THIS FUCKING COUNTRY: Rolling UK cultural pessimism

the new 80s as you've probably heard, thatcher reborn, diana ready for a revive in the 2k11 and the kids are finding their aldermaston. i don't really want to think about what fucking shit will soundtrack britain's return to feudalism, but the more insidious effects should be worth noting.

a sign of the new shitness is a sort of cultural flattening, where yr trad alt/left signifiers, because old, have little power to disturb the current orthodoxy - cf cameron and his love of the smiths. the slide towards political degeneracy is effaced either by a lack of avowed interest in politics -- the best tories are surely too cynical to bother -- or a general disavowal where an old etonian can start a thatcher themed nightclub and pretend it's purely neutral kitsch, like lol thatcher, a sort of chillwave for the sloaney set.

the worst aspect is probably the coarsening of all public discourse and the convergence of public school humour with lewd proletkult - cf cameron publically making joeks about wayne rooney fucking prostitutes, or to a lesser degree osborne's 'sarkozy box'. it's enough to make you nostalgic for high toryism; however risible, there is a strange dignity in not knowing who gazza or the beatles are. even the more generic thatcher/tebbitt philistinism has a kinda integrity to it, but the next gen will find a way to be worse.

So this isn't just the 'moving right show'; this is a much more pernicious amalgamation of the disparate strands of British culture into a formless miasma found in synecdoche via a cursory glance at the terrestrial television pages and their dwindling variety.

I think, conversely, that the new generation will rise against this and not stand for it. Those who grew up with the internet are going to be intrinsically aware that new British defaults are not an ideal cultural norm but the desperate lowest-common-denominator graspings of an elite which perceives its pathetically narrow limitations under increasing threat from a skeptical and disobedient public.

I think that there will be a massive fucking cultural war in this country, and I know who's going to win. We are. If politicians aren't going to espouse high rhetoric and standards of taste, then the people will do it for them. Jody McIntyre in that BBC interview spoke with more eloquence, reason and dignity on a relevant political issue than any politician I've heard in a long time. People like him will speak for Britain, not Cameron or his cunt leech retinue.

i guess maybe we've 'moved right' [via The Great Moving Right Show II: The Kirsty and Phil Years]

ha xpost

i think this government is dreadful but im afraid i don't think the apocalypse started in may

and also, though he's brave and the police are terrible, i don't think jody macintyre was that good, in the interview i saw him do (not the famous one)

I don't really care whether Cameron likes The Smiths or cracks jokes about Rooney. It was inevitable that toryism would eventually get round to coopting popular culture. I don't necessarily think the next gen will find a way to be worse. The next gen is protesting, and it is the first protesting gen in quite some time. I find that refreshing.

haha this title's better but I'm glad you've actually linked it - good discussion there, although this one's more about the struggle with banality than any direct political-climate adjustment

xps

I think that there will be a massive fucking cultural war in this country, and I know who's going to win. We are

Hey, save it for the Rolling UK cultural optimism thread.

this is the thread where we collect examples of this country being fucking shit that probably would have happened regardless of cleg'ron

then in five years time, the entire cultural landscape is like, really fucking bad and we can assume there is some conditioning involved

hmm, feel this *is* a bit like 'the great moving right show' (which IS a good title, louis, coz it's a callback to another fine social-cultural-political commentator)

the moving rightward thread is great btw, worth a full read

I stood in the middle of the Barbican yesterday, and for a moment, you could feel the moment of what was being grasped for and yet looking at the maps typeset in univers and an 'identical map' set in arial, you could see how it was all lost…with the city of london signage in its Prisoner-esque font, I looked up to the concrete towers and whispered: 'do you remember?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dwEo0Oudw

family members whining about EMA only being used to go on the piss and how they will have to pay 27k in fees, despite not realising they won't because they're already at university…"I'm alright Jack" taken to the extreme of 'fuck you, I want you to SUFFER!"…but the kids - out on the street and protesting - the blair babies discovering their social conscience making me smile after our generation turned into thatcherkids.

and fuck the new K9…obviously.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MSE4NBZEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

sorry but seriously, don't get into this mindset.

