Pre Budget statement

I haven't read all of it though I was half listening to it while Alistair Darling was speaking. I just looked at a short piece on the Telegraph's website which says capping public sector pay rises at 1% has angered the unions - and the TUC who are for once sticking up for low paid public sector workers. I should think I can count on the fingers of one hand the times in the last 30 years when the TUC has actually publicly supported the public sector. That is pretty remarkable. Roll on the election.

Sweet Sorrow

David Roberts' Sweet Sorrow is the latest in his Verity Browne and Edward Corinth mysteries. I think it is probably one of the best as well. I wasn't impressed with Something Wicked; No More Dying - the last one - was good, but this is even better. Set in 1939 just before the outbreak of war, it includes cameo appearances by Leonard and Virginia Woolf and Dylan Thomas. Verity is waiting to be sent abroad as foreign correspondent for her paper and Edward is waiting to be told what the Foreign Office and MI5 want him to do - which may or may not include escorting the Duke of Windsor to a place of safety.

In the midst of all this Verity and Edward have just got married and bought a house in a small village in Sussex only to find that violent death has followed them. Byron Gates a philandering poet is murdered with a sword. Edward spends half the book saying he's not going to investigate the murder while actually following various leads. The dialogue is excellent and it seems as though the author has really got to know his main characters over the course of the series. The early niggles of married life where each person misunderstands the other and over reacts to them is brilliantly done. The background is really good as well - politics, the BBC and the 1930s literary scene. Good reading

Storm in a teacup

I'm half listening to a recording of the infamous Question Time with Nick Griffin. What a load of rubbish. Whatever you think of the BNP and its policies they are a legal political party and he should at some point have appeared on such a programme. The problem as far as I can see is that no one can set aside their emotions and debate the issues in any sort of analytical fashion. We need free speech - even if we don't agree with what is said.

I think the BNP have probably crystallised some of the things that many people were thinking but maybe they've not done it in the right way. I know from my own reactions to some of the views put forward by the BNP that there is a lot more going on under the surface of the whole argument. Some rather unpleasant archetypes are being given a lot of exercise in the public sphere at the moment.

I do think it's very interesting that the main political parties are angry about the whole thing. Why? Don't they like free speech? Or is it all right provided people are saying things which confirm their own beliefs?

Trouble in the village

There is a very good free newsletter distributed in our village which contains adverts for local businesses, letters to the editor, information notices and the minutes of the Parish Council meetings. The editor tends to get a bee in his bonnet about things and has used this month's editorial to try and advance his own views as the views of the village.

There is a site in the middle of the village opposite the church and not coincidentally within sight of this guy's house, which has been the subject of controversy for some years. Part if it - an apparently Georgian building formerly used by a printing firm - has recently been demolished. Now Georgian and demolished don't go together in the same sentence. But it wasn't listed and they got permission to demolish it. If you'd seen it you'd have just thought it was just an ordinary modern building and it didn't look particularly representative of the period.

The editor of our newsletter is vehemently opposing - in bold type and capital letters - any development on this site. Some of us would prefer to see the site developed as it is an eyesore as it is. One planning application for houses has already been rejected because they were too densely packed so I'm sure the planners will insist anything built will fit in with existing buildings. There is a house a few yards from this site which is nearing completion. Because of the materials used once the builders mess is removed it will look as though it was built years ago - it fits in with surrounding buildings. I'm sure the same thing can be achieved with this other larger site.

Some people in this village are very nimby-ish. Yet if there are more houses built it helps to ensure the continued presence of the post office and general store not to speak of the village school. Obviously no one wants the village to get too big but as every planning application for even minor works takes forever to be approved I don't think there's any danger of that. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Freedom of Speech

I hold no particular liking for any political party but I am in favour of freedom of speech. The way many people are reacting to the BNP's success in the European elections puzzles me. If we support freedom of speech which as a country we always say we do, how can so many people openly criticise this one particular party in such emotional terms?

Freedom of speech must inevitably mean people are going to say things you don't like and don't agree with. But if you start pelting people with eggs or anything else for that matter you have lost the argument before it even started. That is not peaceful protest it is an attempt at intimidation. It is an attempt to stop duly elected politicians having their say. We live in a democracy and have a political system which allows everyone to vote for the people whose policies they wish to support. If you then get the far right or the far left elected by a fair and open process then those are the people a majority in a particular area wish to support. Perhaps that should be a majority of those who voted. If you didn't vote you only have yourself to blame for not exercising your democratic right.

Having said all that I am not sure how anyone with any knowledge of history and the evolution of man can state there are some people in the world who are less equal than others. We are apparently descended from that same small group of people whatever we look like and wherever we live now. That to me means we're all of equal value. The problem lies I think in so many people equating any far right party with the Nazis and the fascists. This is inevitably going to produce a visceral reaction in anyone - me included! This sort of reaction is very difficult to reason with and very difficult to overcome. But it is the protestors who worry me more because they are showing they lack the ability for reasoned argument.

