High Street Blues

The following post is like any good discussion or debate in that it brings up two points of view and in much the same way as a battery has two electrodes, the positive anode has its negative counterpart, the cathode.

I was journeying through the South East countryside recently on a rather long and ponderous bus ride that took me through places I’d never heard of, and it occurred to me just how miserable our small town and village high streets look for the most part. If they aren’t a few locals milling about short of being ghost-towns where dusty little bric-a-brac shops seem to be permanently closed and tiny Post Offices-cum-newsagents-cum-grocers are open for just a few hours every day either side of lunchtime, they are filled with half-empty charity shops, dreadful kebab parlours and sparsely-furnished coffee shops where the lattes and cappuccinos don’t really taste like coffee at all but rather scorched bland milky wetness. In fact, in many cases the only thing missing from these high streets is the occasional ball of sagebrush blowing across the road whipped up by some lonely breeze. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking charity shops, I’ve picked up one or two bargains from their bookshelves myself over the years but how many do we really need? In some high streets you’ll see three, four, perhaps even five charity shops doing battle, each one purporting to help improve the lives of the sick and aged of our society as well as those unfortunate animals who find themselves without a loving home. But once upon a time there would have been jumble sales in village halls for this kind of aid and the high streets would have been home to good old fashioned sweetshops or ironmongers, greengrocers and butchers.

Nowadays of course, everyone and his uncle drives five miles to their local superstore where every conceivable shopping need is catered for. You want bread, beer, Brussels sprouts? Go to the superstore where you can buy one and get one free. You want to buy a new TV or a cordless drill? Go to the superstore and save 10% on both. You want banking, insurance, a new pair of shoes? Go to the superstore, it’s all there and more often than not at a better price than can be found elsewhere. And isn’t it great that we can all go home with a bargain? Why, we’ve probably even bought things we didn’t really need but hey! they were on special offer so what the heck! I’ve actually saved money! And yet what a double edged sword it is.

It’s understandable that we all want a bargain, we all want to save pennies in these lean times but unfortunately the flip side is, the superstores get all the business and therefore all the power. And so, poor old Somersbottom’s Bakery in the high street has to close down because they can’t afford the rent anymore and dear old Mrs Wigglesbury behind the Post Office counter who’s been the smiley face and chatty friend to all for two generations has closed down because our great leaders in their slimy corridors of power have decided that we don’t need her anymore. Perhaps if we stopped using our cars for every single little trip – to get the paper or a pint of milk – perhaps if we hadn’t all rushed out to save a few quid at the nearby superstore, our rural community shops that had previously supplied us with our weekly needs might still be around. But maybe that’s what our government wants.

Okay, that was the negative. Now for the anode of my thoughts. Micro Pubs! I saw an article on the news recently regarding this fairly new concept which seems set to become a minor explosion around the country and it made me almost ‘whoop’ with joy. I find it heart-warmingly wonderful that certain enterprising individuals have taken it upon themselves to open up these tiny drinking establishments and bring a little life back into these derelict premises that litter our country high streets and hopefully it’ll spark the beginnings of a resurgence in rural community life. Not only does a Micro Pub recycle these business properties that have become casualties of our times but they also utilise the terrific home-grown products of our often struggling Micro Breweries that would otherwise probably struggle to survive. Great British Ale!

How many of us are put off by the frightful noise and garish flashing lights of our pubs today where you can hardly hear yourself speak over the din and the person serving you barely offers more in the way of chitchat than the price you must pay, where the beer is often overpriced, poorly kept and mostly fizzy and foreign? I’ve often heard it said that the only way a pub can make money these days is to serve food and while that’s all well and good and some of them serve very good homemade food indeed, many of them serve nothing more than microwaved muck that they market as “hearty fare”. And anyway, shouldn’t food be what restaurants serve? A pub should be a place to go for a nice pint or two, to chat with friends or strangers who may or may not become friends themselves, not a place filled with every kind of entertainment from bleeping video games to the incessant screening of sporting fixtures. If you want those things go to an arcade or a sports club. Once again, it’s the case of a single concern trying to accommodate all for the sake of profit over good neighbourly service and while it might be construed as convenient, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, it bypasses that crucial connection of trust, kindness and loyalty between purveyor and consumer that we all secretly wish was still present in our retailing experiences.