Everyone here is O T M.

local garda just doesn't understand the essential decency of the white man's culture

how many selfish cunt videos does u gotta embed before the irishman recognises meta

itt i guess i have to be english

i've been watching the protesters' videos a bit today, and that didn't cheer me up, but i don't think it's a flash in the pan and billy bragg might be right that they won't turn into purist, swp-type... god i seem to be using the c-word a lot at the moment

don't need to say any more.

hmm, feel this *is* a bit like 'the great moving right show' (which IS a good title, louis, coz it's a callback to another fine social-cultural-political commentator)

regarding the title, well yeah your one's a great reference and a cool title but it lacks a certain bluntness - and yeah I think this title has its drawbacks as well (i.e. I plan to be odiously optimistic here until nakhchivan relents and learns the bongos)

(although even hippy signifiers are I'm sure within the gizzard of contemporary Toryism somehow)

god i seem to be using the c-word a lot at the moment

― ohhhh we plop champagne (history mayne), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:44 (1 minute ago)

this is what this thread is about

the entropy of ~learned~ political discourse into fuck this shit / fuck these cunts

the irish do this better tbf -- the wry apocalypticism of yr erudite irish drunk has nothing to do with pofaced sassenach coffee table CRAP TOWN / RUBBISH BLOODY BRITAIN shit, and local garda's tone deafness is a damn shame

nakhchivan the world will disappoint u

except it won't because the level of political discourse among BRITISH YOUNG is as high as it's ever been, and getting higher. you need to get yr wenger on dude

obv there's a heady melange of fuck these fucking cunts w/ a tincture of rational policy scrutiny and farsightedness but atm a thorough and wholly-merited blunt-force objection is what's required. although I feel Round One is already ended and we're back in the red corner taking stock

i know the obvious gag is that ahhh morrissey is actually rly conservative/racist, but the cameron-smiths thing *is* weird. sure, morrissey is/was conservative, but the world he wanted to return to was quite different from cameron's, and im not even sure cameron *is* a conservative, but a radical. and it doesn't matter either, none of this stuff has ever had any real-world consequences. cf people handwringing about the lack of protest music. the only point of protest music is to stop you listening to music and do something else. and we're not returning to anything, including feudalism, so far what the students and young'uns have been trying to defend is all quite new too.

like, obv, it's far from a foregone conclusion that simpering hayekite dicks like osborne are going to be worse than the ghouls of thatcherism, but we'll pretend it itt so we can feel good about feeling bad, you know, just as the stooges only wrote about the bad trips

caught in a bad political romance [via schmitt/gaga]

except it won't because the level of political discourse among BRITISH YOUNG is as high as it's ever been, and getting higher. you need to get yr wenger on dude

― schlomo replay (acoleuthic), Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:56 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

is this true? ('high as it's ever been' isn't necessarily praise, but how are they doing? i want to believe.)

and im not even sure cameron *is* a conservative, but a radical

notwithstanding that he's at the left-edge of his party (this isn't quite true I think) - do you mean policy-wise?

gonna be the positivist voice of the thoreau-readin' yoof itt iirc

mayne it's a natural consequence of the first tory govt since the internet became a thing but yeah I'm seein' signs - long way to go mind

anyway hopefully we'll get some googlers here altho how they'll cope with our hyperevolved ilxpolari is yet to be seen amirite

as tony judt says, it's the left that needs to be conservative these days. 'radical' isn't a term of approbation (though it's routinely used as such).

i know the obvious gag is that ahhh morrissey is actually rly conservative/racist, but the cameron-smiths thing *is* weird. sure, morrissey is/was conservative, but the world he wanted to return to was quite different from cameron's, and im not even sure cameron *is* a conservative, but a radical. and it doesn't matter either, none of this stuff has ever had any real-world consequences. cf people handwringing about the lack of protest music. the only point of protest music is to stop you listening to music and do something else. and we're not returning to anything, including feudalism, so far what the students and young'uns have been trying to defend is all quite new too.

― ohhhh we plop champagne (history mayne), Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:59 (2 minutes ago)

smiths/cameron is only weird if u think about it, which you oughn't.....and i guess cameron himself didn't even in the 80s, it's the exclusive preserve of the very finest scions of the upper-upper mid to sing along with their would be executioners cuz their inbuilt confidence knows it's never gonna happen

protest music has, afaik, always been shit -- if it isn't shit, it isn't protest music

however, u do gotta feel some respect for the smiths et al, for just being good and popular and vaguely aesthetically troubling to mnstrm sensibilities

as tony judt says, it's the left that needs to be conservative these days

for sure the British Left needs unity above all other things, and splintering or driving wedges won't help a soul

this is the most radical tory govt of the postwar, def

yeah well the previous ones were allowed to be openly racist and whatnot so there's been 'progress' but I still think this one is a tarted-up, dumbed-down excuse to keep the people in divided bondage

the people gonna say no tho

tory radicalism is not about 'ideas', it's merely a quantitative diseasing of the state, 50% more creative destruction than thatcher (who came to an arrangement with at least some of the postwar settlement)

jeff nuttall on thatcher's arts policy is a thermonuclear warhead of indignant hatred (dude wd have strangled saatchi in public given the chance); were he alive today I'd shudder to think what he'd say

but elaborate, please!

