The Daily Novel

Woke up this morning realising that I have not written a blog since a week yesterday. Partly due to the fact that the grandchildren have been visiting, and as my headline indicates I have been spending some time talking to them. As well as knocking down an ugly veranda at my house which none of the family liked.

But I have also been making a serious effort to learn more about computing and particularly the program I use to deliver this blog, WordPress. Amongst other things I have been reading the works of Lorelle vanFossen, who seems to be the Madonna of the WordPress world. She tells me in her latest
blog

that ‘A clear purpose will make or break your blog’. She has convinced me that I am doing everything wrong and that I should order her book from Amazon without delay. Here is this blogger who has been writing recently about anorexia, about which he knows little; the Lyme Regis landslip with pics; why Gordon Brown should be replaced by a leader in waiting; what Cherie Blair revealed in her book; the Obama/Clinton contest; and, some rather technical stuff about computer problems, WordPress and its attempt to mount the first

UK WordCamp
in Birmingham.

No clear purpose in that lot.
So I have decided to use this headline as the sub-head of The Daily Novel blog until I feel less depressed.

In the pursuit of research for a blog I will write in a few days, I spent several hours tonight reading the auto-biography of a woman who has suffered from anorexia. I went on reading, not because I have a consuming interest in the subject, but because of her compelling honesty. And because she was telling me about a world I could not easily inhabit. Foreign territory.

Because I am, thanks to my genes, a rather thin person. So I will never become fat, however much I patronise the fish and chip shops of my youth, or the burger bars of the present.

But in reading what she had to say, I was jolted into an awareness of how much her problems were the result of politics. Nothng to do with her genetics.

But quite simply to do with the dominant culture, which suggests that women will not get a man if they are ‘fat’. This myth pervades our culture, including the only serious left-wing publication in Britain - the Guardian/Observer, whose models on the style pages are not at all anorexic. But they are never, repeat never, fat.

Anorexics, who are nearly all women, have problems, because they can only be ‘not fat’ if they deny their own being. They want to eat and enjoy all the good things in life, which makes American consumer capitalism so popular.

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American consumer capitalism is male-dominated. And males, as the Greeks told us, are nervous af big women who swallow them.

It is the male fear of the big female, which dominates.

So the current fashion is for females so thin that they do not have any physical characteristics, which are threatening to the male.

They do not have breasts the size of those of Marilynn Monroe. And they have hips so slim that they would crack upon any vigorous interchange.

The rain that blighted much of Britain’s Bank Holiday left Lyme Bay alone during daylight hours. The sun broke through the cloud to lighten the riverside walk at Dartmouth yesterday afternoon. The beach at Charmouth has been crowded all day, and there were still a few enjoying the late evening sunshine when I took the picture below just now. Those who stayed home after listening to the weather forecast missed out.

I wrote the headline before I did my research for the article. But since I am a reasonably honest and well trained journalist, I am letting the readers into the secret of what is going on in my mind, as I write the article. So I start at the end.

The age is which we are living is the Age of Babel. The OED is still in the shed, while we get our bookshelvelves made. But I have at hand the Reader’s Digest Dictionery, which is one of the better products of American consumer capitalism.

It tells me that Babel was a city punished by God, (a bloke who both Tony Blair, his arch enemy, Gordon Brown, George W Bush, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say they believe in). God, who in those days went under the name of Jehovah, got very angry when mere human beings tried to buiild a tower to reach the heavens. So Jehovah punished them for their arrogance. He punished his children by waving his magic wand and making it impossible for the builders of Tower to undertand each other’s language.

Game, set, point to God.

But the reality of the world in which we now live in 2008 is that the majority cannot understand a word of what computer people are saying; be they techies, or nerds or distingished computer scientists.

But what the majority do not know, is the the huge and growing numbers who know the language of computing, are not telling them the whole truth, because they have to pay their mortgages, etc.

