It was only meant as a joke.

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Guthlac

Honestly it really was meant as a joke…honest guv!   A few months ago I wrote a bit of a tongue in cheek post about the likelihood of Jeremy Corbyn being elected Prime Minister and listed all the things that I thought needed to take place before he had a chance.   I put the chances of all the improbable events coming together s about 1% so in other words not very likely.  However, since then the Government lost the article 50 court case (Event No. 1) – the appeal is being heard by the Supreme Court next week with a decision being delivered in January.   The feeling is that the chances of the Government winning the appeal is less than 50%.

The fourth improbable event on my list was that some form of grand progressive coalition is formed.   It is still far too early to say this is going to happen but the recent by election at Richmond might just be the first movement in the political tectonic plates.   Now it is very very dangerous to read anything into one by election but other things are starting to move.  The first is that UKIP has elected a leader who is really aiming to replace Labour in Northern England.   Unlike his predecessors he has one really important thing going for him – he is from Liverpool and talks like someone who really means business as far as the north of England is concerned.   The Labour party is really really concerned by all this , or at least they should be but it is difficult to know what the Labour party is thinking at the moment, because they have lost so much ground that any slippage in their standing in the north will mean the final end to any hope of forming a government on their own.   In fact it could be much worse than that as they could become a relic hanging on in metropolitan and other city areas.   This would still give them a significant number of seats but nothing like the numbers they once had – maybe no more than 150 – a further loss of another 80 or so seats.  Perhaps far worse for Labour, and the country, would be that there would be a right wing majority in Parliament for the foreseeable future with a large number of UKIP MPs pressurising the Conservative party to go even further right.

I wrote back in September was that there was a 10% chance of Labour realising the game is up as far as being able to form a government on their own however Richmond demonstrates that when one progressive candidate stands she/he really has a chance of winning as there is no split in the vote on the left.  Labour did put up a candidate but he couldn’t even get all the members of the local Labour Party to vote for him and  lost his deposit.  Prior to the by election some MPs were urging the Labour Leadership to think the unthinkable  after it perhaps we can start to expect more noises along these lines – especially those MPs who are sitting on very shaky northern seats who look at the Lib/Dem vote as a possible life saver – this is even before you try to factor in the effects of the boundary changes.   If this were to happen, still a big if but certainly not as big as it was prior to Richmond, then you might get a united progressive and disunited right.  However, if Labour did do go down this way there is no certainty that the voters would play ball in the way that they want and you might end up with a Tory UKIP coalition – now that would make for interesting times!

There are still too many variables to say what is going to happen but the chances of the start of a reformation of progressive politics in Britain has increased.   The Sleaford by election coming up soon may give some more indicators.  Labour came second at the last election and if their vote was to collapse and move significantly towards the Lib Dems then this may well provide added force to the argument.   Equally we should see just how successful UKIP are at splitting the ring wing vote and should they win overturning a Tory majority of 24k then this would really worry the Labour party and cause absolute mayhem within the Conservative government.   Remember we now live in a post Brexit, Trump world so anything is now possible.   This is even before you have to take into account that by elections do throw up strange decisions.

So there is a strange smell in the air.  As to what is the cause is far too early to tell. Just incase you thought this a nightmare I have two words for you that will make you realise we really aren’t in Kansas anymore.  Brexit. Trump.

Need I say any more?

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Walking through the woods

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Guthlac

copse english-oak winter-trees

Winter is coming

The last few days of Autumn have felt like winter yet the first day of Winter was in comparison quite mild.   One of the joys of living in this part of England is that we can look forward to only a few days of really bad winter weather before returning to normality which doesn’t even involve nightly frosts.   I guess I have now jinxed things and we’ll have to endure weeks of 6 foot snow drifts!   The downside of this of course is that we are all ill prepared when the snow does come and things start to grind to a halt.

Anyway walking through Calke Park today felt really wonderful.   It was cold but every now and then we had shafts of weak winter light to lift the soul just a little.   Less than 21 days to go before the days start to get longer by about 1 minute a day.   Now that is something to really look forward to in my book.

