essential/random thoughts

... on the BBC News website's "Have Your Say" section. On any topic with even a remote connection to politics (and even those with none), there appear to be small groups of serial posters, obviously with little else to do, falling into one of two categories:

1. The Little Englander

Typically spouting views derived entirely from the editorial pages of the Daily Mail or Daily Express, these can be summarized in a few bullet points:

- "Human Rights" are a Bad Thing
- The UK should withdraw from the European Union, but by some magic retain all the trading benefits of membership
- "Multi-culturalism" is a Bad Thing
- The current government is left-wing, socialist (ha!)
- There are illegal immigrants and asylum seekers lurking under every stone
- Anything that cannot be blamed on Human Rights, the EU, multi-culturalism, our left-wing socialist government, illegal immigrants, or asylum seekers is the result of "Political Correctness"

(One variant often to be seen in discussion on family issues is the Childless Little Englander, who is clearly convinced that the government is engaged in a sinister campaign to penalize people who don't have children by daring to fund such things as education and child benefits ...)

The Little Englander's views are often amusing, if only for the near total ignorance of any subject under consideration; however, there's often an undercurrent of nastyness -- all too often comments about "multiculturalism" etc. are thinly disguised (or undisguised) racism.

2. The Old-Labour activist

Almost inevitably Guardian reading, I get the impression that these people were never happier than when Michael Foot was leading the Labout party -- they could be enthusiastically against things (even today, most ills that cannot be blamed on the current government are clearly the responsiblity of Margaret Thatcher) whilst remaining hopelessly unelectable. New Labour's election victory in 1997 was probably the worst day in their lives ...

Of course, recent history has given Homo Oldlabourus something of a new lease of life, hence contributions to the BBC's discussion pages that always mis-spell the PM's surname ("Bliar" -- so amusing, darlings), and the compulsory inclusion of the word "illegal" before any reference to the Iraq conflict. Hence the general purpose comment on almost any topic: "If Bliar had not taken us into an illegal war in Iraq then ...".

Careful observation does reveal a close relative - possibly even a sub-species - of the Old Labour activist: the Enviro-Nazi, for whom the existence of 4WD vehicles (sorry, in the correct verbiage of this catechism of cliche: "gas-guzzling SUVs") is a personal affront and the cause of any environmental problem you care to name ...

Over the past 20 years we're gone from city living (Stoke Newington, London), to a village (Addingham - about 20 miles NW of Leeds), to our current rural location on the extreme western edge of North Yorkshire (the border post with Lancashire is less than a mile down the road). There are occasions, of course, when the negative aspects (mainly related to transport) of living in the country can be a bind; however, sometimes little things serve as a reminder of just why we choose to live here.

I've taken, as part of a modest effort to offset middle-age spread, to taking a 2-3 mile walk most days. My regular route ("up to the cross-roads and back") affords a near-continuous view across the Wenning valley to the Three Peaks - and, on a good day, to the hills of the Lake District to the North West. Here's a typical view (on a not particularly good day):

Its all too easy, in my experience, for such things to merge into the general background of life. Fortunately there are also times (often prompted by having a camera in hand) when something you see every day can still make you go "wow!".

For many years we followed the routine of taking our cars to a main dealer for servicing and maintenance. After several years of grumbling about what the simplest of tasks seemed to costs, their eagerness to replace rather than repair, etc., we decided a few months ago to try out a local place (A I Harrison in High Bentham) - what a difference! Now we can book in for routine servicing a few days in advance (rather than weeks), for anything more urgent we can be sure that the car will get looked at that day.

For example, last week I was having a problem with my otherwise trusty (12 yr old, 110,000 miles) Rav 4 - the engine was cutting out when cold, the engine management warning light light was coming on, and it seemed to be down on power in higher gears. So, I dropped the car off on Friday morning - Tony said that it could be a problem with a sensor on the engine management system, he'd take a look at it. The following morning he dropped the car off here (did I mention that they usually do this?) and said that they'd found the faulty sensor, cleaned and replaced it, and that the problem seemed to have been cured -- but that if it came back they'd have to fit a new sensor.

Had I taken this to the Toyota dealer I imagine that at the very least they would have fitted a new sensor and could very well have tried to tell me that I needed a new (£1000+) engine management system fitted. So here's a big "cheers" to one local country business!

(Now all we need to do is find a local joiner of similar reliability to finish of the work on our staircase that two chippies - so far - have left unfinished).

A good place to start for post #1. Here's a review that I wrote a few days ago for the EuroTraders Yahoo list and also submitted to amazon.co.uk (although it doesn't seem to be available there as yet).

Railroad Earth "Elko" (2CD live set - SCI Fidelity 2006)

I've been listening to this on a daily basis for the last couple of
weeks -- it really is a wonderful and rewarding set. The twelve
songs included here show the depth and variety of Todd Sheaffer's
songwriting: several are taken from the repertoire of Todd's
previous band, From Good Homes, others are more recent and make
their first recorded appearance here.

For those who may not yet have heard any RRE, their music seamlessly
melds bluegrass instrumentation (plus drums!) with elements drawn
from country, jazz, celtic, and rock musics. Every member is a
superb musician -- Tim Carbone's fiddle, John Skehan's mandolin, and
Andy Goesling's banjo (and much else besides) are the immediate
standouts, but repeated listening shows just much the others
contribute to the band's overall sound. Todd Scheaffer's guitar
playing is a delight throughout, and the rhythm section of Carey
Harmon (drums) and Johnny Grubb (bass) anchor everything with a
subtlety and fluidity that's rarely found in any genre.

With several songs stretched out to around the 15 minute mark, you
can see why this band might be associated with the "jam band" label
(maybe reinforced by the appearance of this album on the String
Cheese Incident's SCI Fidelity label). However, there's none of the
endless (some might say pointless) soloing that characterizes so
many jam bands; rather, RRE mix up solos with rapid fire exchanges
between the lead players and, at times, ensemble playing reminiscent
of the Grateful Dead at their best.

The production quality is tremendous: kudos to the band's engineer
Mike Partridge and to Todd, Johnny and John for the mix. The detail
of the all-acoustic instrumentation is pristine without being
clinical, with perfect separation of instruments and vocals bringing
out aspects (including Johnny Grubb's driving -- sometimes near-
rockabilly - bass playing, and Carey Harmon's harmony vocals) that
sometimes get lost in the many audience recordings that circulate
within the band's fanbase.

I can find only a couple of very minor criticisms: "Elko" misses out
on some of the high tempo dance tunes that are a standard feature of
their live set (maybe because most of those are covers rather than
originals), and the closing "Seven Story Mountain" has a rather
unexpected and abrupt fadeout.

Those points notwithstanding, this is a great set that deserves to
be widely heard -- buy it now!

("Elko" isn't released in the UK at this time - but you should be able to get it from the band's own website, Amazon, or -- if you're lucky enough to have one -- your local independent record shop.)