The reality is that they have been so busy building their Towers to the heavens (or towards lots ol lolly on earth) that they cannot communicate with their fellow computer wizards, who have developed other languages.

So the ’secret’ which computer wizards rarely tell the world, is that they are as almost as helpless, in speaking the language of their rival’s computing, as those who know nothing of computing at all.
So a computer man who speaks Windows can’t communicate with a chap who speaks AppleMac. As he can’t speak Chines or even French.

In the last few weeks I have had two quite different, but very serious problems. In seeking to solve them I dashed off a series of emails to people I knew, who, surprise, surprise were mostly men.

Of the very few who replied, none of them addressed the questions I was asking.

In both instances I managed to get The Daily Novel back on the newstands. But with the help of two women, neither of whom I knew, and whose expertise is quite different in terms of computer languages. But both of them were not consumed by male arrogance. They actuarlly read what I wrote and made helpful suggestions.

They have a difficult time themselves, because the world of computing is male dominated. And the men who rule it, are concerned to rise to the top of their particular villages of computing.

Such as Microsoft, AppleMac, WordPress, Google, Adobe Fhotoshop, MySpace, etc, etc.

This means nothing to my non-computer literate readers. But it is dominating their world.

The non-computer literate are told that if they have problems, they should call in a computer expert.

But the reality is that there now many highly developed computer languages.

So if students are going to learn the language of computing, they need to spend as much effort learnig each one of them as they needed to learn to speak just one foreign language.

You don’t learn Chinese, in ten easy lessons. And, you don’t learn WordPress in ten easy lessons. Or Miccrosot Word.

To conclude this post, I come back to Marshall McCluhan. Follow this link in Wikipeda, because this man who was being slaughtered by most of the distingiuished academics in the field, when I arrived at City Uninersity, London in 1979, had something important to say.

Those who criticised him, were mostly pygmies. And he died in 1980, long before the Global Village of the internet became a reality.

But he was right. And his many cricics were wrong.

The global village has arrived. But not the global village of his dreams.

It looks more like the Tower of Babel,.

But hen he was an over-optimistic American. Newertheless, today’s students should read his books. He was raising the important issues lond before most. And his world has now arrived, over twenty years late, and not quite as he envisaged it.

But McLuhan concentrated on matters computing.

Perhaps the problem is in another sphere. If the Bible had been written by a woman, perhaps she would not have focussed on ‘the forbidden fruit’. Perhaps she would have been more concerned that Adam listen to what she had to say.

Hillary Clinton is not going to win the US Presidential race. Not because she is a woman. But because she is a woman who has made her way in life by showing that she can be as macho as the men.

Women of the world unite.

You have nothing to lose buy your present positions on the doormats of history, which you are desparately trying to keep clean, after the men have walked in witth their muddied boots.

You have minds of your own. But only a few of the males of the species are listening to what you have to say.

To the dismay of the left of centre media, Boris Johnson, is now the Mayor of London. His reputation is as a buffoon, and since he learnt his buffonery on the playing fields of Eton, many of his jokes involve making fun of the lower orders. Many of these gaffes have been repeated in newspaper articles over the last few days; you can find the full list in Wikipedia. But, as Euan Ferguson pointed out in an article in The Observer just after Johnson announced he wanted to stand to be mayor of London, beneath the buffonery and easy charm, there is a tough and ruthless inner man.

These days, however well-connected they are, people don’t get into Balliol College, Oxford, unless they are also pretty clever.

Johnson can be very funny, as anyone who has seen him on the popular television programme, Have I got news for you, will testify. But two of Johnson’s most serious gaffes, the blanket attacks on the people of Liverpool in 2004 and a similar attack in

They came from the journalism at which he leant to excel, the journalism of The Spectator weekly magazine.

