Off to Lisbon – without Honey
September 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’m about to go off for a few days to Lisbon, so I won’t be blogging again until the weekend. I’m having a short break with my sister Silvia, while my wife Vee looks after the cat Honey. When I return, Vee will go off to the Czech Republic with her sister Mari, while I look after Honey.
Honey may not be the oldest cat in the world – although she is almost 20 years old – but she is probably the best looked-after cat on the globe. She is very pretty though – see my favourite photo here.
My sister has never been to Lisbon, but this will be my fifth visit. I love the place and you can see my observations and few pictures here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of “Wuthering Heights” (2)
September 12th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ve recently read the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë [my review here] and now I’ve seen the faithful 1992 film adaptation [my review here].
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
9/11 – as I remember it
September 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It is, of course, the 10th anniversary of the horror that we soon came to call 9/11.
In the autumn of 2001, I was working as Head of Research for the Communication Workers Union and I was due to spend the second week of September as a member of the CWU delegation to the annual Trades Union Congress. That year, the TUC was held in Brighton and I travelled there from my home in London on the Sunday for the start of the Congress on Monday. My diary for Tuesday contains the following record:
“Towards 3 pm, I was waiting for the address by Tony Blair on the private funding of public services and speaking to a trainee called Paul Adams about running one’s web site. Then Paul told me that Bill Morris [chair of the Congress] had just announced that an aircraft had flown into the World Trade Center in New York. At 3.10 pm, the Prime Minister gravely made a short statement about the attack in the USA, abandoned his planned speech, and left for Downing Street – there was a standing ovation.
Like many others, I went to the AEEU stall to watch the BBC News 24. I learned that a second aircraft had hit the South Tower and saw incredible film of the tower collapsing. Later I saw shots of the North Tower collapsing and of the Pentagon on fire. At 3.45 pm, Congress was suspended.
The events in America are outside all our experience and, to cope with the news, Tony Young [CWU Deputy General Secretary] & I walked back to Hove and went to a cafe. In my hotel room, I watched the 6 pm BBC news and my jaw literally dropped at the awful scenes.”
I had twice visited the World Trade Center and then had (and to this day have) a picture in my study showing the New York skyline with the Twin Towers very prominent.
So, where were you on 9/11? How did you first learn of the attacks?
Posted in History | Comments (8)
Visits statistics exceed 8,000 a day
September 10th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Five months ago, I did a posting explaining that the number of visits to my web site had exceeded 7,000 in one day for the first time. Over the next few months, this became a regular occurrence. But my visits statistics always dip in the summer months as people take their holidays.
I know that the summer is over, however, because my visits statistics have now bounced back to record heights. Somehow, the average figure of the five working days of this week was just over 8,100 (the peak day was Wednesday which saw 8,679). Thank you so much for support. Please recommend the site to colleagues and friends.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Is the world about to see the declaration of a new state?
September 9th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Every few weeks, I have dinner with my half-brother Chris who is only a couple of years older than my son. He is incredibly bright and really interested in current affairs, so we always have fascinating discussions. Last night, he told me about the unsettling experience he had recently at the Royal Albert Hall when pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly disrupted a Promenade concert played by an Israeli orchestra.
This led to a long discussion on the history and present state of the Arab/Israeli conflict in which Chris cross-examined on the respective views of the two sides. You can read my review of a book on the Middle East conflict here. Currently the Palestinians are working towards a vote in the United Nations that would recognise the fledgling state. You can read the latest position on the likely UN recognition of a Palestinian state here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Could you survive on a pension of £224,000 year?
September 7th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In the UK, the maximum state pension for a single person – after paying for 30 qualifying years – is £97-65 a week or £5,078 a year. Obviously many of us have an occupational pension as well. The average private sector pension is £9,568 a year but the average public sector pension is only £6,497 a year.
However, the top earners in the private sector ensure that they have astronomical occupational pensions. The annual PensionsWatch report from the Trades Union Congress reveals that the directors of the largest 100 British companies are entitled to an average annual pension of £224,000. In fact, Jeroen van der Veer, a director of Royal Dutch Shell, will receive £1,253,709. Overall, company directors receive a pension worth around 23 times that of their staff.