I mean, I don't dispute what you say, I just want the details in print :)

yeah but thatcher didn't hate the arts cuz they cost a lot, she hated them for the lulz, or cuz they were patronized by the wrong sort

a green and pleasant land: akabusian positivism and the uk's diy protest movement of the 2010s

by lj phd

kip, ppl

haha yeah thatcher LOVED the arts coz they cost a lot

gal had integrity

:/

also lol akabusian, wd say more philippa forrester

had my 8 year-old self been aware of and non-repulsed by WS etc

seealsokatyhill

the jeff nuttall i've read(in the great 'bomb culture') wouldn't have been favoured by any state 'arts policy' -- in film, at any rate, the thatcherite 1980s were actually extremely favourable for snobbish, amateurish douchebees like derek jarman. it was the blair era that was compliant.

ekow eshun 4eva

ICA / CIA

IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB

BFI / FBI OMG FUCK

bfi existed first! (1933 vs 1935)

trufax: my best friend and I had drinks tonight at the BFI bar. who knew mulled cider was that good. shit's gonna power the mass consciousness shift yknow

sadly our table was bugged and ralph waldo emerson's collected works are being toothcombed by a menk in a bunker seeking possible links to terrorist factions

srsly

this is not an lj liveblog

this is not a walk in the sunlit uplands

this is celine 1945

this is the rectal prolapse of norman lamont

this is kirsty splicing a fruitknife into phil's retina

this is the living fucking end

cultural pessimism or gtfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYIvOpJTTnQ

The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead is an anthem for our times
Jon Savage on song: The student protests of recent weeks have brought to mind the Smiths' 1986 state-of-the-nation address, which still rings proud in its portrayal of what it feels like to be an outsider

Blur's Dave Rowntree: 'David Cameron's not a real Smiths fan

sounds like u guys are bummed to be turning into america

turning into america would be a positive move tbh

more like u guys are bummed to be turning into US [via your socialist president + imperial decline]

:)

Will defend Cameron's right to be into The Smiths, if you're going to hold people to account for agreeing with the political sentiments of the music they're into then left-liberals are going to be throwing a lot of rap music away over the next few weeks.

Don't think that Cameron is really a political small-c conservative, in the same way that Thatcher wasn't - she was a Thatcherite, Cameron's something different that we haven't got a handle on yet. But he *is* an aesthetic conservative, and the music of The Smiths, which is getting on for 30 years old now, IS aesthetically conservative now.

Single best thing that happened for the right during the student protests was the picture that emerged of that floppy haired Pink Floyd posh boy swinging from the cenotaph. "Oh you 'radicals' with your 'psychedelic rock music' you are the establishment really" *condescing pat on head*.

Problem with this sort of amateur Carmodism is that the last time Labour won the election the biggest pop star in the country was James Blunt. Still, a good old outpouring of honest musical RAGE would be vv welcome right now.

What even was the biggest anti-Thatcher "hit" from the time? "Labour of Love"? "Money's Too Tight To Mention"? I kinda feel that nowadays kids expect political music to SOUND LOUD AND AGGRESSIVE, so you're not going to get anything as big as those two at all charting.

Maybe "Captain Ska" will save us all.

Biggest anti-Thatcher hit was D Mob's "We Call It Acieed"

wasn't it Ghost Town, as per ILX's 20th century poll?

Problem with this sort of amateur Carmodism is that the last time Labour won the election the biggest pop star in the country was James Blunt. Still, a good old outpouring of honest musical RAGE would be vv welcome right now.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 10:51

nah i'd leave the amateur carmodism to ILM, that direction leads to the gulag of inane john harrisish popkult determinism

i'm more interested in the myriad lil ways nu-toryism might be shown in the general culture

fuck carmodism

tho by all means do a 'the restoration will be televised' thread on ILM for 2013's floppyfringed torybeat revival

matt did you read dancox's thing on the music we heard at the protest? http://dan-hancox.blogspot.com/2010/12/this-is-our-riot-pow.html

can't get new cult crit category "Fuck-Carmodism" out of my head now

basically feel music and young people are not that relevant, and what will change things is cuts to council services and the nhs that people who haven't heard of lethal bizzle ('the soundtrack to the demo' - some guardian writer) care about

i'm more interested in the myriad lil ways nu-toryism might be shown in the general culture

One such way might be found in the BBC's interview tone. Always adopting an air of 'healthy skepticism' which tends in fact towards not letting anything remotely radical be said without some form of condescending dismissal. Victoria Derbyshire, Ben Brown, Paxo...it's the universal way. Even Phil McNulty, bless 'im - not an interviewer, but drags all contention to a centrist, reactionary midpoint

i'm more interested in the myriad lil ways nu-toryism might be shown in the general culture

cher lloyd's a fucking chav and why's she got to fucking rap all the time

people who haven't heard of lethal bizzle = real americans english ppl

thread is v much interested in your opinions about the nonbizzlesphere

jeremy kyle, man. top gear.

it all changed when cameron came in

cher lloyd's a fucking chav and why's she got to fucking rap all the time

Nah that Cher Lloyd attitude has been with us throughout New Labour, in fact they helped foster it.

matt did you read dancox's thing on the music we heard at the protest?