The Spectator is one of Britain’s oldest weekly magazines, and since it was founded in 1828 has excelled in fine writing, witty commentary, and top quality criticism. For most of it’s history it’s political position has been slightly right of centre, though it has always (and still does today) employed columnists with a wide range of political convictions. But in 1966, when Nigel Lawson became editor, its political position moved to the far right. It was one of the first protagonists of Thatcherism. Ever since then it has been a breeding ground for ideas and people of the New Right.

Lawson went on in 1979 to be the first Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet. He is the same Nigel Lawson, who has been in the news of the last week or two, because his new book puts forward the thesis that scientists who have been warning us of the threat of global warming have taken leave of their scientific senses; ‘Global warming is a new religion’, Lawson argues.

Johnson shares many of Lawson’s political views. And he delivers them quite often in a style of robust attack on the consensus and the politically correct, ridiculing people who hold opposing views. Additionally, while he was editor of The Spectator, Johnson literally got into bed with one his staff, Petronella Wyatt, the daughter of Lord Wyatt, one of Thatcher’s most fervant supporters.

All of this, which is absoutely true, is bad news for Londoners. But, in fact, Johnson is a complex and contradictory character. Despite his fling with Wyatt girl, his wife forgave him, and campained seemingly happily on his behalf in the mayoral campaign. Marina Wheeler is not a wifey in the old Conservative style. She is a successful lawyer. And she is the daughter of Sir Charles Wheeler, who is the wisest of all British journalists still alive when it comes to US politics. And his own political position, mostly concealed beneath a BBC-style determination to impartial reporting, I guess to be distinctly liberal.

And also, Johnson has been a close friend since Oxford days, of fellow Old Etonian, David Cameron, the new leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron took a risk in backing the maverick Johnson as Conservative candidate for London mayor. He has taken an even bigger risk as leader by bringing the Conservative Party away from Thatcherism and towards the centre. The Conservsative victory inn the local government elections on May Day was so overwhelming that Labour cannot win the next election.

But Cameran can lose it, if he and his party make some disastrous mistakes. And the one person who can lose it for him is his old chum, Boris. Because he has the most high profile Conservative job in the country. So the first test on Cameron Conservatisim in power wilrl be the Johnson governance of London.

So the well-being of Londoners will depend on whether Johnson in the prisoner of his Thatcherite friends, and continues to take his rhetoric and policies from them, or whether he listens to his friends among the Cameronians, and to his wife and father-in-law.

And at this time, we should remember that Ken Livingstone, when he took over as mayor, by many as far left, and was, then disliked intensely by many in new Labour. And in power he has proved statesmanlike, working on behalf of all Londoners, rather than imposing policial doctrine. And, as I am sure the shrewd Johnson has noticed, he did much better than the Labour candidates in the local elections, despite the persistent vicious daily attacks on him, by the London Evening Standard.

So I am not entirely pessimistic. He paid fullsome tribute to Livingston’s achievments as Mayor of London, which was not just politeness. So I don’t think he will want to overturn successful Livingstone policies, like the congestion charge, which done so much wonders for improving London’s traffic flow, has enabled the buses to get around much more quickly, and has reduced London’s contribution to global warming. And I don’t think there is much risk that he will embrace Lawson’s views on global warming, because Cameron clearly does listen to scientists.

But I do hope that he will fulfill immediately one of his election pledges, to get rid of Britain’s bendy buses, which are twice as long as the double deckers. They are a hazard for London’s growing number of cyclists, although as Livingstone pointed out, no cyclist has been killed by a bendy bus. But it is obvious to anyone who has goes around London on two wheels, as I do, that it is only a matter of time, before a fatality happens.

It is one of the few things that Johnson can do quickly, by twistings the arms of Transport for London, rather than by inventing a new structure. The problem is not as large because the bendy buses are a minority. The majority of the buses are the new double deckers. Johnson in his campaign talked about bringing back the old Routemasters, one of the most popular buses in London’s recent history. To build a new fleet of them would take years. And is quite un-necessary. The new double deckers are much, much better for the many mothers, with pushchairs and young children and for those in wheelchairs.

