Recently in Current Affairs Category

Venturing out at lunchtime today to pick up a Big Issue and a copy of the CEN I was alarmed to see that a Cambridge restaurant has been attacked by so called animal rights activists.

Midsummer house is one of the trendier restaurants in Cambridge and has recently bowed to the pressure of activists by removing foie gras from its menu. You can read the online news reports here:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=257435

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fnews%5Fhome/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=257755

Personally I am appalled at the hypocrisy of the activists in this case since they are showing complete ignorance of the scale of bad animal welfare in this country's meat industry in general.

While there is no doubt that the forced-feeding of the animals (duck or goose) involved in fois gras production is ethically dubious, the scale of it pales into pure insignificance compared to the millions of fowl that are reared in broiler houses in this country. Other, larger animals such as pigs and cows fare no better in supplying our nation's appetite for cheap meat.

If any of these activists have indulged in a Tesco chicken or a beef burger at a chain then they should take a long hard look at their actions in Cambridge
and perhaps think twice before throwing bricks through windows.

I would also be willing to bet that the majority of Midsummer House's other meat supply is sourced from much more well treated livestock than most of the eateries in the city.

Some might say that activists' actions at this end of the market will influence things further along the chain. If that were true then shouldn't there also be demonstrations against Formula 1 events by activists concerned about cars causing climate change?

What the activists fail to realise is that most of the public aren't interested in high-end restaurants and what they serve. They are happy to buy cheap chickens from Asda because it is perceived as 'normal'.

I would much prefer to see a peaceful demonstration outside my local Budgens than read about violent protest at low-volume eateries!

Over the last eight or nine months I've become quite a fan of the famous website www.housepricecrash.co.uk . It was good to have a different slant on things. I have to say that lately the excitement factor seems to be wearing off a little, maybe this is due to very good evidence that Britain's house prices are coming down again. Today they took much longer to post the news about the Bank of England's interest rate decision for example. It remains to be seen whether or not we are on the brink of a huge crash of prices, with an inevitable recession, or whether Gordon Brown's miracle economy will keep surging on. Reading their news items back to 2004, when the site started, you can see that there was the distinct possibility of a crash four years ago, but it did not transpire. The terrorist attacks in London of 2005 caused a distinct wobble, however the prices surged on for another two years.

Alan Greenspan's comments about the state of the British economy don't wash well with me. His warnings about impending high interest and inflation rates and the demise of the current housing price bubble strike me as poorly judged, especially when I consider that America has contributed greatly to the financial 'crisis' currently gripping our markets and banks.

This reminds me very much of the Lloyds 'Names' crisis in the last century. Overexposure to dodgy American insurance underwriters and thence to large insurance claims nearly broke a large number of investors who had previously thought that their money was safe.

"Where America goes Britain will follow" we are told. Why should this be? I suspect greed myself. As I understand it the current 'crisis' is brought about due to the American sub-prime lending problem. Potential bad debt has been wrapped up and sold to our banks, and hence we are suffering as a result. Mortgage rates are increasing despite the lack of change in the Bank of England base rate.

To America debt has always been a fact of life, Alistaire Cook mentioned it in his brilliant television documentary series all those years ago. America has used a mechanism called "deficit funding" (I believe) to spend now and pay later on a countrywide scale. Gordon Brown's economic miracle in Britain has used a similar trick to allow borrowing over a cycle - the so called Golden Rule - relying on the fact that the economy should grow over time.

It's sad to think that all this growth has been at a cost to people who live in this country. We now pay much more for our housing, transport, and living expenses, and taxes. I especially accuse the exorbitant council tax for which we get very little back. Gordon has pulled of an amazing trick. He has sneakily mortgaged the country, and hence its population, to the hilt, and has sneaked into Number 10 in enough time to push the blame onto other people. All we are promised now is tough talk from Mr Darling about our responsibilities as consumers to not get into debt. Coupled with the promise of future, so-called, Green Taxes is just another smack in the face of the British public.

So the sustained growth from the last decade is soon to be shown to be the sham it is. It is a great shame that the American sub-prime debt is involved as it is going to compound an effect that was overdue anyway.

NB Green Taxes are currently just another device to extract money without actually making a difference to the climate.

I like the Olympic games, even though it will cost a lot to put on I'm sure there may be some longer-term benefits from the inward investment. Unfortunately I suspect some things may not change:

From Thursday this week (26th of April) until the end of the weekend Cambridge will be seeing a rather interesting set of exhibitions, demonstrations, and a very trendy conference. The photo on the left is the initial setting up of the domes that will host some of the displays and events.

‘Enter Unknown Territories’ or ‘Enter_Unknown Territories’ as it is funkily entitled is a 4 day festival that is bringing together art and new technology. It seems that much of the City will be involved with this. I myself will be attempting to attend a few of the shows or displays. Since Chenapan – our mad cheese-eating friend – will be visiting the town it’ll be interesting to see if we can coax him into coming along to this potentially bizarre series of events.

I noted that one of the major contributors to the organisation of the festival is the famous Bill Thompson. In recent years Bill appears to have become rather a centrepiece of Cambridge life. From his work at last year’s Cambridge Film Festival, to his work with the BBC, it is good to know that Cambridge is home to such diverse and colourful characters!

Returning to the subject in hand, I noticed that one of the major events is a picnic on Parker’s Piece on Sunday at 2pm. This could be a very community spirited event, or it could be totally overrun by scavvers. Only time will tell. If I obtain any interesting footage in the next few days it will, naturally, be shared here on nofear.org!

Click the various links above for more information.

I�d just seen "Goodbye Lenin!" prior to watching this film, both films used the Berlin Wall as their backdrop but that is where the similarity ended!

I don't know what the media coverage has been like in other parts of the world, but the operation on Ladan and Laleh Bijani had been getting a large amount of press coverage here in the UK.

Cycling to work this morning I heard the sad news of their untimely deaths. We can't possibly imagine the kind of life they had to live for the last 29 years, and the fact they managed to achieve so much, despite their condition, is a lesson to us all.