You can read the full report here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Catrin & I brave a wet and windy London
September 6th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
My darling granddaughter Catrin – now almost eight months – is usually at nursery on weekdays but staff were on a training day today, so her mum and dad asked if I could help out.
It was my fourth babysitting duty with her. In some ways, it was the most challenging. It was the longest shift (10 am – 6 pm) and the weather in London was terrible (very windy and very wet). We certainly kept busy: I fed her four times, I changed her twice, I read her eight books, and we had endless “Up in the air!” games. But Catrin was really wonderful and her good spirits made her an absolute joy to be with.
Also I was helped by being joined for three hours by my young friend Jennifer and her baby boy James who is just three months older than Catrin. We all had lunch together at the Royal Festival Hall and Catrin & James loved each other’s company. Then we braved the winds and took advantage of a dry spell to visit St James’s Park where both Catrin & James were fascinated by the ducks and the squirrels.
Catrin & James discuss the crisis in the financial markets
while tussling over an unsecured asset
“Yes, I’m having a wonderful time. Thank you.”
Catrin & Roger share a cuddle
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Could you survive on pay of £4.5 million a year?
September 5th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The economic recession has resulted in falling real incomes for most UK households. We are told that we are all in this together – but is that true? How are our most senior executives fairing in these troubled times?
According to a study commissioned by the High Pay Commission, leaders of Britain’s top 100 companies saw their pay packages jump by an average of £1.3m to almost £4.5m last year, the biggest leap in nine years,. The average pay deal for a FTSE 100 chief executive soared from £3.09m to £4.45m last year as business leaders were able to enjoy record windfalls from share-based incentive schemes, thanks to a sharp bounce in the stock market.
The study also reveals that:
- In 2002, for on-target performance, FTSE 100 lead executives received a bonus worth 48% of salary. In 2010, for the same level of performance, a FTSE 100 lead executive’s bonus was worth 90% of salary.
- The increase in bonuses has not come at the expense of absolute rises in salary with salaries increasing 63.9% over the last 10 years.
- In 2002, the median maximum grant of shares that a FTSE 100 lead executive could be awarded was 100% of salary. In 2010, this has risen to 200% of salary.
- The average value of Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) awards paid out to lead executives across the FTSE 350 has gone up over 700% since 2000.
You can read the full report here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of “Wuthering Heights” (1)
September 5th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
My summer project in a quiet August was to read a couple of classic English novels. The first one was “A Tale Of Two Cities” which I’ve reviewed here.
I’ve now just finished “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte – a very different work which I’ve reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (3)
What is this and where is it? (2)
September 4th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
A few days ago, I posted a photograph on this blog and asked what it was and where one would find it. The first question was in one sense very easy and the second question was impossibly difficult. Thanks to my friend Nick for having ago at answering them.
Let’s start with the second question. The location is a cafe in Prague’s Small Square which I visited earlier this year.
As to the first question, it is of course a urinal – but is it more than that? is it actually a work of art?
Now this poses the question: what is art? I once went on a three-day course at London’s City Literary Institute which was about art appreciation and we kept coming back to and debating the question: what is art?
In so far as there was a clear answer and in so far as I can remember it, it was suggested that art is:
- something constructed by human intervention (so, for instance, a wave pattern on a sandy beach does not qualify
and/or (this was never quite established)
- something located in a place accepted as for art which need not actually be an art gallery but could be an exhibition or plinth
On this basis, I wonder whether the urinal in my photograph could be considered a work of art. After all, it is a manufactured object and not a natural one and famously Duchamp’s urinal became a controversial work of art. Also it was photographed by me and placed on my blog to be viewed by any one of two billion people connected to the Net.
If it is a work of art, I would like to call it simply “Contrasts”:
- a contrast of objects: the manufactured urinal and fresheners contrasted with the natural fruits
- a contrast of smells: the pungent odour of male urine contrasted with the pleasant smells of fruits and the fresheners
- a contrast of colours: the white of the urinal, the yellow of the lemon slices. the orange of the grapefruit slices, the green of the fresheners
- a contrast of shapes: the triangle of the urinal, the circles of the fruits, the cylinders of the fresheners
So what do you think? Is the object, or at least my photograph of it, a work of art. If not,why not?
Posted in Cultural issues, Miscellaneous | Comments (0)