater self discipline before I regard myself as clean.
On Saturday discovered that Morrison’s are large cartons of fresh mushrooms for £1.36 and enjoyed a portion after cereal for breakfast, frying them before working out I could eliminate the use of oil by the microwave. I also added a portion with chopped turkey to make a Jalfrezi curry with plain rice. I had a small quiche with salad in the afternoon with the second purchase for Sunday evening. Over the week I spread out a packet of mackerel fillets over three days and also had a tin of shredded crab with salads for the second meal of the day with a chicken Kiev, pieces of white fish and two Tex Mex platters enjoyed as main courses. As previously mentioned ( I think) I accidentally switched off the freezer instead of the fridge before going away for the weekend and checking that the contents had not defrosted but was beginning to do so had gone away uncertain if I should junk the contents when I returned. I started with frozen vegetables, the last of the desert items and then the Tex Mex platter food before the two small pieces of white fish, waiting apprehensively to see if there was adverse reaction over the next 24 hours and so far so good. The remaining question mark is a pack of prawns in shell. I am also restricting the quantity of fresh food enjoying small cartons of cherries, blackberries and raspberries although these are expensive. I quickly tire of bananas these days and remain tempted to chop up and cover them with hot custard rather than eat en naturale but continue to buy Morrison’s inexpensive carton grapes. I did have a snack of anchovies on toast over two days at tea time, and two bars of Morrison’s inexpensive and thin raisin and nut chocolate. This was a last fling purchase before the run up to Christmas.
When I started to write yesterday I was being influenced by three events. A BBC feature documentary on the impact of the 1951 Festival of Britain, the developing situation where a second world economic recession appears inevitable but with a greater impact on the levels of unemployment and on incomes including pension incomes than previously and watching the film, The Social Network.
After such a long introduction there can only be disappointing with what I have so say about the film The Social Network which was highly praised and nominated for Oscar awards but I resisted go to see in theatre because as I rightly suspected while the subject is of interest the film portrays a culture and life value system which is part of the economic disaster we are all now facing. My loyalty anyway is to MySpace and Google Blogs because of the emphasise on the ability to publish extensively and originally to be able to create substantial individual sites including photographs, music and writings.
Mark Zuckerberg is a remarkable young man, the technical brains of Facebook, now combining CEO and President of a company where he owns 24% of the shareholding and which has an income and value in the billions. His personal worth is said to be approaching 20 billion. The film does not portray him in a good personal light although it is has to be remembered that he was an undergraduate at Harvard at the time when he developed the idea which had been put to him by a trio of influential Harvard seniors. They eventually commenced a series of legal actions which only appear to have been brought to an end this year and where knowing a little about the legal costs of bringing law suits in the USA it appears they have been pursuing a principle and sense of injustice, rightly or wrongly.
This appears also to have been the position of Eduardo Saverin, a college roommate who took on the commercial side of the project development and who according to the film was nearly frozen out of the company after it moved to Silicon Valley and he remained in New York. He is a Brazilian from a wealthy family and is now based in Singapore with a personal fortune estimated to be about 5 billion dollars based on his 5% share holding. He is reported to have been the first financial backer of the Facebook having made $300000 on the stock market through investments in oil. Two others who helped to get the development started and developed are Dustin Moskovitz, report to have also become the youngest billionaire in the USA as he is younger than Mark by a few days. His role is barely covered in the film and he has developed other interests and companies.
The other key individual whose role is barely touched on in the film is that of Chris Hughes who became the spokesperson and who is more likely to be remembered by history because of his role in creating and developing the use of the Internet in getting Barack Obama to the White House. He is credited with changing political campaigning in the USA in a fundamental way. He also appears to have become to most socially activity of the quartet with a particular emphasis on HIV prevention and treatment. He was one of the few invited to the first Presidential State dinner.
The film concentrates more on the legal aspects than why the Facebook has been able to attract 500 million users worldwide and now has 2000 employees where MySpace having reached 1200 staff at one point has retracted to 200 and was recently sold for a fraction of the price originally paid to the founders. The Film is based on the book, The Accidental Billionaires-A Tale of sex, money, Genius and Betrayal. Translated to the small screen the sound is a major problem and requires to be turned up loud to hear some of the conversations although in the nightclub disco scene the sound is deliberately higher than the conversation to make the obvious point about the situation. I must write about My Space, the defunct AOL site and Google Blog sometime.
