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  • A sign of things to come?

    A new bar is opening near where I live but I have no intention to go there.

    It’s a great little outfit in a unit beneath some new apartments. It sits nicely on a corner looking out up and down a street rammed with night clubs and other shops.

    There’s a McDonald’s, too, and a Black Sheep Coffee outlet on another corner further up the road.

    It makes sense, then, to have a bar here and I’m sure the owners have done their due diligence in their research. It must make business sense to have a bar here that makes a splash on the scene. There’s a BrewDog pub in another part of town, and that does a roaring trade, also.

    I don’t mind going for a drink but I’m not a bar type of guy. I’ll sit in a pub a few times but mostly on my own, as I don’t like company when I’m drinking – and thinking.

    I like a chat as I walk about – and maybe a few words at work.

    I say this because a new bar is a new opportunity for many of those who like a new drinking hole to get in on.

    It makes a home out of a place that may not feel like it, sometimes, without someone talk to (it’s well known that bars are a good place for a chat).

    I looked at it today and it looks great. It appears a photographer was on site to deal with the promotional side of things, and a few members of staff hanging around (no doubt for extra training, as well).

  • Society weddings get a boost

    The Duke of Westminster – a poorly known chap – is due to get married shortly, to the woman of his choice.

    They’ve visited a church in Chester – aptly named Chester Cathedral – and plan to tie the knot in June. It looks set to be a happy affair.

    The only trouble of course is that it seems so irrelevant. I for one have been to numerous weddings of far greater importance than a Duke who’s worth is in the billions.

    I am being sarcastic, of course.

    As much as the diehards among us want to believe it’s all over (‘and it is now’, etc., etc.), it’s clearly still going ahead for society in the UK, where weddings and some funerals have passed without a hiccup of late.

    It’s a good sign that there’s faith still in its institution (even if we see through the cracks). There’s purpose in all those weddings, I assume, that happen as much as in hotel’s as fuck ups in youth hostels.

    There’s a general sense that here we still want to do things but with a little less impression attached to it.

    I mean that in saying the Duke of Westminster is known as a reserved, retiring sort of a guy. He likes to be around people but not get up to much at the same time.

    This isn’t personal knowledge per se, but it gets around what people are really like and it seems a marriage in his war chest is just another shield to hang on a wall as well. It keeps him – and his family – going fairly nicely.

    It’s the way marriages are, these days, a bit of a day and a few children to boot – then the rest is life, as it is.

  • Potholes and plaintiff’s

    Where I live potholes have been a problem for a long time, but it’s getting better.

    The repeated projects to lay new roads has worked in many areas – step by step, I mean – and this makes a difference beyond the overall ascetic.

    It’s not nice turning into a glorified trench as you visit a friend or return home (and the car doesn’t like it, either).

    There are so many things wrong with decay that we try to bring it up as many times as possible in as many conversations that centre around local politics which come up.

    Or at least, that is before it gets too boring to mention it again.

    But what else is there that is actually interesting that just local politics covers?

    Not a lot, in my view, unless it’s a problem you spotted.

    It makes it real if it’s personal so it’s worth trying again to bring it up since potholes don’t go away overnight.

  • A new leader, and a few steps back?

    The Scottish National Party – a firebrand nationalist outpost for Scottish independence – has elected its new leader in John Swinney, a relative unknown name in English politics.

    I say “unknown”, because most of the time Scottish politics has a job trying to trend in England with anything on the agenda unless it fits an agenda here.

    The election of a new leader peaks in daytime news, but its importance is left understated.

    It may also be beyond most who need to know just how far Scotland has edged toward independence.

    How does the election of John Swinney change the status quo is a question that we need to answer, because the future of the homegrown nationalist movement depends on it, and it’s answer is what we need to know.

    Yet, the general thread is that Scotland doesn’t really need to let us know anyway, does it? I mean, what would it matter if Scotland were independent tomorrow, for instance.

    Does it even ‘take place’ in England, at all?

