Cartoon Time.

Well, the predicted snow (actually sleet - great word BTW) on Thursday has turned into predicted rain..... [lol] No snow this year I think!

The Beginning of Something Significant

As some of my readers will no doubt remember I am attempting (in my own singular and no doubt peculiar way) to read a number of significant books (definition to be finalised) as part of my ongoing lifelong quest to become ‘well read’. Over 10 years I had managed a rather disappointing (AKA paltry) 17 books – less than 2 per year! – and some of those ‘significant’ books are of somewhat limited or specialist significance. I had promised to ‘up my game’ in 2016 and I believe I’ve managed to just about do that with the addition of 2 further books to the list making a grand total of 19. But progress is progress and no progress however slight should be sniffed at. So, as of today the early nucleus of a significant booklist looks like this:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley
Achtung Panzer! – The Development of Tank Warfare by Heinz Guderian
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
About Looking by John Berger
A Vindication of The Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
War on Wheels – The Evolution of an Idea by C R Kutz
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Design as Art by Bruno Munari
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell
The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
The Rebel by Albert Camus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
A Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Guerrilla Warfare by Che Guevara

I think that finally it’s starting to get somewhere. If I can get this to around 50 before I die I’ll be pleased and will actually think that I might just have achieved something. I only have 1 significant book planned so far this year (with 2 more possible) so will see what else I can dig up. I think I should aim for 3 this year. I think that’s achievable. Maybe.

"I know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel than a slave."

Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in 1913.

Cartoon Time.

It’s all going to be fine (they tell us).

Boris Johnson: Brexit doom-mongers are wrong.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has promised that those who "prophesied doom" over Brexit will be proved wrong. He predicted that the UK would get a trade deal "of greater value" with the European Union than it has currently as part of the single market. Mr Johnson told the Foreign Affairs Committee that Commonwealth countries were "stepping up" to reach agreements. But European Council President Donald Tusk said the "only real alternative to a 'hard Brexit' is 'no Brexit'" He said that talk of "soft" Brexit - retaining some form of membership of the single market in exchange for some conceding of control over immigration - and "hard Brexit" - leaving the single market but having fuller control over migration - was purely "theoretical". In a speech in Brussels, he warned that the process would be "painful for Britons" but added: "The brutal truth is that Brexit will be a loss for all of us."

There would be some "sturm und drang" (German for "storm and stress"), he predicted, but added that "we did the right thing and we can make it work". Mr Johnson said: "I think the term 'single market' is increasingly useless. We are going to get a deal which is of huge value and possibly of greater value ... We are going to get the best possible deal for trade in goods and services." Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron seized on Mr Johnson's comments, accusing him of a "bungling performance", adding that it was "clear the only thing which is becoming 'increasingly useless' is Boris Johnson himself". The remaining 27 EU states had "a huge interest" in agreeing a deal which would allow the UK to continue to trade its goods and services, and it was "complete nonsense" to suggest that trade links were dependent on allowing free movement of people. Brexit meant "restoring our democracy and control of our borders and our lives and a fair bit of cash", said the foreign secretary. "But Brexit is not any sort of mandate for this country to turn in on itself and haul up the drawbridge or to detach itself from the international community."

Tesco and Unilever end price dispute.

Issues surrounding the supply of leading brands including Marmite to Tesco have now been resolved, Unilever has said. The supermarket giant and the UK's largest food manufacturer had been locked in a battle over wholesale prices. Unilever had wanted to raise its prices by about 10% to compensate for the steep drop in the value of the pound. But Unilever had to give some ground, the BBC understands. Brands including Hellmann's Mayonnaise had been removed from Tesco's website. "Unilever is pleased to confirm that the supply situation with Tesco in the UK and Ireland has now been successfully resolved," Unilever said. "We have been working together closely to reach this resolution and ensure our much-loved brands are once again fully available. For all those that missed us, thanks for all the love." A Tesco spokesman said: "We always put our customers first and we're pleased this situation has been resolved to our satisfaction." Tesco had earlier on Thursday halted online sales of top-selling goods produced by Unilever such as Persil washing powder, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Marmite yeast extract spread. The BBC understands that those products should be available on the Tesco website again in the coming days.

'Hard Brexit' or 'no Brexit' for Britain – Tusk.

Britain's only real alternative to a "hard Brexit" is "no Brexit", European Council President Donald Tusk has said. Speaking in Brussels, he warned that the EU would not compromise on its insistence that freedom of movement will be a condition for Britain's access to the single market. Mr Tusk will chair meetings of EU leaders negotiating Britain's exit from the 28-member bloc. In his speech, Mr Tusk mocked a Brexit campaign promise that Britons could "have the EU cake and eat it too" - the idea that the UK might manage to keep trade benefits of EU membership while barring European immigrants and rejecting EU courts' authority. "To all who believe in it, I propose a simple experiment. Buy a cake, eat it, and see if it is still there on the plate. The brutal truth is that Brexit will be a loss for all of us. There will be no cakes on the table. For anyone. There will be only salt and vinegar." Mr Tusk also suggested that Britain might ultimately decide not to leave the EU "even if today hardly anyone believes in such a possibility". The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Brussels says this was Donald Tusk raising the alarm. He appears to be deeply concerned about the direction any Brexit talks could be headed, our correspondent adds. However, Mr Tusk again stressed that the choice would be the UK's alone to make whether Brexit "is really in their interest". British officials have so far made no public comments on Mr Tusk's latest statements.