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Naive

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Guthlac

Just another day in the crazy upside down world of Brexit.   Yesterday the German Chancellor had the shocking temerity to actually do something that was in her interest rather than the Brexiteers  and they were shocked.   It seems that when Frau Merkel says something she means it and so will not allow any negotiations about Brexit until Britain has formally activated article 50 which may well take place next year.   You will note the uncertain date of this as the legal cases seem to be coming thick and fast about this so goodness knows when the article 50 notification will take place.  My guess, for what it is worth, is that it will be in the first half of 2017 but that is only a guess and given everything else that has happened I wouldn’t place any money on that.

So what was the latest affront the honour of Brexit?   It seems that the British had tried to get some sort of deal on reciprocal rights of non British EU citizens living in Britain and British citizens living outside of Britain but inside the EU.   This seems a perfectly legitimate and humane thing to do on the surface and should rightly be condemned   if something wasn’t sorted out.   However, when you think about this for just a moment you start to see the pitfalls attached.  A fit young Polish worker in Britain probably won’t make too much use of the health service when compared to an older retired British citizen living in the south of Spain.  Both, because of their respective countries membership of the EU can use the respective health provision where they are currently live.   It is reasonable to assume the cost of health provision for a retired person may well be significantly higher than the young fit worker and so would be a much heavier strain on the Spanish system than the British.   So who has to pay for this once Britain has left the EU?  I am sure that the Spanish may well have something to say about this and no doubt would want a means of charging Britain for the health care provided or remove it all together thus making the pensioner buy health insurance, if available.

So why exactly should the EU negotiate on this before Britain serves notice to quit?   I cannot see any reason at all other than to help the Brexit supporters out of a pickle of their own making.   There are a million other examples that could be brought up to show the complexity of disentangling Britain from the EU which to listen to the Brexiteers just don’t seem to matter.

We are going to leave the EU of that I have no doubt (well most likely anyway – this level of certainty is warranted by what has happened so far. ).   What that looks like I haven’t got the first clue but you can guarantee that it will be messy and will take many years to finally agree on.   At the moment there is a lot of hot air and posturing going on by both sides and it is to be hoped that once the negotiations start to take place things might be a little more civilised and hopefully productive as both sides have far more to lose than gain by being intransigent.  However, just because something is logical doesn’t mean it happens otherwise why would we build two aircraft carriers with no aircraft to fly from them?

One final thought about this whole nonsense.   We should be just getting use to life outside the EU when the next election will be taking place.  I suspect that by then many of the necessary compromises on both side would be  roundly condemned by the many Brexiteers, Boris Johnson to resign over them?   I somehow don’t think that would be the case.   However, it would be a god send to UKIP as they try and portray themselves as the only party of Brexit purity.   Of course by then this might be a death wish who knows?   I certainly don’t and you should truly suspect anyone who says they do.

The only advice I would give anyone is this….hope for the best but plan for the worst!

P.S.

Google’s spell checker doesn’t recognise the word Brexiteer and instead offers the word Profiteer – coincidence?

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Where is my horse?

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Guthlac

richard-3rd

 

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Hunting the Bumps on Farthing Hill

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Guthlac

First off some housekeeping:   This is the second post on the HS2 line through Measham and I have already broken the rule I set myself – a number of these images don’t look like Kodachrome 64 for two reasons:   Firstly they are cropped to a square and secondly they are black and white images.   Such is life.

Yesterday saw me scaling Farthing Hill whilst at the same time enjoying my other favourite pass time – bagging ancient coal pits – a very very select pastime I think you will agree.   Measham has a long history of coal mining stretching back to at least the 14th century.  I personally believe that it can be traced back to the Roman period but that will always be a matter of conjecture unless a coal pit is opened up and Roman finds are found at the bottom – which seems unlikely.   Anyway the path from Leicester Road, Measham upto Farthing Hill goes across one of the best preserved ancient coal mining area anywhere in the country and so I had a great time checking out the earthworks some of which are the best part of 15 metres across.   At the last count there are around 41 coal pits in the area – many more have been destroyed over time by large scale opencast mining that took place in the area.   Nonetheless there is still quite a lot of information that can be gathered from the area.

Farthing Hill itself is never going to set the world alight when it comes to grandeur although it is  the highest point in the area.   It was once the border between Leicestershire and Derbyshire and the old medieval road between Derby and Oxford went over the top.   There was a gallows situated on the top , although this was most likely a gibbet, hence the name Gallows Lane.   Gibbets were situated on parish boundaries near to main thoroughfares as a warning to traveling criminals, although it is unclear as to how success they were a crime prevention measure.   I also believe that Farthing Hill was crossed by a Roman Road which connected the Watling Street to a crossing of the River Trent ironically very close to where the HS2 will cross the river as well.   I think this is what is known as continuity and change.