    The issue of constitutional politics is a vast one, because it involves so many of us and all of the moving parts of state. It might be pointed out that Scotland is already there so what does it matter what it says about itself?

    It’s worth noting London is still there, as well, so it makes sense to scratch beneath the surface a lot deeper.

    I’m not familiar with his name either, but that’s not the game, is it?

    The point is that Swinney now has a chance to lead the SNP out of the doldrums and into something better than the hiring and firing which is what the SNP has done of late.

    The earlier days of the SNP with Alex Salmond at the helm having long since passed and without a face and a bit of name recognition to its credit, it struggles to make a case anymore.

  • The Muslim vote wat’ won it

    In the recent local elections, a few ‘truths’ emerged; sometimes the Tories lose badly, other times Labour actually poll fairly well.

    These are, of course, two extremely broad definitions of politics that almost defy definition, sometimes, in that they seem such a broad a church respectively that to even bother explaining them without just a sheer focus on Jesus is pointless.

    Many of us beg to differ, of course.

    We don’t see politics like that, and thanks to modern enlightenment we see things in a very different way between each other. We don’t see ‘truths’, we see ourselves.

    This leads us to an organisation called The Muslim Vote, aptly titled and so-called aside, it looks to be a very engaging if only dynamic political group online, and off.

    There has to be substance or weight to a political movement if it’s going to succeed and not just stick in our imaginations as a clever idea or some great new effort that won’t go anywhere. Take Momentum for example, and you get the point.

    The group The Muslim Vote says that this year the Muslim community politically organised in its first ever coordinated effort to influence a set of elections. These would be local elections where Muslims tend to feel that things are not reflective of the way they want to live in local areas in England.

    The import of the far-right (which is neither imported nor exported) in the UK is usually in local areas and has its effect in local neighbourhoods and around the sort of Mosque’s that don’t always invite trouble but get the addresses right if they do.

    These are the more provocative times and moments that the Press in the UK want to ignore, but they happened, and they still do, I guess.

    Yet, The Muslim Vote has trended in the same Press behind a ‘character’ in Leeds who won his seat on a local council through that old fashioned method of campaigning, and connecting with local voters through a blog about growing vegetables.

    This is how ‘truths’ come up, now, but it’s not the way realities bear down on us.

    Councillor Mothin Ali is certainly not an eccentric for wanting to grow his own food, and get a seat on a local authority, but anything else about his life may still fall into this unfortunate category.

    It’s a fact that being Muslim is still not understood unless it’s there, in person, and not the subject of debate or controversy.

    The feeling and reality of being Muslim is still not in the political mindset or public perception of what it’s like to feel and live like a Muslim. These two ways of describing the situation will never include my own thoughts unless I meet the criteria for being one.

    Hence, our way of representative democracy.

    The election of a candidate who is not you is not a cause for celebration, unless you voted for him or her, or that you missed hearing about them but their work will benefit you, anyway. It means though that there are at least a portion of the local population who definitely felt the need for someone else, rather than the preferred candidates of other residents.

    This is democracy, and this is the way it works. It’s upsetting at times but it gets the initial job done. The rest is left to Mr Ali and what he decides to do with the time allotted to him.

  • Khan is on a high, but what is the way forward?

    The election of a new mayor in London has concluded, and Sadiq Khan has secured an “historic” third term, according to news outlets here in the UK.

    His win is secured on the back of surging prices of accommodation, outdated modes of policing that have led to surging knife crime and anti-social behaviour, and an uncertainty over the future of London itself.

    It’s not clear yet what Khan will do with an “historic” third term. His legal background has so far stood him in good stead, allowing him the necessary skills to argue his way off difficult questions, and an opposition keen to take pot shots at his record in office.

    A Tony Blair-style run is obviously impressive, but it doesn’t mean the problems have or will go away.

    He needs to work hard on his legacy, because so far there is little to show for his social improvements in a city still struggling with homelessness; uncertainty over affordable accommodation; and student discontent that has spilled over into anarchy over Gaza, and many other issues.