So what is the connection between the creation of Facebook and the economic mess the world is facing? Once upon a time barter was the basis of the world economy. People produced for their own needs and sold the remainder to provide for their homes, their entertainment and for hard times. There was usury, loaning money or goods for repayment in the future with interest. Banks were then development but the development and expansion of shares, and their speculations as well the buy and selling of goods futures market creating a further source of speculation all created the present situation where people make or loss with regularity and more significantly the process as with all forms of gambling is unrelated to intrinsic value, the creation of actual goods and heir selling at a fair prices in terms of costs. The whole process of contemporary capitalism is immoral and a confidence trick destined to fail and causing worldwide misery in which those who have profited will large escape because of being able to to use savings out of trouble.
The situation grows worse by the day with the political and national system unable to cope. Those who argued that single European currency without a political unity of purpose was destined to fail are being proved right. Meanwhile Parliament is extemporary recess while the three main political parties have their national conferences and try to emphasise their difference while agreeing on the gravity of the situation and knowing that its solution only offers narrow margins of difference. There was a similar atmosphere of gloom bordering on despair immediately after World War II, because of so much needing to be done, the lack of resources including necessary materials for the rebuilding, the continuation of rationing and being locked into a cultural and social mindset which had been broken by the war but which was gradually reasserting itself.
Relief came with the with the Festival of Britain in 1951. The recent BBC documentary reminded that the Festival marked an important change in British Society when the mood changed from pessimism to optimism, As with the Great Victorian Exhibition of 1851, the Festival was a showcase for technical developments expected over the next 50 years in The Dome of Discovery, it was also a vehicle for change in domestic design and for people having fun with open air dancing on the South Bank Site and a large Fun Fair created in Battersea Park. There were thousands of events around the UK includes Street parties and Fetes. Those old enough to remember recall that everyone was smiling and being friendly and everyone looks back at an important and happy moment in their lives.
The TV programme reminded of the creation of the Lansbury (George) estate and community in the Poplar area of in near London on a site which had been heavily bombed and which provided he latest housing and community buildings on a human scale replaced, because of demand for quick and cheap accommodation by the concrete wildernesses which have only recently been pulled down.
One of the great acts of political vandalism of the Churchill Tory administration on taking power was the decision to destory most of the South Bank site except for the Royal festival Hall, because the buildings were regarded as too socialist in style! The famous Skylon aluminium cigar like tube suspended by cables which were not visible at a distance stood 300 feet tall and dominated the riverside. Skylon was the Great Wheel does today. It was dismantled was the rest of the site by George Cohen and company at great additional costs over a six month period although some of the materials were converted into paper knives and sold.
I thought the Millennium Dome was another good event which fortunately has survived through it conversion into an entertainment, including a major arena and exhibitions and restaurant centre. Despite the spectre of Terrorist attacks, Industrial strife and such like the Olympic Games may herald a new opening away from the economic gloom which is said to govern everything over the next decade.
It is now time to catch up on various TV series, The Borgias, Treme, Spooks, Who do you, know who you are, The Sopranos, Downton Abbey and Queen’s Palaces. Merlin and the Boardwalk Empire are due to return. The British X Factor has reached the Judges Places week while the USA version has got underway. Dr Who ends on Saturday and Sunderland are at Norwich on Sky tonight.
There are also a number of sports TV programme which will I keep half an eye or command full attention- Scotland’s World Cup Rugby game against Argentina which they are winning at present by three goals to two and which will take them into the next round of the competition. Argentina has just missed a penalty kick with the ball hitting an upright and bouncing back. Scotland go ahead with a drop goal and then disaster as in the final minutes Argentina score a try and then convert to take the game 13-12. Scotland still could qualify although permutations are against then with the first failure to progress from the preliminary stages since the competition was established.
Meanwhile I discover that I have erased the first episode of the New Orleans post Katrina series Treme in tiredness yesterday, another disaster and all I have so far been able to establish is a clip, I stop this and spend time on making progress in the master document update and reorganisation. This occupied my time until mid afternoon, taking longer than expected to cover Income issues, the occupational pension, the state pension and a small annuity together with income tax. I am missing documents from recent years which suggest they were files in the ongoing Household files. Fortunately all the current information is available.