So once HS2 has finished with the hill it will be no more as there will be a almost 15 metre deep cutting which is going to be the best part of 50 metres wide.   As for the coal pits on the side of the hill most will probably be saved from the digger as they are further away which I guess there is a certain irony in that as the English coal industry did more than any other industry to create the railways.  In fact one of the earliest ever railway lines is only 8 Km to the east at Swannington.   I suspect as the project develops there may well be many other ironic facts to come to light.

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View from Farthing Hill looking northwards along the HS2 route

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Farthing Hill

on-top-of-fathing-hill

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View from Farthing Hill along Gallows Lane – the HS2 line will run along the right hand side

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Farthing Hill from Gallows Lane

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Fields Farm – this will be destroyed by the HS2 cutting

 

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And finally an old coal pit with Farthing Hill in the background

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View from the exercise bike

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Guthlac

view-from-the-exercise-bike

Congratulation to Nico Rosberg…a worthy world champion.   What the next season may bring is a story for another day.  As I was finishing a session on my exercise bike whilst watching the excellent ELO at Hyde Park    I looked across at my desk and thought how that sums up my life at the moment (BTW it has recently been tidied up!)

Mr Blue Sky indeed.

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Doin’ Bugger all ‘n’ Farting ’bout

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Guthlac


turner-door

art-class-week-6-warm-up-02 art-class-week-6-warm-up-01

Well where did that week go?   Is it really a week since I was in London enduring the Turner Prize finalist sandwiched as they were between the incredible Paul Nash exhibition and lunch at the Tate Britain.   After lunch we popped up to the Royal Academy for the symphonic Abstract Expressionist exhibition.  Both the Nash and Abstracts are well worth to see but I am afraid the Turner again left me feeling disappointed.    So much so that I thought the white wash painted onto the exit door was by far the most interesting thing there.  That is not far because I thought that Michael Dean’s entry was head and shoulders above the other finalist but I think the point is well made.   I have seen several Turner Prize short lists now and I am sorry but they usually have the appear of being hit around the face with a wet fish – still what do I know?

As for the other drawings they are from my art class.  I usually arrive early and so spend the time making little drawings as a means of passing the time and preparing myself for the rigours ahead.  That was last Friday and Friday is here again

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HS2 – Goodbye to Farthing Hill

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Guthlac

photo-export_export

As you get older every now and then you become aware that perhaps there are less days ahead of you than are behind you.  Usually such thoughts can be brushed aside without too much concern.   Last week was one of those occasions only this time it is just a little more difficult than usual not to face my own mortality.   This sound very dramatic and at one levels it is, perhaps even self indulgent.  Nonetheless I have embarked on a project that I might never see the end of.   I have decided to document the impact of the proposed construction  of the HS2 line from Birmingham to Leeds as it effects the village where I grew up in – Measham

As I reread this it really does sound over dramatic, after all it is far from certain that the HS2 project will be completed and if it isn’t this is going to be just so much hot air.   However, if it does go ahead then it is planned to be completed by 2033 which means this documentary project won’t be finished until I am starting to enter my latter years.   Again we seem to be living longer and longer so perhaps by 2033 I’ll only be considered to be in my middle age.   Perhaps.   The other alternative is something that few of us want to dwell on.

So the first plan of action is to decide exactly how to document the development?   The plan at the moment is to pick certain points along the proposed line (the circles shown on the map of the route) and visit them from time to time to see how they are changing.  Initially I am thinking I will visit once a month or so but this is very much dependent on other circumstances.