That is an A+++ playlist with the exception of Benga & Coki. Lol "dubstep revolution".

basically feel music and young people are not that relevant, and what will change things is cuts to council services and the nhs

This is true. Also housing benefit - which will shaft the people who usually get completely ignored.

Ah wait, in the synchronosphere that is ILX, Matt DC made *exactly* my point an hour ago

The BBC's defence appears to be that Brown was adopting the same tone he'd adopt with anyone else. That's sort of true but also part of the problem, they interview everyone with the same bellowing accusatory tone now whether it's Lord Ashcroft or Jody Macintyre. Interviewers come at an interview from one angle which they furiously hammer at, usually "let's catch this guy out", it actually undermines the whole point of interviewing anyone. I would blame Paxman, but at least Paxman is actually capable of switching it up when necessary.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 09:55 (1 hour ago)

on a related note: it feels like, in my little provincial corner of the UK, a combination of the weather and the exciting prospect of imminent mass redundancy has kicked the shit out of any feeling of Christmasness this year. there's a real 80s-esque flatness in the air

the moment the cher lloyd/j-clarx sextape went viral and theresa may lolled about it on newsnight, we knew the trots were on the back foot

and btw matt

can a brother spare a delete?

on a related note: it feels like, in my little provincial corner of the UK, a combination of the weather and the exciting prospect of imminent mass redundancy has kicked the shit out of any feeling of Christmasness this year

I too have noticed the unChristmassy nature of this year's advent season. Just not happening. Probably a good thing, or at least, a necessary sign.

i want this thread to be a pleasant place, john major drinking warm beer on a village green, not gideon osborne doing pcp and setting fires in tenement stairwells

'selfish cunt' is sending out the wrong message

Actually I'm not sure about whether cuts to council services (and by extension jobs) will really make that much difference either. A lot of voters don't use all these services, most people don't know what local government really does beyond collecting bins, press rhetoric has been going heavily on "Brown's army of do-nothing council workers".

Looking at the protests outside Catford Town Hall, it was way too SWPy, way too white middle class.

i wouldn't overdo it with the attacks on the bbc -- i don't watch much bbc1 to be fair, but you know, while stephanie flanders is basically probably a dues-paying tory, paul mason is an actually tankie, or so i heard. horses for courses.

xp

gideon osborne

oh snap, u totally went there

dude you can't have norman lamont's rectal prolapse and john major drinking warm beer on a village green

or can you

jesu christe

? i always call him gideon xp

mayne is too quick to be all cynical abt cynicism

tory government memorial fayre 2010 (masquerade afterparty)

are you on 'team gideon' or 'team george'

team 'bullet to the base of the skull down a dark alley'

gideon cuz it'll rile mayne's reflexive anti-antitoryism

anti thicko-kneejerk-soft-leftism, surely

dude you can't have norman lamont's rectal prolapse and john major drinking warm beer on a village green

You can. "Big Society" is entirely warm-beer-on-village-green". It's total values-of-village-fete, when they're talking about "communities" they're mostly thinking about villages and small towns, not urban areas. Doesn't seem to be much thought about how it'll work in, say, Hackney. These schemes will be mostly self-selecting, mostly middle class endeavours. Don't think it will go very far to affecting the almost complete mutual lack of trust between those in the middle and those at the bottom of the income scale.

Actually I'm not sure about whether cuts to council services (and by extension jobs) will really make that much difference either. A lot of voters don't use all these services, most people don't know what local government really does beyond collecting bins, press rhetoric has been going heavily on "Brown's army of do-nothing council workers".

Looking at the protests outside Catford Town Hall, it was way too SWPy, way too white middle class.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:10 (4 minutes ago)

they've already cut back on bin collections, can't get more obvious than that

but i'd guess you can cut a lot of public expenditure quickly with the only immediate sign being redundancies

will be more obvious in places like the NE

anti thicko-kneejerk-soft-leftism, surely

― RONG-bak (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:16 (36 seconds ago)

riling nv is just too easy

so-called gordon brown's actual first name was JAMES. what ELSE was he HIDING from us?!?!?!