Brexit: Nissan boss meets PM over Sunderland plant fears.

The boss of Japanese car giant Nissan says he is "confident" the government will keep the UK a competitive place to do business after it leaves the EU. Chief executive Carlos Ghosn met Prime Minister Theresa May earlier amid fears over the future of its production plant in Sunderland. He has hinted investment at Sunderland could cease unless compensation is paid for any adverse impact after Brexit. The Sunderland plant, which opened in 1986, employs almost 7,000 people. Mr Ghosn arrived at Downing Street in a black Qashqai, a model made in Sunderland. After the meeting, which lasted about an hour, Mr Ghosn said: "We want to ensure that this high-performing, high-employment factory remains competitive globally and continues to deliver for our business and for Britain. Following our productive meeting, I am confident the government will continue to ensure the UK remains a competitive place to do business. I look forward to continued positive collaboration between Nissan and the UK Government." Mrs May added: "This government is committed to creating and supporting the right conditions for the automotive industry to go from strength to strength in the UK, now and into the future." The Sunderland factory, opened by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, produces about 500,000 Juke, Qashqai and Leaf vehicles a year - a third of the UK's total car manufacturing.

All details above from BBC News website.

[Brexit news has slowed to a trickle lately as, presumably, everyone holds their collective breath before the Supreme Court decision due soon. In other news a top Tory political donor says he will withdraw funding if we leave the EU Single Market – which he says will be catastrophic. Don’t you love it when the rich and (maybe not that) shameless agree with you?]

OK, but how do you top that....!?!

Just Finished Reading: Get Carter by Ted Lewis (FP: 1970)

Jack Carter (played supremely by Michael Caine in the 1971 movie adaptation) has finally found his niche – as a top enforcer for a London crime family. Now he has almost everything he wanted: money, women and stability. So he is less than pleased with the prospect of travelling to his home town in the North of England to attend his younger brother’s funeral. But a mixture of family fealty, guilt and curiosity drives him to attend. Almost from the start Jack senses that something isn’t right with the story everyone seems all too eager to relate to him. Frank’s death was an accident caused by driving drunk. But Jack knows his brother better than that and is certain that he’d never drive drunk even with the best reason in the world. Nor would he have deliberately put himself as risk, in other words commit suicide, no matter the provocation. So why are so many people, powerful crime lords in the North, willing to spend time, effort, money and blood to convince Jack otherwise? Determined to find out what really happened Jack put’s his local knowledge and very special skill set to the test asking very awkward questions and generally being a pain in the arse about things. Little by little Jack is convinced that his brother’s death was neither an accident nor suicide. Only two questions remain – who killed Frank and why? Did he see something he shouldn’t have or did he threaten the wrong people with going to the police? Before the long weekend is over Jack will have his answers to those questions – no matter who he has to intimidate, no matter who he has to threaten and no matter who he has to kill.

I instantly bought this the second I saw it just lying there in my local bookshop. To be honest I had no real idea that one of my favourite movies of all time originated in a classic British Noir novel. But, as is often the case, book and film are rather different beasts. The overall story is the same, family bereavement, funeral, and investigation by hard man, death and destruction, resolution (of a kind). Just about everything else is different apart from the names of the major players. The main action takes place in Doncaster rather than Newcastle (in the movie) and therefore feels far more claustrophobic. Several main players who die spectacularly in the movie surprisingly survive in the book (at least I was surprised by their survival). The thing that raised my eyebrow more than anything else was that the book was far more hard core than the movie. The violence in the book was far more visceral and just plain nasty, there was far more swearing in the book and far more sex too. Doncaster in the book unlike Newcastle (mostly) in the movie was a town in terminal decline, a place almost trapped between its heavy industrial past and its lack of any kind of future. The only really moral character is dead – Frank Carter. Everyone else is either morally neutral or deeply immoral on several levels. Everyone from the police, politicians and the criminals (of which there are many) are singularly corrupt and will practically do anything to anyone to get their own way or to protect their interests. Jack Carter is hardly a hero to admire and freely admits his corruption going back to his childhood – the regular flashbacks are something else absent from the film version. Actually knowing Jack’s and Frank’s relationship (and environment) growing up in Doncaster helped explain the majority of Jack’s actions portrayed in the film - without the benefit of any kind of personal history being shown there. Driven largely by guilt and the fear that his niece (who might possibly even be his illegitimate daughter) has become involved in an industry he views with thinly veiled contempt produces someone who is impossible to ignored but far from easy to admire or even like. I watched the movie not long after finishing the book and managed to see it with a new set of better informed eyes which made the whole experience an interesting one. A recommended read if only to compare the two versions of a story in two different media.

Cartoon Time.