He should however stick with his pledge to bring back the bus conductors, even though that option is derided by the Thatcherite right, but it would require a subsidy. But it would help to reduce the occasional violence on London buses, from the heavy drinking minority. And it would fit in with Cameron’s attempt to create a new Conservatism with a human face.

John McCain trounced his rivals in the Florida primary yesterday. He took 35 per cent of Republican votes against only 31 per cent by ex-Governor Romney. His victory is the more impressive because voters cited the economy as uppermost in their minds. No surprise because George Bush focussed on it in his State of the Union speech to Congress this week. And Florida, unlike most of the other states which have reported so far, only allows Republicans to vote in its primary. Romney has strong support amongst the party faithful. McCain’s gains have hithertoo been fuelled by the independents.

He enters super Tuesday as the clear frontrunner. Rudy Giuliani, who last summer was the Republican favourite, and who had concentrated all his efforts on winning Florida, where many New Yorkers go to live when they leave the treadmill, only managed to win 15 per cent of the poll. According to the Washington Post he is expected to throw his support behind McCain now. Giuliana had a bruising time in the sunshine state. His main card is his reputation for rallying New York after the suicide planes flew into the twin towers on 9/11. But yesterday the families of three of the firemen who died turned up on the campaign trail and attacked the ex-New York mayor for failiing to protect the fire brigade. They portrayed him as a villain not a hero.

Mick Huckabee, who grabbed the headlines with his surprise win in Iowa only managed to get 13 per cent of the votes. He is fighting on but it is very doubtful if he will survive super Tuesday. 

For the present it looks as if Republican support is solidifying around McCain. But what actually happens will also depend on who is the Demcocratic candidate. Because the Florida party brought the date of the Florida primary forward, it had been declared illegal by the national committee. The votes do not count and the candidates did not campaign there. Hillary Clinton, however, went there yesterday to collect some cheers, as she won by the forecast big margin.

Since Florida has an elderly population, it is not surprising that she did well. But it was the first primary after the Obama camp won its much publicised support from Edward Kennedy. And Clinton got half the vote, actually winning more votes than McCain.

 The result is a timely reminder that it is much too soon to write off the Clintons. It is not necessarily true that Obama is the only Demcocratic candidate who can beat McCain. In this race everyone is guessing, including the party strategists and the journalists who are the most experienced in covering presidential campaigns. In the event the choice of both parties will be affected by which candidate is the frontrunner for the other side. And it certainly true that if Obama trouces Clinton next Tuesday, the Republicans will start to consider whether it can pitch a 71-year-old against a young man in his forties.

I intend to try to resist the temptation to blog on this subject again until the last state declares next Tuesday, which will be long after I am in bed. But how California votes is a crucial part of the jigsow. Clinton has a big lead there. But Obama just might pull off a win if he can inspire the state’s youth as successfully as he did in South Carolina.

To University College London for a hustings to be addressed by all three candidates standing the job of the first General Secretary of the new University and College Union, formed last year by the merger of the AUT, which represented most academic staff in the pre-1992 universities, and NATFHE, which represents most academic staff in the former polytechnics and further education colleges.

Before I report on the main speakers, I should tell you about a passionate questioner from the floor, who got his chance to speak towards the end of the question and answer session. He urged the union activists filling the lecture theatre to forget about the ‘detail of union matters’ and to concentrate on the main issue, which how to stop the destruction of the British university system. The union should concentrate on forging alliances to fight this battle with the many distinguished and influential figures, who were equally critical of the current policies which are threatening academic standards, but were not interested in union matters. He instanced one, no less a figure than the President of the Royal Academy, who apparently is ready to march shoulder to shoulder with us, if not to the barricades, at least down Whitehall to lobby the Government. The questioner suggested us that university standards are being threatened by the policies of the present Government and the majority of the vice-chancellors, who are going along with the new managerialism. He ended with a dramatic call for immediate action to stop the rot: ‘It is our last chance’.