You can. "Big Society" is entirely warm-beer-on-village-green". It's total values-of-village-fete, when they're talking about "communities" they're mostly thinking about villages and small towns, not urban areas. Doesn't seem to be much thought about how it'll work in, say, Hackney. These schemes will be mostly self-selecting, mostly middle class endeavours. Don't think it will go very far to affecting the almost complete mutual lack of trust between those in the middle and those at the bottom of the income scale.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:16 (15 seconds ago)

this is all true and valid and pertinent but it's in response to a joke I was making about contrasting descriptions of this thread's tenor by its compere

and yeah, very much so - this is the genteel reductionism that's evolved from outright barefaced class war

will be more obvious in places like the NE

obvious in all the places that were part-regenerated thru allocation of big govmint departments: NE, Bootle, Norn Ireland, Cumbernauld(?), lol Madchester etc

Actually I'm not sure about whether cuts to council services (and by extension jobs) will really make that much difference either. A lot of voters don't use all these services, most people don't know what local government really does beyond collecting bins, press rhetoric has been going heavily on "Brown's army of do-nothing council workers".

Looking at the protests outside Catford Town Hall, it was way too SWPy, way too white middle class.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:10 (4 minutes ago)

nah, local government is involved in care of old people, that's quite a big thing. except you actually get into a 'need/hate' relaish with social services (and the nhs) so it is complicated.

there's only so much reallocation of laid off capita workers that the north's thriving donk sector will tolerate before it too goes down the shitter

The BBC's defence appears to be that Brown was adopting the same tone he'd adopt with anyone else. That's sort of true but also part of the problem, they interview everyone with the same bellowing accusatory tone now whether it's Lord Ashcroft or Jody Macintyre. Interviewers come at an interview from one angle which they furiously hammer at, usually "let's catch this guy out", it actually undermines the whole point of interviewing anyone. I would blame Paxman, but at least Paxman is actually capable of switching it up when necessary.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 16 December 2010 09:55 (1 hour ago)

^so so true. I was watching Newsnight Scotland last week in the wake of the country coming to a snowbound standstill and this jumped up wee nyaff spent the *entire* interview with the Scottish Transport Minister haranguing him into apologising for not knowing that the weather forecasts were wrong. The interview should have been about what went wrong, what needed to happen immediately and what would be done to minimise the risk of it happening again - instead the entire political narrative was all about the lack of apology so that by the following morning the poor guy *had* apologised then within two days had resigned. I'm sure the Paxman wannabe will think of that as a job well done but to me it's just horribly symptomatic of what Matt describes and the changing of transport dudes has done nothing to improve anything.

My guessing is that most councils will cut everything else imaginable before they start axing care of the elderly, seems to be political suicide. Central government has cut much more heavily from the young than it has from the elderly, would expect that pattern to be replicated across coucils, but obv too early to tell.

Sales of Michael Buble records therefore likely to remain strong.

haha

Searching BBC News for "libraries" brings a hefty chunk of cultural pessimism. These four from the last 24 hours:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-12005172
The cuts would include closing 20 of the county's 34 libraries, unless volunteers step forward to run them, and closing some day centres.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-12000927
Somerset County Council is proposing stopping funding 20 of the county's libraries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-12001914
The Conservative council's budget plans call for closure of eight libraries

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12000521
Durham council: Funding for youth centres, libraries, museums, and sport and leisure centres will all be affected.

No you don't understand, if communities really value libraries then they'll run them on their own for free.

see also: Health Centres

I think they'll all be too busy running hospitals and schools.

xp

is lol big society actually a thing? are there big societies in warwickshare market towns collecting panini stickers of emile heskey and richard dunne and rhizomatically self-organizing provision of youth centres?

there is that anthony blond retard who provides the intellectual rationale for this shite

dcam's house thinker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJf9qJHR3E

think the County Set has always looked after itself/kept busy for want of anything better to do, yeah

Mumford & Cunts feel like the ideal ConDem band devant la lettre

People who could feasibly "run" Big Society-esque ventures in the UK

1. Corporations
2. Guys that own a chain of used car showrooms who want to ban the teaching of evolution in schools
3. The Muslim Brotherhood

That's it I think?

surestart centre near the school L works in has been given 90 days notice. student fee rises are bad of course, but its a useful smokescreen for the real damage.

4. The WI
5. Homophobic evangelical 'Community' churches
6. Mario Balotelli

weird thing with the SureStarts is that they were initially a five year time-limited project and they got extended fundlessly, somehow. not cool tho

Actually it doesn't really matter how it'll work in Hackney because there won't be many working class people left in Hackney in two years time.

The idea of running *some* things (eg community pubs, not public services that aren't designed to make money) co-operatively is very appealing. Govt knows that, hence comparing every big society initiative to John Lewis. Difference is that John Lewis actually sells things.

ilx: 10 years and counting, autononously self funding e-community, keeping kids off the streets and provding content that you can print off and keep for a rainy day, by which time all the libraries will have closed

can we get osborne for a photoshoot?

provding content that you can print off and keep for a rainy day

just a bit of fun

xp

this partic centre provides all sorts of creches and other additional necessary services on 0rch@rd P@rk (do I need to googleprf that?) as well as funding the janitor at the primary school. sucks,particularly as early-years funding was supposed to have been protected.

keeping kids off the streets

fml

haha <3 u rly ILX + my life

I'm going to take over my local library and just start burning books at random until people send me Buffy DVDs. Osbourne would approve I think.

xxxpost

is that based at M4c1mill4n? I worked at the Pr3st0n Ro4d SureStart for about 3 years. good spirit and super-important in a city like ours but I feel like a lot of the good we did was despite the govmint, not thanks to them

Mumford & Cunts feel like the ideal ConDem band devant la lettre

― RONG-bak (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:44 (7 minutes ago)

have never heard them

do i click y/n

all i got to go on in what mark e smith sez

how much do you like the idea of a Levellers that the Levellers' moms would like?

do u want 2 understand british culture or not.

