Brexit Britain No. 11

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Guthlac

Yesterday was a funny old day.  On the one hand we had the performance artist known as the Prime Minister doing another gig in Europe where she repeated her strong and stable act.   Only this time the penny dropped to the other European Union political leaders that she can’t be relied on to deliver anything so they went into panic mode.  Apparently the one good thing about the European Council meeting was the Luxembourg   Prime Minister’s green velvet jacket.  Just to top things off the Prime Minister then retracted almost every word of her address to the nation from the night before.  Of course this being Theresa May sorry is the hardest word so she didn’t say that.

Away from the bright lights of Brussels I spent an enjoyable day in Derby with the ever knowledgeable David Manley as we visited quite a number of the venues that make up the Format Photography   Festival.   (If you want to a fuller review of the show I’m sure David will be putting something together so why not pop over to his blog to see.)

https://vimeo.com/310313619

Even here Brexit influenced a number of the exhibitions but as we walked around the city centre I started to notice that there was a much more telling Brexit motif – most of the visitors were either 6th form or foundation course students who never got the chance to vote on Brexit and yet are the ones whose lives would be most affected by whatever is the final outcome of this whole sorry nonsense.

With this in mind perhaps the most powerful exhibition was 16 at Market Hall.   Here we see a series of photographs of 16 year olds from around the country and they get to say what their hopes and fears are for the future.   Unlike some people I have great faith in the next generation if for no other reasons they can’t be as bat shit crazy as us so you would hope that well there is hope.  After all, as Whitney Houston sang, “…the children are our future…”.

David Runciman, the leading academic from the University of Cambridge believes that we, the older generation, are screwing over the subsequent generation because: a) we control most of the wealth & b) we never had that many children so we out number the young when it comes to voting at elections thus the policies are skewed towards meeting our needs rather than theirs.  I will leave others to debate  the rights and wrongs of that but as we make another mess of the whole Brexit process you have to think he has a point.

So if you have a day free then take a trip to the Format Festival at Derby it is well worth the time and effort.  So are the youngsters of today because remember we were once them – just as feckless and unconcerned about the future i.e when you are in your 20’s!

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Wasn’t Me…

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Guthlac

 

Heard the words that I told her (It wasn’t me)
Heard the screams get louder (It wasn’t me)

Shaggy

Seems Nurse Ratched isn’t happy and it is all the fault of the inmates.  Still it isn’t her fault.

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Brexit Britain No. 10

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Guthlac

 

“…Everyone wants some magical solution for their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic…”

Mad Hatter – Alice in Wonderland

As everyday passess the whole Brexit debate gets more and more absurd.  I believe this to be a statement that everyone can agree on whether they want Brexit or not.  I haven’t got the first clue how to get around all the conundrums associated with Brexit and really if I did nobody would listen to me so all I can report on is what Britain is like as this political shitstorm dribbles down over us all.

Yesterday I was at the NEC for the annual Photography Show (now with added video – my addition.)   As usual I spent more time looking at the people attending the show than the exhibitor’s wares.  Certainly on weekdays we photographers seem to be a pretty similar bunch: white males who appear to have seen more summers than we would have liked.  Most of the women appear to have attended as the plus one rather than have any great enthusiasm (I’m sure this is a great misunderstanding on my part but that was the impression I got).

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the show was away from the large corporate stands of the camera manufacturers  and in the myriad small stalls who had any number of things and service to plug that were in someway photography related even if that was at the most tangential.  But of course the best thing about the whole show was that for a few hours we could all get away from Brexit and talk F stop and dynamic range.

As I walked around the show I seemed to be the only photographer who was trying to document what was going on before him.  This was a shame  as I have to say there was a treasure trove of photographic opportunities.

 

But perhaps the image I like the most from the day was this one from the Hahnemuhle stand.  Here we find two men in deep conversation about something which appears to have shocked the large lima behind them.  However, to the side Brian Blessed seems to find the whole thing totally amusing.

Isn’t life absurd? This is the only way I can explain Brexit.  Meaningful vote 3 anyone?

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Dunderheads….

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Guthlac

Another week starts and given the way things are developing it is unclear where we will be by Friday.  Oh Brexit the gift that just keeps on giving.

 

‘One of my dunderheads,’ Connie Sachs explained to Smiley

Not sure which of the Oxford educated members of the Cabinet this would apply to?

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Images à la sauvette…

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Guthlac

 

I’m working on a new book about my Street Photography.   It is very much in the development stage at the moment and may never see the light of day.   Part of the process is to delve deep into my photographic archive to see what I might find buried there.  Whilst doing this I came across this image I captured probably in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s.  At first I thought it was just another photograph then I took a closer look and I noticed that he is looking at page 3 of The Sun which, if you weren’t aware, was famous/infamous for topless nude women.  Now whether this is what Cartier-Bresson had in mind when he published his book Images à la sauvette it certainly was an image taken on the fly (or sly depending on which translation you want to believe).  Whether it was a Decisive Moment I will let you decide.

