Thoughts from abroad
I never thought it would happen, but the UK becomes increasingly "foreign" Perhaps it's a comparison with the pace of life here in Provence, but the volume of traffic in Britain is amazing as is the aggressive driving often experienced!
Lovely weather in Scotland; had lunch outside on 23rd October in 20°C sunshine and made the trip to Cape Wrath lighthouse.
Wedding went very well and we left for home the next day via a ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam.
We did the whole journey in a car lent to us by the local Citroën dealer, as the car we had on order would not arrive on time. We picked it up with 500 kilometers on the clock and returned it reading 5,500 k!
We made another visit from 8th to 15th December. Strange how journeys turn out; we set off early on Saturday with snow on the ground and worried about the rest of France. In fact the snow had fallen across France, but the motorway roads were fine, no traffic so we had a lovely run right to within 17 k of Calais.
We went so that I could go to an ICL reunion, but the high spots were helping Guy & Sa buy & transport stuff for their new house, and having dinner with friends Liz & John in Putney.
Carols again
W got back in time to have a last rehearsal before our performances. We did a new carol this year, called "St. Nicolas' lament." It originates in Lorraine and reflects the huge, dark forests and the myths and fables that they seem to generate.
The plot paints a somewhat different figure to our chubby, cheerful Father Nicholas and in short:
Three children are gleaning in the fields and realising they are lost ask the butcher if they could stay with him. Absolutely says the butcher, we have a place for you; as soon as they enter he kills them, chops them into small pieces and puts them in brine in a big barrel.
Seven years later the great St. Nicolas asks the butcher if he could stay the night. The butcher agrees and st. Nicolas is invited to supper. He declines the ham as it was bad and declined the roast as it was not done, but asks for seven year old salted meat; At this point the butcher realises the game is up and scarpers St Nicolas makes the sign of three fingers and the children awake.
Shades of Sweeney Todd!!
Both concerts seemed to go well
Politics
I guess it has always been the case that politics and government are often different things. It is fascinating to see the Liberal Democrats struggling to balance their political beliefs and the demands of government.
I see the same here in France. M. Hollande's political programme included steps to tax the rich more. He has introduced increased taxes leading to a flight of the rich to other countries, mostly Belgium and Switzerland, such that the revenue from the rich will go down.
So what does M. Hollande do? Stick to his guns (good politics, bad government) or revoke the new laws (good government, bad politically)?
If there is one thing that stirs me up it is the performance of the British Civil Service. Not at the level where we are likely to met them, but the higher echelons.
Two recent examples The fiasco of letting the contract for running the West Coast line is amazing. Of course I don't know all the details, but the contract seems to be deeply flawed. One, it was let to the highest bidder, but that bid was only the highest because it estimated (guessed,) bigger passenger growth. Secondly, the payments by the winners were largely back-ended. After 5 years the winning company would owe billions of pounds, and only suffer a penalty of £190 million if they walked away from the contract.
The board of a public company may well argue that its primary duty to shareholders could well give it no option but to abandon the contract!
Second example is the disgusting case of a MP using parliamentary privilege to publicly accuse a firm of immorality by avoiding tax payment (I think it was Starbucks. She neglected to mention the thousands of people employed by them, collecting their taxes and paying social security contributions.)
Tax avoidance is not even illegal, let alone immoral. It behoves the Civil Service to get their act together, use the brightest people they have to write the financial rules in such a way that companies cannot avoid corporation tax. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Not if the proper effort is mobilised.
And herein lies the rub! For me, the biggest problem in getting things done properly is the outdated class structure in the Civil Service. The brightest people go into "policy making" and don't see fit to get involved with the "nitty-gritty" of managing contract letting or writing financial rule books. Only when the brightest get involved will we begin to compete with all the bright people who work for the big companies & consultancies.