You should click, you need to know what you're dealing with here. They are the O'Neills version of the Levellers I think.

Is it true that Samantha Cameron said in some interview that she and Dave like to "snuggle" to The XX? This is what happens when you make music with no connotations whatsoever.

nah she wd probably say that about Asian Dub Foundation if it was 1996

i dunno, tricky would've kicked her out of bed if she played that racket

Is it true that Samantha Cameron said in some interview that she and Dave like to "snuggle" to The XX? This is what happens when you make music with no connotations whatsoever.

― Matt DC, Thursday, December 16, 2010 11:54 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

this post upsets me. partly because dave doesn't deserve the lovely sam. but also, ugh, all kinds of wrong. the xx shd release a statement

LET HER GO DUDE

yr <3 of sam is all kinds of wrong

mumford - 70 seconds thereof

kinda like david gray, but more of them? risible but not obviously cleg'ron in mood.....more of a soppy david mili kinda band

Kuddly Ken Clarke kinda vibe I think, minus the jazz.

Mumford & Sons were apparently the second most played act globally on last.fm this year, just behind Ke$ha.

^^^ What prompted my initial post.

difference between the levellers and mumford from wikipedia:

[the levellers] met in The Eagle, a public house in Brighton known for attracting the more bohemian element of Brighton's residents...

[mumford and sons] attended King's College School in Wimbledon...

Levs were Wykehamists iirc

OH SNAP

what are the odds of having a band where every member's real name is Julian, eh?

xp lol oh well maybe not so dissimilar after all

plus apparently M+S they were a bunch of arrogant cunts when the band I was in supported them ( thankfully I was on hols the lake district at the time so avoided that particular pleasure)

Slade the Leveller was Justin Sullivan's alias in the early days of New Model Army

OK, it's not Julian, but..

Barbra Streisand turned into Ozzy Osbourne so slowly I never even noticed

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/16/article-1339053-0C7EF155000005DC-752_634x352.jpg

oooh the fucking lake district, ooooh hols is it

some local authorities allocate as little as £1.15 a child per year for music and this figure will drop to zero in some areas as the government spending cuts come in to force.

:(

apparently M+S they were a bunch of arrogant cunts

think they're homophobe evangelicals so this wd be true

i resent the implication that it all goes together tbh

Maybe Florence & The Machine are a better band for the Cleggeron era? Probably some Sound of 2011 type who "grew up listening to PJ Harvey" because her parents approved of her stance on foxhunting as well.

xpost

will retract if you can produce a counter-example

Maybe Florence & The Machine are a better band for the Cleggeron era?

i'm pretty sure cameron named his daughter after her

dont think florence-machine has said/done anything tory though

the music

In 1990 the charts were full of bands espousing working class angst and northern soul.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bOfYANsZGoM/SHr0PHrbEUI/AAAAAAAAAhg/wbQN-4TnNc8/s320/art_2_unlimited.jpg

^^^ Knows fuck all about the 90s

wasn't joking about D Mob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd0YI6Fvv3s

^^^ Needs a revive

Never heard that :D :D :D :D

really really don't give a fuck about politicians music taste or premier league predictions and think its grotesque to have them appear on tv programmes that don't concern politics (so HIGNFY is ok but Strictly isn't at all). bbc is to blame for this as much as anyone. just do your fucking jobs.

BBC's job is to turn the world into BBC3 innit

Could live in that world tbh.

Gonna read you your Miranda rights.

this week's episode was pretty weak, tried to get too fucking writer-y

60% public school is kinda amazing

assumed mumfcunts were 4real doughty peasants

It's because the music biz is run by 90% public school. QED.

doughty peasantry have been outsourced to Poland iirc

not rly xp

QED

fuckin latin speaking poshos

That "QED" doesn't really make any sense.

Hah. Exactly my point...

Hoisted by yr own leotard.

90% of prostitutes are women, it's because the sex industry is 90% run by women. QED.

90% of statistics are made up on the spot. QED.

QED - Used to convey that fact or situation demonstrates truth of one's theory or claim

(OED)

OED - Used to convey that word or phrase correctly demonstrates one's usage of it.