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Brexit Britain No. 09

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Guthlac

It is very easy in these days of total confusion about WTF is happening in Westminster to forget that life goes on.  Perhaps the most surprising thing so far is just how little the nonsense is affecting life outside the bubble.  Should we crash out with no deal then that will undoubtedly change (you can choose whether that will be for the better worse.  regular readers of this blog will know my views.)   With just two weeks, yes only two weeks, to go before we leave the European Union things still feel very very normal.

Self denial or common sense?  Only time will tell.

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Brexit Britain No. 08

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Guthlac

What more can be said?

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Brexit Britain No. 07

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Guthlac

What can be said that hasn’t already been said?   We are now stuck in the netherworld of WTF is going on?   The political class of all shades have completely mishandled Brexit from top to bottom.   We are in the situation whereby playing party games is much much more fun than actually trying to put the country’s needs first.   Well shame on all your houses.

I really didn’t think it would come to this but I think the only way out is another referendum.  Before we get deafened by the Brexiteers crying foul, something they love to do all the time without coming up with one workable solution for little things like the Republic of Ireland/UK border question,  I cannot see the way forward.    Perhaps the only good thing about this whole nonsense is that as I travel the country there doesn’t appear to be the slightest sign of people not going about their normal business.   Whether this is a good sign or bad sign I’ll let you decide.

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Brexit Britain No. 06

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Guthlac

I like most of my fellow citizens have given up trying to work out what stupid games are being played in the Palace of Westminster.  Today we are supposed to have a meaningful vote.  Why this is more meaningful than the last one is anyone’s guess?   Last night we had the Prime MInister rushing to Strasbourg to…well I’m not sure what was achieved.

So if this meaningful vote fails then tomorrow we are going to have another meaningful vote on whether the House of Commons is willing to allow Great Britain leave the European Union without a withdrawal agreement.  Failing that there is a third vote scheduled for the day after tomorrow to see if the House of Commons wants to ask for an extension.   I haven’t the first clue if this vote will be taken if the House of Commons votes to leave without a deal – which by the way is the current legal position.

So just over 2 weeks to go and we still don’t have the first clue what is happening.  Neither does the EU which seems to be quite sanguine about everything.  If I was in their position I wouldn’t be because anything could happen and in truth the EU fears this whole process as much as the British Government does.   But seeing as truth seems to have been the one thing absent from the whole Brexit process I vote for Unicorns.   No wait this is…a meaningful vote?

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Brexit Britain No. 05

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Guthlac

Yesterday I visited the small Northamptonshire village of Lilbourne.   As I was walking around the fields to the east of Lilbourne I was struck by how it could be seen as an example of  so many of the issues tied up with the EU referendum and the subsequent article 50 negotiations.   The Daventry constituency, of which Lilbourne is a member, voted to leave the EU by almost 60%  and yet a large number of jobs in the area are tied up with supporting the biggest transportation and distribution infrastructure in the country through which much of the trade with  the European Union passes.

Lilbourne  has two major medieval transportation routes passing through the parish.   The Watling Street runs to the south west and has been a major route since the Romans.  What is less known is that Lilbourne formed part of an equally important medieval route between Oxford and the north of England. (Not one but two Motte and Bailey castles controlled the crossing of the River Avon at Lilbourne.)   Today the village is isolated by the passing M1 and is just south of the massive Junction 19 where the M1 and M6 meet.  This in turn forms one of the corners of the massive distribution system based around the triangle of the junctions of M1/M6, M6/M42 and M1/A42.   It is claimed that a lorry can deliver anything within 4 hours to around 90% of the population of Britain from this triangle.

The third issue is one of the border.  The Watling Street forms the border between Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.  Lilbourne, with its two Motte and Bailey castles,  sits above on the southern bank of the River Avon (The same river than 20+ miles to the south west runs through Stratford upon Avon.)  This forms the boundary between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire which is little more than sign on the side of the M1 for most people which is similar to junction 20 of the N1/A1 on the island of Ireland.  Of course should things go wrong in parliament/Brussels over the next three weeks then this will no long be a pub quiz question in Ireland but rather the border between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union – so somewhere on this junction there will need to be two customs posts – one for the traffic coming off of the N1 and one for traffic using the B113 and the L7092 (They are the same road but the border crosses the road.)

One final thing is that to the east of the village is a huge array of wind turbines which of course are part of Britain’s effort to reduce its carbon footprint and meet the European Union requirements.  What will happen to those after March 29th?

Such is Life.

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