For breakfast I enjoyed some cereal, mushrooms in the microwave and coffee and for lunch the steak bought the previous day, some more mushrooms and a mix vegetable small pack of frozen mixed vegetables followed by a small carton of raspberries.
The accounts activity also took longer because of the plethora of sport available throughout the day and evening.
The most outstanding sporting achievement of the weekend was that of Mark Cavendish who became the first Briton to win the extraordinary World Road race championship for the first time since Tony Simpson in 1965, over 35 years ago. I say extraordinary because the riders cycle for over 5 hours and 40 mins and journey more than 200 miles and then if someone or some group has not broken away from the rest there are some dozen riders all sprinting to finish of the last 500 meters. In order to be in with a chance it is necessary to be nursed by other members of the team to be in a position to charge in the final moments of the race. Briton had sent a full team of eight of its best road racers and although Ian Stanard’s claim to fame was a mere half a mile during which he punched a hole through the grouped riders ahead to create the opening for Cavendish to break through as the finishing line came to view. The hero was Bradley Wiggins who having tortured himself to gain silver in the men‘s Time Trial the previous day stormed around the circuit in the last lap to ensure the rest of the British team were in a great position to help their team mate to a win and all along captain David Millar ensured that everyone kept to position and did their planned piece at the appropriate time. It is British cycling which is dominating arena and road racing in the same sport and provide a great opportunity for the most medals in 2012. Wow.
There is also wow for Somerset and Derbyshire who have moved into the next phase of the Club Cricket world championships and presently looks as if they could finish one and two in their mini league to reach the quarter finals. The games are being shown on Eurosport as was the cycling and the latest round of the women’s Tennis circuit. I watched Somerset overtake the good standard 161 for 3 by the Kolta Knight Raiders from the Indian Premier League. Jack Kalis from South Africa was not out 74 with four sixes and four fours. He was then matched by another South African playing for Somerset van der Merwe who made 73 with nine fours and two sixes. Somerset then stuttered when they had a total grip on the game and the result appeared never in doubt. They only had two balls to spare at the end,
It was also the first of the four quarter finals games in the Rugby League Challenged cup where the top eight teams battle it out with Leeds having only a narrow win over Huddersfield after appearing to take command in a game where I saw only the highlights on the BBC on Sunday as England were playing the West Indies in the first of two 20 20 games at the Oval on the same evening. England had smashed the West Indies on Friday and so it seemed they would do so again on Sunday after the visitors could only reach 113. England then collapsed after a good performance by Durham’s Ben Stoke’s with the highest total in the side’s pathetic lowest ever total in the short over competition of 31, second highest in the match out of the 88 all out with more than 3 overs left. Durham’s Borthwick was also given the opportunity with the ball taking his first national wicket in a four over spell for 16 runs. He also looked promising when he came in to bat at the end but was then run out by Captain Swan and with four run outs the young team lost the only match of the season by any of the sides, the last one to bring everyone back to earth,
Because of the clashes between the various events I did not see much of the Formula 1 event where by coming second Button prevented winner Vettell from claiming a back to back World Title. He has 309 points to Button on 185 so it is only a delay of a couple of weeks before he rightly stands heads and shoulders above everyone else for the second season in succession. There was also little time to watch QPR at home against Aston Villa, a game they looked like losing until the final moments when an own goal meant a draw and a continuing good start in the Premiership. The unexpected triumph of the weekend was the win by 15 points to 13 in the ladies golfing match between Europe and the United States who dominate competitions on the annual circuit
I have also ordered a new refrigerator having checked out Argos before going to Curry’s. I debated seeing’ how long I could function without the refrigerator on the basis that the most effective way of controlling the quantity of food consumed and getting more exercise is to walk down the hill and back to Morrison’s purchasing what I need on a daily basis, backed up by the freezer, the ice packs and the cool bags, storing contents outside the house in the garage area or in the kitchen except when using the oven.