But as ever I'm with Voltaire - I may disagree with everything you say but I would defend to the death your right to say it.

Politics

I'm not normally too interested in politics unless it has an impact on me personally but I'm disturbed by what our trade union is doing at the moment. All the editorial in the union magazine is aimed - overtly rather than covertly - at persuading us not to vote BNP. I know unions are generally by definition anti employer and therefore tend towards the left of the political spectrum, but this to me is interfering with my democratic right to vote how I choose and in my view they are misusing their power and probably not speaking for their membership. In any case what about freedom of speech?

If you're going to say don't vote right wing then there are other right wing parties. Can't help feeling they'd do better to try and persuade people not to vote for either extreme. From some of the stuff I've read you'd think any right wing party should be banned and really that's what they're calling for. Would they be doing the same if the Communist party (does it still exist?) were gaining prominence? Somehow I don't think so.

I always make a point of voting because people chained themselves to railings and went on hunger strike to get women the vote. I feel the least I can do is use it even if not always wisely.

Management Speak

Anyone who is in paid employment or who has any interest in news stories will be aware of the strange expressions which become common currency - especially amongst managers. The latest one seems to be 'across the piece' - meaning, I think, across the whole organisation, territory etc. We had thought it was peculiar to our manager and we'd all got to the stage where we cringe when he uses it. Then a couple of days ago I heard a politician being interviewed on television use it - I think it was Jaquie Smith. So obviously this is the phrase du jour. We will have to add it to our 'bullshit bingo'.

In case this hasn't reached your neck of the woods this consists of a piece of paper divided up like a bingo grid with a popular phrase in each square which you can take into boring meetings. You then listen for all the usual management speak and cross off each expression as it's used. Our version is a bit out of date now as it has such things on it as: It's not rocket science; we'll run this up the flag pole and see who salutes it; quick wins; low hanging fruit etc etc. Some of the expressions I like - and probably annoy other people with them, but most of them become so irritating it's difficult to sit through a meeting without becoming totally wound up.

My least favourites are: heads up (making people aware of something in advance); 'Happy to discuss' - in an e-mail when you've just told someone to do something they don't want to do and of course 'across the piece'.

While I'm moaning - I dislike anyone who tells me I'm being negative when I'm simply not agreeing with management. What I'm saying may not be politically correct or in accordance with the party line but it is NOT automatically negative because of that - it might well be very constructive, just not what the powers that be want to hear.

Is that the end of the debate?

Well probably not - but at least it's over for a while. The status quo on abortion has been maintained and we shall all have to wait and see what happens next time the issue comes to the surface.

We met our new manager for the first time today, which is a hurdle over with. He seems OK and has said he prefers to leave people to get on with things rather than stand over them. A style of management we're used to. My other half -forgetting the organisation I work for does not operate like most places he's worked for - keeps going on about him being a hatchet man to get us all the sack. I do so love pessimists!! He keeps reminding me to be very careful not to do anything wrong in case they use it as an excuse to sack me. I'm always trying to remember to say as little as possible about work at home, but my self censorship does not always operate how I would want it to so I should think I get the lecture virtually every day.

But I must not rant - he's only thinking of me. Why is it that the phrase 'I'm only telling you for your own good.' so ******* annoying?

Current parliamentary debate

It never ceases to amaze me how much vitriol the debate on abortion produces - usually from men who will never (one particular American aside) be in a position to be pregnant. I always used to be completely pro-choice. In the last few years I've become rather more anti choice. Of course the current Bill is not about the Abortion Act as it just contains one clause about reducing the time limit. It's a shame that certain sections of the population consider it to be fundamentally altering the right to abortion, which it isn't.

I have never understood why women cannot avoid getting pregnant. To me if you have sex without taking the appropriate precautions - if you do not want children - then you are showing a certain disrespect for yourself and your body. If you trust your partner to take the precautions then fair enough. How much you trust your partner is another issue entirely. I'm not criticising anyone who has had an abortion for whatever reason as it must be a heart breaking decision to have to make. It is also one I never wanted to have to make, so I was sterilised at the age of 31.

Considering the options for contraception in this country - all of them available on the NHS - I don't think there is really any excuse for anyone to become pregnant these days if they do not want to. Abortion should always be a last resort. I would like to see the limit reduced to 12 weeks as it is in much of Europe. Though medical grounds could override the limit. I would also like to see abortion on demand up to 12 weeks without two doctors having to agree. I may not agree with it but I do see that in the modern world it would be very difficult to return to a situation where it is illegal and I wouldn't want to see a return to lethal back street abortions.

Let's hope we never get to a position in the UK where anyone associated with abortions becomes the target for the fanatical pro-life campaigners. As they're so much pro-life I fail to see how they can justify killing someone else just because they don't agree with what they're doing.