(QED)

And now, the weather...

shit innit

fuckin cleg'ron weather

^^^

sack up

the weather is ok

u r the vince cable of weather quislings

cabbie tonight had three windows almost completely open

truly they are the advance guard of the uk volkisch movement

Matt DC - that Thatcher yotube link is truly magical

One of this year’s big new talents, Laura Marling - who was nominated for a prestigious Mercury Music Prize - attended Leighton Park in Reading, which has fees of £7,740 a term.

In contrast the late 1980s and early 1990s were dominated by bands such as The Smiths, Oasis, The Stone Roses, and the Happy Mondays.

This is utter bollocks.

I used to love Oasis in the late 1980s. Before they'd formed, it was their best period.

Yeah, that were good, that...

BBC's job is to turn the world into BBC3 innit

― Rage Against the Man-Cream (Noodle Vague), Thursday, December 16, 2010 2:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Could live in that world tbh.

― specifically, the word talking (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, December 16, 2010 2:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Ha! I misread this as Radio 3...which is the world I could live in obv. BBC3 is crap.

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feed-item.aspx?id=19539

They're raving on the streets of Glasgow! To, erm, MGMT, but I approve of the concept.

xpost Ha! But you've said it now...

lol

i like radio 3

tory mps getting upset about harmless fun by students and simple ppl = new 90s i guess

shame about kulkarni sb'in himself, could have brought some insight

much of my favourite music comes via my dad's listening to Mixing It and Late Junction so yeah I guess I like R3 as well although I need to listen to it more instead of VIKKY DERBYSHIRE whenever I eat lunch

nah, early music show and through the night pls

will investigate

really I need to listen to Resonance FM more - they had some quality shows (everything Dan Wilson ever did, everything L Voag ever did etc)

Yeah it's weird, as far as I can see no one actually complained, and yet the MP is all "how could this have been allowed to happen?"

I live thru Radio 3.

Glad I held fire on the brutal "you love BBC3" zings now

in his defence, if i'd notice it i'd have assumed it was a mistake or a joke, it's not than everyone just saw it as v much in character.....

thatnt

zing first ask questions later

If the entire country turned into an episode of Being Human it might be an improvement on the situation we have now tbf.

[bloodsucking tories joke]

i had been developing some warmth for bbc 3 recently (relatively speaking like) until a couple of weeks back when i saw what was by some margin the worst, least funny comedy i've ever seen. 'coming of age', i think it was? bring down the bbc ffs.

don't share jagz's optimism on the student protests front. think they'll eventually get worn down by police brutality and the grim acceptance that sometimes bastards win. some kid recently got arrested under terrorist laws because he organised a protest against his local youth club closing down, this doesn't bode well. and if neo-liberalism finally collapses, there's no reason to think it'll be replaced by a more reasonable, fair, social democratic post-war-consensus-type system.

is that pessimistic enough?

dont share loujagz optimism on anythin tbh, but thats just me prob

bring down the bbc ffs

The resultant vaccuum may suck something worse into existance. Its birth pangs shall make all Britain weep with self pity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzFUbEnjDOY

King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is a co-educational independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London.

:/

ya u don't need to click play, the homemade ingerland tanktop + am appy hoodie + rustic backdrop sw london altbro look 'says it all'

homemade godbothering homophobe shitbeard tanktop

Hammond: ...Cars reflect national characteristics, don't they, so German cars are very well built and ruthlessly efficient, Italian cars are a bit flamboyant and quick, a Mexican car's just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight... leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus, with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat.
May: It is interesting, isn't it, because they can't do food, the Mexicans, can they? Because it's all like sick with cheese on it, I mean...
Hammond: Refried sick!
May: Yeah, refried sick.
Hammond: I'm sorry, but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican: 'awww, no'.
Clarkson: No, it'd be brilliant... because you could just go straight back to sleep again.

http://i.imgur.com/wtW6p.jpg

http://jess-macgowan.deviantart.com/art/James-May-157949772

http://i.imgur.com/36iX0.jpg

No mention of ITV dating farrago Take Me Out I see. It's the worst thing human beings have ever done. It makes me want to join Al Qaeda.

Take Me Out is fucking great.

Not quite as great as Blind Date maybe but great enough.

so disappointed the one time i saw it, nobody shot at the end

I have to admit I've watched it more than twice.

Shows in that time slot are specifically designed for getting yr first drinks on as you're preparing to go out and in that sense Take Me Out is about a gajillion light years better than anything featuring Ant and Dec.

i have to disagree- ant and dec have never pushed me towards desire for sobriety

Take Me Out is fucking great.

― Y Kant Torres Red (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 12 February 2011 18:20

It really truly is.

yeah the guy who is so furious all he can do is DANCE

shit wrong thread sorry

Take me out is awful, i can't believe people are watching this!

