It must be a sign of unsuccessful ageing that the airwaves seem to be dominated by friends. Just getting used to waking up to hear Evan Davis (ex-flatmate) interviewing Robert Peston (friend) about a rescue deal organised by Tom Scholar (ex-flatmate) with dire fiscal consequences predicted by Robert Chote (friend) with Michael Crick (friend) making political mayhem on Newsnight. They are all clearly having a great meltdown.
At least they are still on the top of their game. With the rise of David Cameron a few years ago, it became rather clear that my generation was going to miss out on political power (Damian, Theresa, Willetts all in the too old box - DG and DW don't make it into the pack for the Sky News Top trumps one of my team's husband brought back from the party conference and TM counts as a "veteran"). We seem to have gone to past it without ever being "it" at any point - I suppose there is still Alan Duncan...And my generation of Labour politicos seemed to go nowhere.... we know have a Cabinet of 60 year olds and 38 year olds with nothing in between. Whatever happened to Dave Brown? Gareth Daniel? The nearest we can offer is the official only clever person in the country -- simultaneously charged with sorting out climate change in the morning and systemic bank failure in the afternoon.... the eponymous Lord Turner...and he was at Cambridge.
But the two degrees of separation that is resonating most with those I know is that my cousin's son is a "celebrity" on Strictly Come Dancing (does that make him a second cousin? or something else?). And not just any celebrity, but one who seems to be quite a good dancer. Anyone who has seen me dance (or act) can testify to the power of genetics...
The only problem with basking in reflected fifteen minutes of fame is that I have never met him or my cousin...
Tuesday 28 October 2008
What a difference seven weeks make
Long time, no blog... seems hard to think that only seven weeks ago, PL (Pre-Lehman), we still wondered if recession might be avoided; I only had a couple of bank accounts and the government only owned a couple of banks; the Tories were leading the polls by miles, and Sarah Brown had yet to make a conference appearance; DECC sounded like a brand of 50s electronic goods or something John Prescott might do to a stroppy voter.
So all this has meant busy times...working out how to disentangle bits of climate change from what we do (and concluding that we need a better way of rearranging government to tackle cross-cutting problems, without having to occupy top departmental brains on merging IT systems, finding buildings and appointing even more HR directors). And meanwhile completely failing to book tickets to go over to the US to watch the coronation of King Obama which will make a lot of nine year olds very happy indeed and lose me $100 -- and that is now quite serious money in very feeble pounds.
Tempting to see everything as evidence of catalytic behaviour change towards more sustainable habits - and certainly an undercurrent in some of the press that there are silver linings in recessions- people will be nicer, have more time for each other - perhaps too much as they need not be troubled with the boring inconvenience of work, be weaned off debt-driven competitive consumption and rediscover quilting bees (not sure we ever had those in the UK) as sewing machine sales soar, people discover shoes can be mended and that they do not need a new plasma screen every week. There seem to be huge number fo cyclists in the morning at Hyde Park corner - but that may just be that - until tonight - the weather in October has made up in part for the sheer awfulness of the summer.
But perhaps, the responsible thing now - for people with semi-secure jobs and pensions - is to spend rather than wait for forecast deflation next year. So rather than save - and worry about where to put the cash, the time may have come for an out and out countercyclical consumption binge. But deep thrift is a hard habit to break - and not sure yet that I have yet been catalysed into action.
So all this has meant busy times...working out how to disentangle bits of climate change from what we do (and concluding that we need a better way of rearranging government to tackle cross-cutting problems, without having to occupy top departmental brains on merging IT systems, finding buildings and appointing even more HR directors). And meanwhile completely failing to book tickets to go over to the US to watch the coronation of King Obama which will make a lot of nine year olds very happy indeed and lose me $100 -- and that is now quite serious money in very feeble pounds.
Tempting to see everything as evidence of catalytic behaviour change towards more sustainable habits - and certainly an undercurrent in some of the press that there are silver linings in recessions- people will be nicer, have more time for each other - perhaps too much as they need not be troubled with the boring inconvenience of work, be weaned off debt-driven competitive consumption and rediscover quilting bees (not sure we ever had those in the UK) as sewing machine sales soar, people discover shoes can be mended and that they do not need a new plasma screen every week. There seem to be huge number fo cyclists in the morning at Hyde Park corner - but that may just be that - until tonight - the weather in October has made up in part for the sheer awfulness of the summer.
But perhaps, the responsible thing now - for people with semi-secure jobs and pensions - is to spend rather than wait for forecast deflation next year. So rather than save - and worry about where to put the cash, the time may have come for an out and out countercyclical consumption binge. But deep thrift is a hard habit to break - and not sure yet that I have yet been catalysed into action.
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