Afternoon music
Battles past
From the newspapers
Many a true word spoken in jest…I remember a visitor from the Soviet Union, one Alex (not the MP above, of course), joking with me during a similar prison accommodation crisis (in 1987, I think, and seen on Channel 4 News) that the British Government should make a deal with the Soviet Government to house Brit convicts. Alex said that he could guarantee that the Soviet Government would turn a profit on it.
He ought to have known, he himself having been arrested and convicted, on entirely invented evidence, of having been a spy for a number of secret services. He had been about 18 at the time, and the arrest came in 1948, the peak of the postwar purge. He had then spent 5 years in a camp in the region of Archangel in Northern Russia. Stalin’s death in 1953 had saved him, and millions of others, from longer or worse.
“Where did it all go wrong for John Lewis? How Britain’s favourite High Street giant hired boss with NO retail experience whose disastrous reign saw stores shuttered, staff bonuses axed, £234m losses and decline of its famed customer service.”
[Daily Mail]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_White_(businesswoman).
Incidentally, her basic salary at John Lewis has been £990,000 p.a., nearly three times her previous salary (for 4 years) as head of OFCOM.
She has other revenue streams as well.
Incidentally, I myself often use Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Group. The decline , particularly since 2020, has been sad to see. The range and also quality of fruit and vegetables is much reduced, the formerly stellar customer service has almost gone, and there have been other disagreeable changes, while the prices have soared.
Hard to know where to place the blame, though, in circumstances where we have seen Brexit, the “Covid” scamdemic/panicdemic, the pathetic anti-Covid “measures” put in place, staff shortages locally, and general inflation.
The other day, I bought a small bottle of (40%/Vol) Kirsch. About £9.50. A few years ago, the price was £6.50 or £7. Hardly a typical everyday purchase, even for me, but not dissimilar to other items in its increased cost.
It is incredible how, in the Britain of 2023, to state the plain truth, the obvious truth that is staring us in the face, is actually controversial. Sign of a slowly (?) collapsing society.
Tweets seen
No wonder most Ukrainians are trying to avoid or evade being used as cannon-fodder.
“Collapsed support: a major failure?” For the second day in a row, the German Bild informs its readers that all is lost – despair reigns in Kiev, the situation is critical, and Western supporters are inclined to negotiate. “Soldier fatigue” is one of the biggest dangers.
At the same time, it is absolutely obvious: the situation for Ukraine has not become any less, but even more threatening! The counteroffensive is going less successfully than the Ukrainians and the West would like. The number of victims is extremely high. There is no necessary support in arms from the West. And Russia can produce more per day than the West, despite the sanctions.”
[Bild]
More music
A very bad organization of a bad state, but few things in modern history are entirely black and white…
Conservative Party Conference
Saw a few minutes of Sunak’s speech. Pretty pathetic. The HS2 fiasco has become symbolic. Not that I was ever anything other than opposed to the ridiculous vanity project anyway, but now we have massive cost, massive environmental damage etc, but no useful train line at all, just a line that goes to or from Birmingham but only to an outer suburb of London, thus losing its purpose altogether. As said, pathetic.
It seems that Sunak is trying to portray himself as a Prime Minister, when the whole country knows that his popularity (as was that of even more useless Liz Truss) has never been tested via General Election. The longer Sunak holds on, and the longer he puts off a General Election, the worse his position is likely to become. However, if a general election were to be held this year, the result would almost certainly be a disaster for the Conservative Party, and the number of its MPs likely be reduced to around 100, maybe only 50 or so. Therefore, the circus will have to continue into 2024, maybe until December 2024.
More tweets
Once my own trial is over in late November, I shall (unless gagged) blog about my own fairly recent experiences.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 