    The most telling characteristic is silence, a sense of a need to speak about matters in a civil and more public way.

    The main characteristic of a Londoner (in my view) is what they have to say.

    Yes, it’s a painful way of rebuke, but it’s a better way to address issues than just speaking through a representative.

    Our way of democracy is by representation, but I fear this has superseded ordinary engagement that supports chambers that host debate.

    I’ve no doubt others may see this too, but a question is if the Mayor will use his latest term to make way for a more public voice to rise above the noise of the traffic.

  • Casual celebrity dining enjoys a trend in London

    It’s not unfamiliar now to hear of a famous name cooking up a storm on TV.

    In the UK, we’ve enjoyed a wide array of chefs who’ve turned their talents to television and regaled us with their culinary skills. It’s a staple feature of a television schedule to learn about a new style of cuisine we can try ourselves at home, if we want.

    This is not the extent of it, however.

    We’re encouraged to buy their books, but we can also sample their inspired dishes in one of their own branded restaurant outlets, sometimes in our local areas, but also in our capital city, London.

    I’ve walked past more than a few of these and they always inspire for their choice of cuisine, such as Jamie Oliver: Catherine St.

    The front of the restaurant
    An A-board sign outside
    The menu board to look over
    An outdoor seating area

    It’s situated just near Covent Garden, and boasts a good ambience and small outdoor seating area.

    The menu is worth a good look, too, and I saw a few suggestions for typical British fair. It looks nice, a homely selection of meats and salads (and a few other things, like starters) to wet the appetite.

    It goes without saying there are plenty of other places to eat nearby, but this is one option that stood out to me.

    I guess it’s the name recognition, and I like television star Jamie Oliver’s choice of ingredients too. It fits my palate – and my stomach!

    Why not have a look around, and see the variety of ways food is advertised in our time, such as by famous names.

    It’s not just in the look, it’s in the signature style, as well.

  • Local businesses inject their own life

    A local business is something of a local pride for many of us.

    It may be a brand that started in a street and grew to become a household name. It’s not something that we want to keep to ourselves but it stamps itself on the local area, first, and then moves to shake other quarters of an industry somewhere else.

    I like local businesses too, but I also appreciate local business in itself. I prefer to visit a supermarket where I live rather than shop on the go, or somewhere I’m working or visiting or just another location entirely.

    It’s a preference because it’s a regularity that I like and a familiarity I appreciate.

    It’s the same for those who buy their goods and wares from the same business year in and year out. There’s a charm about it, too, in that a local business owner can strike up a relationship themselves and let us know about what’s new in, or what’s due to be phased out.

    There are some good bargains on hand, too.

    This is the way of local areas. These are places that provide us with what we need and it’s the same across the country.

    It may be a day out is taken in a different place, such as a larger city or even the capital city, but where we live is really where we have all that we need.

  • What is farming worth these days?

    The sight of Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime (season one, for me) is something to behold, considering what we know about farming in the UK.

    It’s not often that a positive image of a farm is found through a medium such as television. It doesn’t present well because of the mud and the grit, perhaps. We’re used to seeing that in more military surrounds, and not in the backwoods of the Cotswold’s.

    Yet, Jeremy Clarkson – a well-known television presenter and journalist in the UK – has turned his fortunes around after an ailing Top Gear stint to prove that farming is still relevant, even in rural areas.

    The sight of Diddly Squat Farm is more of a miracle, than a feature, of the English countryside.

    In that, farming shops do ok, but they’re not a booming business as much as fancy bread shops in a center of town or even the artisanal section of a supermarket.

    A farm is what it is; muddy, dirty, and tough work. It looks it. Yet, it’s also a vital part of our food provision. It’s what we need, after all, for a healthy and sustainable diet.

    I like farming culture as well. It looks fanciful for me to try it, but the attitude and the awareness farmers tend to have toward conservation – and yes, even climate change – is a noble feature of it.

    In our history, nobility often retreated to the countryside to think more sager thoughts, and it would appear we have others today who seek to do the same thing, if to make a few quid off it, as well.

  • It’s a short walk to ‘The Tipperary’

    Pubs come and go in London… if you’re on a pub crawl, that is.

    A good ‘crawl’ around London is just what some need to shake off the days blues, and a pint here and a pint there is just what a doctor should order us to do.

    Alas, we tell ourselves to just get on with it, and stop at the first bar that comes to mind.

    The Tipperary in Fleet Street, London is exactly what some of us need to cast away the day’s cares and get down to some serious banter, and a drink or two.

    As you can see, it’s now a sprawling empire in miniature after a brief bout of closure, and that’s since been resolved by its grand reopening on an historic street famed for its rigorous paper journalism.

    A look at the new pub frontage
    The sign that hangs above a side entrance
    Another part of the pub’s sprawl
    An inside view of an outside courtyard

    There’s some new stuff either side of it, too, so it’s worth a good look at for a bit of light shopping with a drink or two to settle down with afterwards.

    It’s a classic, well-known pub in a big city that has plenty to offer and an equal number of those who find it a pleasure to drink it all in, so it’s well worth a look in.

  • Empty shops, empty hearts?

    I took an underground train to West Brompton station in London, yesterday, and photographed and videoed as I walked through.

    It’s an interesting part of London; a small neighbourhood, and a tranquil place to walk and pace yourself on an afternoon out.

    I say ‘tranquil’, because there’s also a surprising lack of activity. I say that, also, in view that many of its shop fronts have now been transformed, and look like houses, and not commercial spaces.

    These are examples of what is happening – and seen – across the country, and all across our towns and cities.

    I do not bemoan the arrival or emergence of phone or vape shops, for example, as these exhibit simplicity that we need. I like them because they are what I can head for in a straightforward way and makes my shopping experience easier, at least.

    It’s simple to find a phone shop these days, and to find what you want. It should be the case everywhere, and with everything.

    In times past, we have prospered over the simple things in life that brought us income and wealth. It wasn’t someone’s idea that we could ‘sell’ to the world, but staples that we brought in and sent out (sometimes in a stylised way).

    It’s our ideas that keep us here, but our trade that gets us places, and this is the truth with footfall. If there is sufficient here to engage the mind, and to open the wallet, it’s sufficient to get us out and about again.

    I don’t know if West Brompton or beyond seeks an answer as to its streets lined with houses in former shop units, as it may want that, but I doubt it’s nice to live around if what someone wants is a coffee, or a grocery shop to visit, or even an arcade, or something, to browse around.

    We are people who ‘look’, and it beats television, sometimes.

  • Save our parks

    It’s interesting that we have so many parks.

    I can see them all around London, such as at Kensington Gardens, a palatial grounds of space (and lots of grass).

    There’s a wonder about it, too. There’s Round Pond, a magnificent body of water that is as ‘round’ as it suggests.

    There are also trees aplenty, lining the paths of the park (there’s a coffee kiosk, too).

    I’ve seen plenty of people running through it, and walking, too, in groups.

    It’s an interesting place to be, and live, if you want.

    There’s also an interesting debate about how parks look, in London.

    Is it right? Is it looking lovely enough? Is it the right feature – such as a fountain – for a London park?

    I don’t doubt these questions occupy the minds of many who live here (they’d occupy me, too).

    However, the question isn’t a quibble but it’s a reality that park planners must face, too.

    It’s a dilemma – who do we serve, taste or interest? I have no idea (I’ll leave it to the professionals).

    There is a way about parks that make them so public. It’s a sort of accessibility, a sort of wonder about them, that makes them nice to be in.

    They’re easy for all of us to use, and they’re free. They cost, but access each day is free for us, to use it as we please, too.

    Take for instance a picnic, or a walk and talk in the park. This is the stuff we’re made for, surely.

    Parks have a long history here (and interest), so let’s keep them, and let’s also stay interested.

  • A cabby in London is worth…

    A cab driver in London works all hours for low pay, but he gets the prestige of working in a big city…surely?

    It’s not so clear.

    The average rate of a taxi driver is determined by his work, and passenger numbers, so it’s not a job that’s going to go anywhere.

    Unlike his passengers, perhaps, a taxi driver enjoys a steady income, and that’s it.

    He doesn’t get the fluctuating wage, perhaps, or the pay rise that makes headlines, as often as he wants.

    It’s a steady job, but it’s slow moving.

    It goes as slow as he does – around his head, around the bend, and into a dead end, just to drop someone off.

    “It’s in the doldrums”, so he might say, longingly, over his steering wheel.

    It’s not a princely life, either.

    It doesn’t pay the bills they want, perhaps – a posh haircut here, a fancy holiday there, and a new car to share – at some point.

    “It’s a soldier’s life…”, he might also bemoan, a typical tale of being seen to do something, but not a lot.

    There’s a fairytale about it, but it doesn’t elicit much from the imagination. There isn’t much to go on, except a seat.

    What is there in a taxi, or a ‘cab’, but someone else with a story, and not the driver?

    His is a simple job, with a simple end, and so is ours, perhaps.

    “We’re all simple, in the end”, he proverbially opines, fictionally, over a dissimilar steering wheel.

    There’s truth in a cab driver, but not much in his job, so I think.

  • Public services deserve a raise

    If you look at the Tower lifeboat station, along the river Thames, in London, it looks as though public services are in rude health.

    The RNLI have access to public funds – that being, private donations made by individuals who support them through their advertising, and their campaigning, and fundraising.

    It’s not a publicly funded service, in the sense of a national health service, or fire service, and it doesn’t get public funding from the Government.

    There it is, however – a public service for the good of those dying at sea, or stuck in trouble in a river, for example.

    There is reason to hope that privately funded – that is, charitably funded – enterprises can work for the good, for the long term.

    It’s possible, and it’s not only seen with the RNLI.

    There’s ample opportunity to see more privately schemed, resourced, and financed projects working up and down the country.

    There’s a matter to consider of whether it’s best run privately, or run that way and publicly funded. But, it’s a vitally needed service that’s there, at least.

  • Building ambitions: One Leadenhall and London’s future

    London’s changing, not burning, and its ambitions are for the good, not the worse, of the UK.

    Yet, are these ambitions up to scratch?

    One Leadenhall is another development on London’s epic building bend, a star struck skyscraper skyline that boasts not less than a few stellar examples of ambition and London’s jettisoned reach into global corporate warfare.

    It’s a stunning sight to see; The Shard sits over the river to our right, and up ahead is the new One Leadenhall development, and over to the left are the leftovers of yet more star projects that have proved their worth, and now have to show it.

    It’s not easy to prove you’re in it to win it, but at the base of it – here in central London – it seems the town is on a winning ticket.

    The investment is hard to come by in a world packed with people willing to do what it takes to put their degree to good use, or their family finance up in the air, as many of our heavyweight names have done so.

    Look at the family hotel developers, or the finance titans that have put down footprints in our towns and cities.

    The share of hotels and apartment complexes that make sense when you think about it – when you think about people wanting to spend money, not save it after they’ve earned it.

    It’s not about retirement anymore, it’s about living it while we’ve got it.

    The development of One Leadenhall (see below) is just one of many, but it takes the interest of some because of its location, and because of its worth.

    Picture #1
    Picture #2
    Picture #3

    As I wrote before, however, it’s the task ahead that needs to be focused on, and completed.

    It’s the task of filling it, not basking in it.

    If you look at Photo #1, for instance, you see a sense of expectation. It’s not easy to wait for a future, but it’s there when you’ve got it.

    The hopes of the ‘youth’, so-called, are still set on the old ways, but they know they’ve got to be ‘new’, in it.

    Our phrases and sayings are not the same, after all.