I delayed the search for the papers on the defunct fridge to establish if the appliance was covered by some insurance because I knew the search would involve time I wanted to spend on other activities and it would as it did raise the need to bring up to date the financial documents and summary records. I went through the receipts and other household records which had become part of Confidential projects going back two years without success after going through the master documents and copies files kept separately without success and then found what I wanted in one of the two lever arch files on purchases of electronic and electric goods, after remembering that the item had been ordered online and therefore did not involved a traditional receipt. Amazingly over three years have passed since its acquisition and on the positive side had I taken out individual product insurance I would have paid out over the period almost as much as a replacement item now ordered. On the negative side I was offered additional insurance by telephone recently as an add on to an existing household insurance which I rejected although on balance I think I have found a good solution.
I attempted to go back on to Currys site having identified a possible replacement before making the London trip last weekend. I then saw Argos listed and remembering that I had obtained a card and an Internet account sometime ago and switched to see what they had to offer and found what looked a similar item to that offered by Currys except for interest free credit for a year if purchased on line using the card. Alas the card was two years out of date and the account and password not work but renewing both only took seconds and the new appliance will be delivered one afternoon later in the week.
There has been a slight reduction in my weight and a gradual removal in bad eating habits although I need greater self discipline before I regard myself as clean.
On Saturday discovered that Morrison’s are large cartons of fresh mushrooms for £1.36 and enjoyed a portion after cereal for breakfast, frying them before working out I could eliminate the use of oil by the microwave. I also added a portion with chopped turkey to make a Jalfrezi curry with plain rice. I had a small quiche with salad in the afternoon with the second purchase for Sunday evening. Over the week I spread out a packet of mackerel fillets over three days and also had a tin of shredded crab with salads for the second meal of the day with a chicken Kiev, pieces of white fish and two Tex Mex platters enjoyed as main courses. As previously mentioned ( I think) I accidentally switched off the freezer instead of the fridge before going away for the weekend and checking that the contents had not defrosted but was beginning to do so had gone away uncertain if I should junk the contents when I returned. I started with frozen vegetables, the last of the desert items and then the Tex Mex platter food before the two small pieces of white fish, waiting apprehensively to see if there was adverse reaction over the next 24 hours and so far so good. The remaining question mark is a pack of prawns in shell. I am also restricting the quantity of fresh food enjoying small cartons of cherries, blackberries and raspberries although these are expensive. I quickly tire of bananas these days and remain tempted to chop up and cover them with hot custard rather than eat en naturale but continue to buy Morrison’s inexpensive carton grapes. I did have a snack of anchovies on toast over two days at tea time, and two bars of Morrison’s inexpensive and thin raisin and nut chocolate. This was a last fling purchase before the run up to Christmas.
When I started to write yesterday I was being influenced by three events. A BBC feature documentary on the impact of the 1951 Festival of Britain, the developing situation where a second world economic recession appears inevitable but with a greater impact on the levels of unemployment and on incomes including pension incomes than previously and watching the film, The Social Network.
After such a long introduction there can only be disappointing with what I have so say about the film The Social Network which was highly praised and nominated for Oscar awards but I resisted go to see in theatre because as I rightly suspected while the subject is of interest the film portrays a culture and life value system which is part of the economic disaster we are all now facing. My loyalty anyway is to MySpace and Google Blogs because of the emphasise on the ability to publish extensively and originally to be able to create substantial individual sites including photographs, music and writings.
Mark Zuckerberg is a remarkable young man, the technical brains of Facebook, now combining CEO and President of a company where he owns 24% of the shareholding and which has an income and value in the billions. His personal worth is said to be approaching 20 billion. The film does not portray him in a good personal light although it is has to be remembered that he was an undergraduate at Harvard at the time when he developed the idea which had been put to him by a trio of influential Harvard seniors. They eventually commenced a series of legal actions which only appear to have been brought to an end this year and where knowing a little about the legal costs of bringing law suits in the USA it appears they have been pursuing a principle and sense of injustice, rightly or wrongly.
This appears also to have been the position of Eduardo Saverin, a college roommate who took on the commercial side of the project development and who according to the film was nearly frozen out of the company after it moved to Silicon Valley and he remained in New York. He is a Brazilian from a wealthy family and is now based in Singapore with a personal fortune estimated to be about 5 billion dollars based on his 5% share holding. He is reported to have been the first financial backer of the Facebook having made $300000 on the stock market through investments in oil. Two others who helped to get the development started and developed are Dustin Moskovitz, report to have also become the youngest billionaire in the USA as he is younger than Mark by a few days. His role is barely covered in the film and he has developed other interests and companies.