The next question is what type of images am I going to make?   I have decided to try and make the images as close to the type of images I made of the same spots when I first took  up photography in the days that Kodachrome 64 ruled the roost and I would walk the fields and lanes with my brother’s Zenit E.  (This was replaced by a Practica – oh the joys of communist powered cameras using the archetypal capitalist film stock.  I did use Agfa film stock as well but that is another story)  This may be a bit nostalgic but that is how I am going to approach things to start off with at least.   Of course there is a second set of images that are not being displayed publicly at the moment:  the raw images I have captured from which I make the images I use as part of the project.  Over time these images may become more important than the images I make for the project but until then I think the best thing I can do is catalogue them and leave it at that.

farthing-hill

Farthing Hill

 

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Four Lanes End

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Gate, Bosworth Road

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Seat, Canal Towpath

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Red Bank

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Red Bank

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View from Ibstock Cottages

So should the HS2 line be constructed then none of these view will exist anymore:   Farthing Hill and Four Lane’s End will be destroyed by a cutting almost 10 metres deep;  The Gate on Bosworth Road is situated on top of another cutting and probably marks the centre of the of the cutting;  The temporary seat will be near to where the viaduct will start to take the railway line across the River Mease;  The line of that viaduct is roughly the line of the poplar trees in the first Red Bank image;  The second Red Bank image would be directly underneath the viaduct which at this point will probably be the height of the buildings and  finally the view from Ibstock cottages gives an idea of the wider impact of the line as those house will be blighted as they will be in the shadow of the Mease Valley viaduct and the wind turbine in the distance will have to be demolished to make way for another deep cutting.

These images are different from my usual production in one further way, they have a narrative value.  Most of my images usually are random collections of instances I have come across whilst going about my life.  These, however, tell a story and will be part of a permanent record of the destruction and renewal of a village that most people bypass but which was where I spent the first 20 or so years of my life.

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Some say you’ll go to purgatory….

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Guthlac

dead-leaves trees-in-park tv-aerials walking-under-the-trees

Perhaps there is a special place in hell for photographers who play around with reality in their images – well if that is so then it is going to be very full indeed.   A few years ago when I was making an awful lot of wildlife images I was forced to walk a very tight line of what was deemed to be real as defined by the organisers of competitions, exhibition etc.   None of them seemed to accept that all photography is an artifice and so doesn’t recorded reality but rather what the photographer chooses to show as real.   If you don’t believe me then just ask yourself why you choose one image over another when making an image.   Of course with the advent of digital photography and the ubiquity of Photoshop has placed extra burdens on what is and what is not a real record of what happened when the shutter was realised.  Photojournalists have to pass through the seven levels of hell to just to prove their image is genuine and I understand the reasons why – however, all reporting is biased and so are all images: one person’s attack on a hospital is another’s destruction of a terrorist cell, it all depends on your point of view.

So what has this rant at the world got to do with these images?  Well none of them would have passed any subjective test as to what is and what is not ‘real’ and I don’t care about that.  I now make images that appeal to my personal sense of what is and what is not an interesting image.  None of my images are real in any sense and I am quite happy with that which I guess is in keeping with this post truth world we seem to be heading towards.

Everybody is worrying where they’re going when the whole thing is done indeed.

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No one knows for certain…

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Guthlac

clarkson

Disregarding the probable blasphemy of the opening episode of The Grand Tour the reality of it was that it had the feel of someone trying to prove a point.   A discarded lover who tries to get their own back by dating someone who is 10 times better than their previous lover – only of course to discover that such measures are pointless when the only place you really want to be is snuggled in the arms of the lover who has cast you aside.

Of course now they have lots and lots of money, although that wasn’t the problem last time.  What Clarkson, May and Hammond don’t have is any love.  Instead they have created something that is soulless.  Gone is the understanding between them and their audience, indeed there was one part of the first episode where they tried to educate their American audience but to no real avail.   Gone are the reference to a ‘  Evo at Donny..’ or ‘..Onix in Surrey…’   Gone is the Stig to be replaced by something that isn’t even close to a caricature and possibly sums up the whole problem with the Grand Tour.   They just want to be back on Top Gear so badly that it hurts so very much.   There is nothing new and so the same old formats are being recreated, this time by lawyers so that they can’t be sued by their previous employer.

Will I watch again?  Of course I will in the vain hope that the show might pick up, the sparkle might be found once more.  But I watch more in hope rather than expectation.   If the Sun is be believed, fill in your own prejudice here, then the viewing figures have been fantastic and perhaps to a worldwide audience  the very British, no Englishness of their time at Top Gear has been lost.   This, of course, is of no concern to Amazon so long as the take up of Prime increases.  However, I suspect that for all their bon hommie Clarkson, May and Hammond would rather be in a drafty aircraft hangar outside Gilford rather than travelling the world in a tent which looks like it came from the TV series MASH, no matter how much richer they are now.

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