I have much sympathy with the sentiments expressed by the questioner. I think he is absolutely right that university standards have already been damaged and are being damaged even more as each year goes by. I think that it is also true that many of the general public are not aware of this deterioration of standards. And this is partly because so few vice chancellors are prepared to speak out against the fashions of the times.

Roger Kline, one of the three leadership candidates, had already demonstrated in his speech how the new ethos, with its obsession with monitoring performance and behaviour was threatening both academic standards, academic freedom and the autonomy of university teachers. He instanced one example, which might have been taken from the theatre of the absurd, except that is happening in real life at Leeds Metropolitan University. The Vice-Chancellor there has instructed his teachers that they must carry mobile phones with them at all times. He has also instructed his administrative staff to spy on the academic test and report how they rated in terms of their ‘customer relationships’ with the students.

One of the effects of treating the students as customers has been apparent for many years in my own discipline, journalism. We have now reached the situation, where the number of new journalism jobs is far exceeded by the output of students each year from journalism courses. In journalism this does not matter too much. Because, if students learn their discipline properly, the skills they acquire – the ability to research a subject quickly and thoroughly and transmit the results in plain language, expressed succinctly, help them to progress in many jobs, public relations, politics and many managerial jobs, where such skills are highly valued.

But Kline gave another example of this trend which is really worrying. Apparently television programmes like Silent Witness have led to a flood of customers for forensic science courses. So the new university managers keep starting new courses to satisfy customer demand. Soon we will have far more forensic scientists than the number of dead bodies that need examining.

My visit to UCL. I had hoped to see all three candidates in action, being challenged by the knowledgeable activists, which is near the top in terms of the number of UCU members on its books. In the event Peter Jones had to go into hospital for on undisclosed health problem which is ‘manageable’. Sally Hunt, former General Secretary of the AUT, who has being acting as joint general secretary of UCU, with Paul Mackney of NATFHE, who had to withdraw from the leadership battle before it started on his doctor’s advice.

As Kline himself said there is little difference in the policies advocated by the three candidates. Members will have to decide which of the three is the most likely to be able to fulfil the promises they have made to members. I hope to put some flesh on the human beings behind the manifestos, but that will have to wait for the moment.

Because my scooter is temporarily inactive and it took me over two hours to get to UCL and back, as against twenty minutes by scooter. And I do not have time to write more now because I have to leave for a dinner date. And I am off to Dorset tomorrow. But I will return to this subject long before the ballot closes.

Test

According to Larry Elliott of The Guardian Gordon Brown is ready to embrace the bloggers of the world. He says Brown, who appeared on the panel with Rupert Murdock, says the days of decision making in smoke filled rooms are over. Politicians had to involve the public and recognise the importance of the internet.

“A few years ago the debate was about whether the media controlled politicians or whether politicians controlled the media.

“Now it is about how we are all responding to the explosive power of citizens, consumers and bloggers.”

I would like to think that the blogging community had ‘explosive power’. But I doubt. I think the big companies, who are well represented at the World Economic Forum, have quite a lot of power over the consumers. And I think the new internet millionaires, including companies like Technorati and Google have a big say in a big say in which blogs get read.

The big companies, including the old media companies, are in a much better position to learn the tricks of meeting the criteria established by the search engines. And they have the money and manpower to attract bigger audiences. The millions of individual bloggers cannot compete in terms of supplying information. They can express their views, opinions and feelings. But how they come to them is still largely dependent on the reports by the mainstream media.

The coolest party was given by Forbes Magazine, which represents old media money. And it is big money. Steve Forbes, the nephew of the man I used to work for, is and he can afford to give away $7 million to political parties.

Sorry about the blank page this morning. Not sure what went wrong but I sorted it out by trial and error.