The other key individual whose role is barely touched on in the film is that of Chris Hughes who became the spokesperson and who is more likely to be remembered by history because of his role in creating and developing the use of the Internet in getting Barack Obama to the White House. He is credited with changing political campaigning in the USA in a fundamental way. He also appears to have become to most socially activity of the quartet with a particular emphasis on HIV prevention and treatment. He was one of the few invited to the first Presidential State dinner.
The film concentrates more on the legal aspects than why the Facebook has been able to attract 500 million users worldwide and now has 2000 employees where MySpace having reached 1200 staff at one point has retracted to 200 and was recently sold for a fraction of the price originally paid to the founders. The Film is based on the book, The Accidental Billionaires-A Tale of sex, money, Genius and Betrayal. Translated to the small screen the sound is a major problem and requires to be turned up loud to hear some of the conversations although in the nightclub disco scene the sound is deliberately higher than the conversation to make the obvious point about the situation. I must write about My Space, the defunct AOL site and Google Blog sometime.
So what is the connection between the creation of Facebook and the economic mess the world is facing? Once upon a time barter was the basis of the world economy. People produced for their own needs and sold the remainder to provide for their homes, their entertainment and for hard times. There was usury, loaning money or goods for repayment in the future with interest. Banks were then development but the development and expansion of shares, and their speculations as well the buy and selling of goods futures market creating a further source of speculation all created the present situation where people make or loss with regularity and more significantly the process as with all forms of gambling is unrelated to intrinsic value, the creation of actual goods and heir selling at a fair prices in terms of costs. The whole process of contemporary capitalism is immoral and a confidence trick destined to fail and causing worldwide misery in which those who have profited will large escape because of being able to to use savings out of trouble.
The situation grows worse by the day with the political and national system unable to cope. Those who argued that single European currency without a political unity of purpose was destined to fail are being proved right. Meanwhile Parliament is extemporary recess while the three main political parties have their national conferences and try to emphasise their difference while agreeing on the gravity of the situation and knowing that its solution only offers narrow margins of difference. There was a similar atmosphere of gloom bordering on despair immediately after World War II, because of so much needing to be done, the lack of resources including necessary materials for the rebuilding, the continuation of rationing and being locked into a cultural and social mindset which had been broken by the war but which was gradually reasserting itself.
Relief came with the with the Festival of Britain in 1951. The recent BBC documentary reminded that the Festival marked an important change in British Society when the mood changed from pessimism to optimism, As with the Great Victorian Exhibition of 1851, the Festival was a showcase for technical developments expected over the next 50 years in The Dome of Discovery, it was also a vehicle for change in domestic design and for people having fun with open air dancing on the South Bank Site and a large Fun Fair created in Battersea Park. There were thousands of events around the UK includes Street parties and Fetes. Those old enough to remember recall that everyone was smiling and being friendly and everyone looks back at an important and happy moment in their lives.
The TV programme reminded of the creation of the Lansbury (George) estate and community in the Poplar area of in near London on a site which had been heavily bombed and which provided he latest housing and community buildings on a human scale replaced, because of demand for quick and cheap accommodation by the concrete wildernesses which have only recently been pulled down.
One of the great acts of political vandalism of the Churchill Tory administration on taking power was the decision to destory most of the South Bank site except for the Royal festival Hall, because the buildings were regarded as too socialist in style! The famous Skylon aluminium cigar like tube suspended by cables which were not visible at a distance stood 300 feet tall and dominated the riverside. Skylon was the Great Wheel does today. It was dismantled was the rest of the site by George Cohen and company at great additional costs over a six month period although some of the materials were converted into paper knives and sold.
I thought the Millennium Dome was another good event which fortunately has survived through it conversion into an entertainment, including a major arena and exhibitions and restaurant centre. Despite the spectre of Terrorist attacks, Industrial strife and such like the Olympic Games may herald a new opening away from the economic gloom which is said to govern everything over the next decade.
It is now time to catch up on various TV series, The Borgias, Treme, Spooks, Who do you, know who you are, The Sopranos, Downton Abbey and Queen’s Palaces. Merlin and the Boardwalk Empire are due to return. The British X Factor has reached the Judges Places week while the USA version has got underway. Dr Who ends on Saturday and Sunderland are at Norwich on Sky tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment