Back in Black

I really need to stop fantasising about the new Black 13″ Macbook.

My poor G4 iBook is feeling unloved.

Capital Assets

James Bartholomew, who wrote the book The Welfare State We’re In, writes an ‘Ode to Capitalism,’ in today’s Telegraph, here.

Can’t help agreeing with nearly everything he has to say.

The Bucharest Request

I’m thinking of a couple of days in Bucharest. It’s going to be a key location in my novel, and I don’t want to write about a place I haven’t visited.

Have any of the readers been to Romania?

On Independent Booksellers

Yesterday, I read a rather lengthy article on the, once great, British book trade, which appeared in The Guardian.

You can read Part One, here, and Part Two, here.

Rather surprisingly, the article was rather optimistic about the future of our glorious independent booksellers. Stephen Moss, the author, travels across the country, interviewing the owners of successful, relatively small, independent bookshops.

I assumed that small bookshops were an endangered species, with no chance of fighting off the industry behemoths, such as Waterstones, Boarders, and Ottakar’s, not to mention the huge discounting capacity of online-only titan Amazon. But it seems, as is the case in many retail sectors, that specialisation, or exploiting the benefits of localism, can make a diminutive bookshop, a sustainable enterprise.

It’s a refreshing read, and it’s heartening to read about buccaneering Britons, using their expertise, labour, and enterprise, to maintain a limpet-like toehold in a saturated, and increasingly cutthroat, market. Indeed, the overwhelming message from these successful literary entrepreneurs is, “Don’t discount.” A business model based on informed service, community links (book groups, signings, etc), a clever location, and great coffee, can, it seems, offer reasonable returns.

I live in the Nottinghamshire market town of Newark-on-Trent. We have a population of around 35,000, and we have 3-bookshops, which considering our proximity to the second-hand bookshop Mecca, that is Lincoln, is fairly good. One of our bookshops is a heavily discounted publisher outlet, where stock, unsold at the suggested retail price, is sold off, probably at a loss. We also have a popular Christian Bookshop, which has recently relocated to larger premises, suggesting a vociferous appetite for priestly tomes, and books about rugby players, who have found God.

The third and final bookshop is Buy The Book, which appears to be an outlet of a regional book co-operative, with other stores dotted around the local towns. It has a fairly good selection of fiction and non-fiction, a brilliant children’s section, and a cracking little coffee shop. And the shop appears, at least this is the impression I get, to be a central hub of the community’s aspirational bourgeoisie.

The assistants (or should I say booksellers?) who ably man the tills at Buy The Book, are informed, passionate, and friendly. They talk to your children, as the fidgeting tykes mess with the point-of-sale paraphernalia, and conspire with them about hoodwinking mummy or daddy into buying them a bookmark or some other literary-related tat. They know the difference between the LRB, and TLS, and they know what ‘dialectic’ means. I wonder, do you get the same informed service in Boarders, or am I just being conceited? Anyone who remembers Waterstones, a decade ago, and has been in one recently, will know what I mean.

Newark is a rural conservative town; we have a cattle market, antiques fair, and a true-blue Tory MP. So it’s fair to say that it’s not full of coffee-drinking liberals, save, perhaps of course, yours truly, yet Newark’s few continental style coffee shops, do a roaring trade. You see the British people are increasingly ambitious, both culturally, and intellectually. We can see that the benefits of having a good booksellers in our town, outweighs the increased cost of procuring the latest Nick Hornby. We know we can buy the same book for 40% less, on Amazon, yet we still love our bookshop. Why? Because it’s our bookshop.

Excuses, excuses….

Oh no, not more ‘Blogosphere fatigue…’

I am currently engrossed in a fairly large project, which will hinder regular posting to this blog. In fact I’m writing a novel. I have written just over 5,200 words; I expect the final text to be around the 150,000-word mark, so it’s a decent start, but a long way to go.

I will not be providing a synopsis, just yet, as I’m careful not to give anyone the chance to gazump my idea. No doubt I’ll still blog away, just not as frequently as I have been.

Yugoslavia is dead, long live Montenegro

The last remnants of Yugoslavia, which was formed from the rotting carcass of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, were yesterday cleared away in pro-independence celebrations in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital.

In a popular referendum (which I first referred to here), the separatist movement secured 56.3% of the vote, easing past the 55% threshold that would trigger fragmentation from its larger Serbian neighbour. The decision also, in effect, land locks the Serbian state, which was once the dominant partner in the former Yugoslavia. The two-nations will continue to field a unified team in this summers World Cup in Germany, which will represent a final swansong for the fractious alliance.

Created in late 1918, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia enjoyed only two-decades of independence before Axis forces seized it in 1941. At the end of the Second World War, the country was absorbed into the Soviet Empire. It should come as no surprise, that a state defined by war, should become consumed by it. As the USSR collapsed in the early nineties, ethnic, religious, and political divisions within the region led to a bloody conflict, with only NATO intervention preventing complete regional collapse.

After Slovenia’s peaceful, and successful, dislocation from the Yugoslavian federation in June 1991, Macedonia, which boarders modern Greece, also enjoyed a serene path to independence. Throughout the late nineties however, Serbia, Bosnia, and the province of Kosovo, fought to cede themselves from the Serbian yoke. Religious and ethnic factions, with examples of genocide, defined the wars. And even now, half-a-decade after NATO forces forced an end to the war (with months of bombardment), the Serbian nationalists are successfully rewriting recent history, to erase their contributions to the massacres, and fermenting animosity with its neighbours.

Pro-unionist factions within Montenegro are predictably crying foul, saying the referendum was rigged; they are also alluding to a violent conclusion to the debate. It is also unclear as to how Belgrade will respond to the result. The Serbian capital is already under immense pressure to turn over two former leaders to The Hague, to stand against war crime charges. If Serbia is to have any chance of a future within the European Union, it must acquiesce to a peaceful separation.

But the history of Yugoslavia is not quite complete. Later in the year the status of Kosovo must be resolved, with guarantees provided to protect its disparate ethnic minorities. While the West has never explicitly referred to an independent Kosovo, it is certainly on the cards, with increased autonomy from Belgrade. The province of Kosovo has a deep resonance with the Serbian people, as they consider the land to be the cradle of the Serbian people, and any independent Kosovo Albanian state, would no doubt increase nationalistic anger in Serbia.

We should welcome the Montenegrin referendum, as the voice of its people, but we should avoid oversimplifying the region. Over forty percent of the people rejected independence, and ethnic populations do not adhere to lines drawn on a map. In the Balkans there remains all the ingredients for a further outbreak of violence, and overt inference from Western politicians could encourage nationalist tendencies to fester.

We should keep our eyes on the region, but keep our interference to a minimum.

‘Inside Iraq’s hidden war’

The Guardian has a feature of the increasing violence in Iraq, further evidence of the country’s slide into civil war, here.

Dora used to be one of Baghdad’s most mixed neighbourhoods. Shia, Sunnis and Christians all lived together. The Christians were the first to leave after attacks on their churches. They were followed by the Shia, killed and intimidated by Sunni insurgents. Then came the Shia retaliation, raids by interior ministry commandos, Mahdi army death squads; scores of Sunni men detained only for their mutilated bodies to reappear later.

Today gun battles erupt every week, between Sunnis defending their patch against the Shia militias or Shia defending their homes against the Sunni insurgents.

I remember reading about Vietnam veterans, who, when returning to the country, twenty or so years later; they were brought to tears by the sight of people missing limbs, and the incredible number of fatherless and widowed women.

Arsenal lose the battle, but win the war

With only a few weeks untill the World Cup, British football received a massive boost from an unlikely source… a Frenchman!

From the BBC:

Thierry Henry is set to end months of speculation over his future by signing a new contract at Arsenal, inspired by their Champions League final display.
Henry, whose contract runs out next year, had been linked with a move to Champions League winners Barcelona.

“I hope to stay as long as I can keep running. I couldn’t leave the fans. They’re like family,” he told The Sun.

“I love Barcelona, but on Wednesday Arsenal showed they had heart. I hope to finalise details today.”

Mr. Zhisou, on Wednesday’s final, here.

Film | The Da Vinci Code: More poor reviews

The Guardian: 1/5 “Chased for days and days, they do not need to eat or sleep or use sentences that ordinary human beings would use.”

The Telegraph: N/A “…two and a half hours of rambling rubbish.”

The Times: 3/5 “To his eternal credit, Howard illuminates entire chapters by making them look like suppertime at Hogwarts”

The Independent: 1/5 “More dog’s dinner than Last Supper”

To be fair, any film set in a library, a gallery, and a few churches, was always going to be acquired viewing.

Popcorn…Updated

Just watching the Bill Murray film Broken Flowers. I got the DVD for my birthday last week.

Will report back.

It was rather strange, good, but strange. For those who have seen it, I’m mulling over my conclusion.

Eric Forth dies

Eric Forth (1944-2006)

Guido Fawkes, here, pays tribute to the Conservative MP, and former minister, Eric Forth, who died last night in Charing Cross Hospital. Eric was suffering from cancer.

Another real character is lost from our increasingly moribund parliament.

A by-election in his constituency of Bromley, where Forth comanded a 13,000 strong majority, will be held later in the year.

UK Credit: Latest

Further to my last post, I have checked the Credit Action website for the latest UK debt statistics.

See below: -

At the end of March 2006 the total UK personal debt was £1,182bn. The growth rate remains strong at 10.2% for the previous 12 months which equates to an increase of £100bn.

Total secured lending on homes in March 2006 was £990.8bn. This has increased 10.8% in the last 12 months.

Total consumer credit lending to individuals in March 2006 was £191.4bn. This has increased 7.5% in the last 12 months.

Total lending in March 2006 grew by £9.6bn. Secured lending grew by £9.3bn in the month which was well above both the increase in February and the previous six month average. Consumer credit lending grew by £0.3bn in the month which was much lower than in February.

Average household debt in the UK is approximately £7,751 (excluding mortgages) and £47,866 including mortgages.

Average owed by every UK adult is approximately £25,364 (including mortgages). This grew by ~ £200 last month.

Average consumer borrowing via credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured personal loans has risen to £4,107 per average UK adult at the end of March 2006. This has grown 52% in 5 years.

Britain’s personal debt is increasing by ~ £1 million every four minutes.

Two words: Relentless and unsustainable.

Are we at the precipice of a recession?

I have written many times about the fragility of the highly indebted Anglo-Saxon economies of the US and UK. The potential tipping point may well be around the corner, as yesterday the FTSE suffered its largest one-day slump since October 2002, after four continuous days of tumbling stock values. The Dow also suffered significant losses (-214 pts), and after reaching almost record highs a few weeks ago, it’s now up only 4% on the year. The NASDAQ Tech index is now down on the year.

The market is spooked [FT: subscription req] after interest rate warnings on both sides of the Atlantic. All this, comes after months of city-types claiming that the fundamental rules of economics, do not apply to the current bull market, which has kept our economies growing despite unstable levels of consumer lending. As Jeff Randall argued in yesterdays Telegraph, “Financial gravity is never abolished, merely deferred. History has much to teach us, including that experts are temporary but common sense is permanent.” Wise words you’ll no doubt agree.

Anyone with a modicum of financial nous, would advise investors to be cautious, and consumers, to drastically limit their level of spending and work to reduce their indebtedness, over the next few years.

More on Chris Langham

I have just read a Chris Langham interview in The Guardian, here.

I was quick to attack Langham, when the news of criminal charges went public, but this was the result of a great deal of disappointment. I should have kept my powder dry. Thankfully some of my wiser readers were quick to question my youthful moral self-righteousness.

Clearly Langham is a pitiable character, who had a difficult childhood, and has suffered many addictions in his adult life. I’m not making excuses, downloading child porn (which Langham is alleged to have done), is contemptible as it provides a demand for a deeply wicked act. But I’m not sure collectively [the media] destroying the career of an actor is the best response.

If he’s guilty he should be punished, but redemption, and forgiveness, starts here.

Art | Seamlessly beautiful

A somewhat fantastical collection of artworks can be found over at haha.nu