Even worse though is "comedy rocks", haven't seen anything this bad for a while.

# Student stabbed to death
# Growing Fears Over 'Unfair' Spending Cuts
# 'Family' found dead in a house
# Cameron: Big Society Not A 'Cover' For Cuts
# Electrical Cable Removed After Horse Deaths
# Dying teenager plans own funeral

?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12442612

Hull City Council has informed the Hull Music Service that it is proposing to cut its funding to the service by 100% next year.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U7XTRiOyOGA/SMPRAAzxIJI/AAAAAAAAA4M/y4Jn7Hepiz0/s320/IMG_1550.JPG

A sparrow on a shovel?

doesn't matter

Hull City Council has informed the Hull Music Service that it is proposing to cut its funding to the service by 100% next year.

― Y Kant Torres Red (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 13 February 2011 15:03 (1 hour ago)

lol they might has well have gone for a nultish 110%

This city is about to go into meltdown imo, flagship Lib Dem council showing out for their Tory paymasters.

Flagship torpedoed amidships

We are very slack with our moral codes for children these days. Nowadays, children find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal.

"In Ethiopia... you might find a seven-year-old expected to take 15 goats out into the fields for the whole day with only a chapati to eat and his whistle. Why are we so afraid to give our children responsibilities like this?"

Whereas she used to find it laughably amusing to dring voddy and be an old slapper. In her TV acting job, granted....

Because you can't give a child a whistle as it contains small parts, thanks to safety conscious etc...

That's one of the most ideologically confused rants I've seen in some time.

If my recollections of old issues of Viz are correct I don't think Joanna Lumley should be using the word 'slack' to describe anyone else

Nowadays, children find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal.

Well, at least they're doing it with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their little eyes

Laughably amusing. As opposed to Seriously amusing, yeah...

Until you can prove you can add up on your fingers or think independently in your head, you have learnt nothing

Thinking outside your head not enough for Britain's foremost intellectual J. Lumley.

Reminds me of this classic from Sweden:

http://www.lytes.se/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/barntillverkat.thumbnail.jpg

Q:
1) Do you care about whether the goods you buy are manufactured by children?
2) Do you do anything to check whether they are?

A2:
1) Yes, children have no feel for quality, it shows in the products.
2) No.

oh so that's where the word "bairn" comes from

hmmm!
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5489251752_166e7fbdf2.jpg

its the american spelling

NV, a lot of Geordie language comes from there, yep.

xpost, it's in the uk though.

xxp no that would be 'centerz'

its the canadian spelling

barn

A Scandinavian word I knew thanks to Norwegian punks Kjøtt, whose best song opens with the words "is there anything uglier than royal children?" (fins det noe styggere enn kongebarna?)

(I have no idea why I'm posting this but eh)

"There was one 'crime' during the whole time I was at school, when a fountain pen went missing. Stealing just didn't happen."

Still pissed off that she didn't get to hang with the cool kids.

NV, a lot of Geordie language comes from there, yep.

Danelaw, etc...

Lumley was educated at St Mary's Convent School in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex

I'm totally sure that this place is now a hotbed of youth crime.

You went without your fountain pen at your peril!

Makes for a nice shiv, iIrc.

"Bairn" is Old English though, and not exclusive to the North East of England

Bairn" is Old English though, and not exclusive to the North East of England

My bad. I always assumed it derived from a Viking source but the word's vitality in the North and Scotland may stem from the fact that the cognate in Norse/Danish is so similar.

Scot and northern English a child
[Old English bearn; related to bearm lap, Old Norse, Old High German barn child]

lots of viking influence along ne english / scottish coasts

Well, yeah, but that's not how the word ended up here

Makes for a nice shiv, iIrc.

The pen is mightier than the shiv?

Ah, "Shiv" now...

... actually I've just realised that good Scottish word "chib" must be from "shiv"!

Yup.

Etymology
First attested 1665–1675, probably from Romani chiv (“blade”).

On the other side of this axis sits an opera house designed by another British architect: Zaha Hadid. This angular building has been particularly challenging to deliver and is Zaha Hadid’s first opera house – her competition-winning design for Cardiff was spat out by the locals and never built. The opera house looks like two angular stones washed up on the river bank.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_bJLcML1b9aM/TUcqslFSCdI/AAAAAAAAD8c/_242bV1k_zA/guangzhou%20opera%20house_zaha%20hadid%2009%5B3%5D.jpg

do these ppl WANT to be seen as provincial no-marks? so instead of hadid the good people of wales got a huge fuck-off slab of echt blairite proletshite to call their own instead

http://i.imgur.com/7xeQL.jpg

LOL, good choice Welsh people

town planners / local govt / tinpot nationalist keeping up their rep for narrow mindedness and aesthetic bankruptcy

aaaargh my eyes

'Welcome to the Opera
 Shopping Centre'