I for one sincerely hope that the emergence of the Micro Pub will herald the coming of the Micro Greengrocer and the Micro Fishmongers and Ironmongers and the return of many other shops of yesteryear so that all our high streets thrive once again and we don’t have to jump in our cars and drive five bumper-to-bumper miles polluting the air with our overpriced petrol just to buy a new pair of socks. Or maybe that’s what our government wants.

 

 

Why Britain is Not a Democracy

Democracy is viewed by many people as a positive political system. Many also believe that Britain upholds our democracy. But what exactly is democracy? And is Britain really up to the high standards that democracy demands?

Democracy is most commonly seen as a government in which the people have the supreme power. This is usually applied through their elected agents, otherwise known as MPs, under a free electoral system. But this definition is vague and questionable, despite being highly praised with positive connotations. Indeed, it has been speculated that democracy is not bound to any one definition. This was pointed out by George Orwell, who was quoted as saying, “The defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.”

It can even be argued that ‘democracy’ is just used in place of ‘free’ when describing a country’s status; countries which aren’t free are ‘undemocratic’, although ‘undemocratic’ is vague in itself as something which is undemocratic could simply be another political system. The question of whether these ‘undemocratic’ countries have a fair political system never comes into play. After all, how could it possibly be fair when it’s not democratic?

This stems from the idea that democracy is having a vote, not whether your vote makes a difference. In other words, an elected dictatorship. Walter Winchell agreed with this, saying, “too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it”. If holding elections were what constituted a working democracy, then Britain would be just that. But this can be compared to China’s political system in which there are eight parties (other than the CPC) that you can vote for but, essentially, they all stand for the same points.

But if democracy is more about the freedom of the people and whether their vote matters at all in the long-run, then it can be argued that the UK is falling below the democratic standards with almost four in ten voters choosing to abstain as they feel they don’t have a say.

Democracies, in theory at least, should have parties which represent groups of people who stand for different ideas. At the moment, there exists only the three main parties; the Labour party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. If you were to vote for any of the smaller, more obscure parties, it’s highly likely that nothing will come of your vote.

We will forget for a moment what each of the leaders of these three parties say what they stand for and instead look at what they have actually stood for. The Liberal Democrats, during the 2010 elections, promised that they would scrap University fees across Britain. In fact, that was one of their biggest points on their manifesto. But they didn’t do that. They did the opposite and agreed with the Conservative policy of raising tuition fees. Another example would be the Conservative cuts to public spending. This is an expected Conservative move (they have done so on numerous occasions during past recessions, including the Wall Street Crash) but Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor, stated, “We cannot make any commitments now that the next labour government will reverse rises or spending cuts.” Ed Miliband, leader for the Labour Party, agreed, saying the Labour government would continue to make cuts. Elections which lack any competing agenda are pointless.

Leading on from this is one of the biggest moves from the coalition government when they first came into power in 2010. They set up the Your Freedom website in the hopes that people would vote on controversial topics and hear what they wanted directly, rather than through their elected agents. But this proved to be useless as the public decided they wanted a review of the smoking ban and were ignored entirely. The Coalition stated they “had no plans” to review it.

If there is no real difference between the ideologies of the main political parties, no difference as to what party you vote for, can Britain really call itself a democracy?

The Dark Knight Rises — Coming Soon

There are a particular group of movies that evoke a strong sense of anticipation within an audience, and 2012 sees the release of a whole plethora of them in fact. It’s difficult to explain, but this aspect of universal yearning is becoming more apparent in today’s cinema. It’s not hyperbole to label The Dark Knight Rises as perhaps the biggest movie of the decade.

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Grandma Hit With ASBO

When you think of asbos I imagine you think of unruly youths with low slung tracksuit bottoms, all hoodied up, congregating on street corners drinking cheap cider and throwing cigarette ends and obscenities at random passers by, and you wouldn’t be wrong. I bet though you wouldn’t imagine a little old granny, but believe it or not that is exactly what has happened. Widowed Georgina Simms from Gossport, who is nearly deaf, has received an anti-social behaviour order after playing her Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra records too loudly.

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New Green Tax Means 10% Hike

Just lately it’s almost like a string of bad jokes, 20% on pasties, buy your fuel while you can, but have you heard the latest to come out of Westminster? Households face being hit with extra bills for home improvements under “green” plans proposed by the government. Residents wanting to replace boilers, get some new windows put in or build a conservatory or extension could be blocked unless they carry out other work such as loft and wall insulation.

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