There was once a man from Bombay, who caught a slow boat to China one day, He got pinned to the tiller, by a sex-starved gorilla, and China's a bloody long way

Paul Merton - Have I Got News For You

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what’s really always there: unresting death, a whole day nearer now, making all thought impossible but how and where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: yet the dread of dying, and being dead, flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

From Aubade by Philip Larkin (via hush-syrup)

As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly-created universe, and therefore have no belief in ‘tradition’ or a common myth-kitty or casual allusions in poems to other poems or poets, which last I find unpleasantly like the talk of literary understrappers letting you see they know the right people.

Philip Larkin (via writingquotes)

“I’m terrified of the thought of time passing (or whatever is meant by that phrase) whether I ‘do’ anything or not. In a way I may believe, deep down, that doing nothing acts as a brake on ‘time’s - it doesn’t of course. It merely adds the torment of having done nothing, when the time comes when it really doesn’t matter if you’ve done anything or not.”

Philip Larkin, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica [x] (via bmrgould)

"I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It’s very strange how often strong feelings don’t seem to carry any message of action.”

― Philip Larkin

So many things I had thought forgotten Return to my mind with stranger pain: Like letters that arrive addressed to someone Who left the house so many years ago.

Philip Larkin, “Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?” (via larmoyante)

There is an evening coming in Across the fields, one never seen before, That lights no lamps. Silken it seems at a distance, yet When it is drawn up over the knees and breast It brings no comfort Whhere has the tree gone, that locked Earth to the sky? What is under my hands, That I cannot feel? What loads my hands down?

Larkin (1946) in Collected Poems

"But in my sleep to you I fly: I'm always wih you in my sleep! The world is all one's own, But then one wakes, and where am I? All, all alone. Sleep says not, though a monarch bids: So I love to wake ere break of day: For though my sleep be gone, Yet while 'tis dark, one shuts one's lids, And still dreams on.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

If your kids are showing an inclination to support one of the gilded whores of the top division, despite having no connection to them other than a wish to be associated with vicarious success, they need a long and very stern talking to.

Rod Liddle - The Spectator Magazine

POMUS: Groupthink in the Media: The Case of Ryan Giggs

A fairly brief blog here on the subject on a phenomenon that is widely found in the media, but I have chosen this one given they represent two of my convergent interests. 

It is incredible how over the last week I have heard repeated over a range of mediums: newspaper, radio and television, the same opinions and sentiments. It lead me to think - they're being repeated, but is this because they are accurate and of value, or merely a representation of Groupthink?

Opinions in the case of Ryan Giggs are that he is somehow qualified to become manager of Man Utd. Now I have never really considered the player to be that suited as role of manager. In general hard, steely faced centre backs make the best  managers, and they get less suited the further forward in the pitch they play - as defenders get a far better overview of the game. Ryan Giggs was, in his prime, a nippy, knee-jerking, twisting winger so doesn't fulfil that criteria.

It does seem to be the case also, that a connection with the fact many of Alex Ferguson's former players go on to become managers, plays a role here. It's commonly thought that it is Fergie that has transmitted the essential ingredients of management to the players - but I disagree. Fergie was notoriously fastidious in his recruitment - he would've signed players that were intuitive readers of the game and that hapenned to have the important ingredients prior.

Furthermore, the reception to Giggs' temporary appointment brings up the incongruity of his treatment in comparison to other novice managers - the universally ridiculed Sherwood, Garry Monk etc. I have seen nothing in Giggs to suggest those that say he has a divine right to be manager, or should "definitely be manager after next" has any good grounding. Yet you hear them repeated...repeated...repeated.

then she was standing before me, and suddenly the atmosphere underwent a peculiar change - almost as though the two of us had been suddenly thrust on to some other plane of being altogether.

Remains of the Day - K. Ishiguro

Midterms 2014: Republican default win?

*Marked blog from another module

Later this year American citizens will vote who to elect to the entire House of Representatives and one third of the seats in the Senate. The current prospects look bleak for the Democrats for both winning the former and retaining the latter. These votes have high political significance - the midterms in 2010 had effects which some claim still haunt the Obama administration.

From observations on the electoral probabilities one could be forgiven for assuming that the Democrat Party are performing very poorly. This blog will argue against this idea, taking the view that the likely outcome in November is in large part a continuation of the historical trend in the United States of anti-incumbency against the President’s party. Throughout the twentieth Century the overwhelming pattern during midterm elections is losses in Congress for the President’s party, even when the President has been popular enough to win consecutive elections.

The evidence for my view that the outcome of this midterm election will be an extension of the historical trend is the poll that showed that whilst Democrats are more trusted on core issues such as healthcare, immigration and energy, this has not manifested itself in projected voting figures. Furthermore the Republicans have a bad image nationally and are increasingly losing share of votes amongst ethnic minorities, while two thirds of Americans say the party is out of touch with the concerns of citizens. In terms of policy the Republicans are not ahead. On healthcare, despite the early problems and unpopularity of Obamacare the Democrats still have an 8-point lead on their rivals on who Americans trust on the issue. On the perennially pivotal issue of the economy there is parity. So the Republican position, in electoral terms, does not appear to be grounded in any sudden increase in ideological agreement or support for policy announcements.

With regards to what actually explains anti-incumbency I would suggest increased exposure that comes with government is a contributory factor. Obama has attempted to blame the different demographics of the parties, suggesting younger voters (who tend to support the Democrats) disengage between presidential campaigns. This is not only overly simplistic, but not supported by the figures as Republicans have suffered consistent losses too. Given the historical duration of the trend I would comment finally that the prospects of it changing look remote.

Autumn? In autumn. Was that where we were? Where the leaves always dropped and there was always this smell. I imagined it continuing, with no change, for ever, these wet flames of woods burning on and on like the bush of Moses, as natural a part of this new found land as the eternal snows of the poles.

Cider With Rosie, Laurie Lee (via kate--fm)

"Love is also disquiet, the brooding pleasures of doubt, midnights wasted by speculation, the frantic dance around the significance of the last thing she said..."

I Can't Stay Long - Laurie Lee

View from the Nou Camp