Is It A Crime To Be Young?

In Barnsley town centre tonight and for the next six months the answer is yes. Anyone under 16 between 9.00pm and 6.00am will be in breach of a dispersal order, if not accompanied by adults. What a deeply depressing and spiteful course of action by the Police and Council. The justification is the need to clamp down on bad behaviour. But launching this blunderbuss at an entire generation is wrong. The message is that youth itself is a problem.
The use of youth dispersal orders is controversial but where they are used in residential areas to deal with harassment there is at least a level of justification. To employ this measure in a town centre, where lets be honest, congregating is meant to happen is deeply sad.
I hope the young people in Barnsley are able to find a voice that will be heard, but I suspect that the kind of Police that implemented this measure are not big on listening to or caring about what young people think.

Bird of Prey - Richard Griffiths

For most people Richard Griffiths will be Uncle Monty, the Dursley or heaven forbid the cooking copper in Pie in the Sky. Of maybe people will think if him from the History Boys. For me I will always associate him with something much earlier in his career. It was 30 years ago, and  Griffiths played the lead in a computer conspiracy thriller called Bird of Prey.  I have never seen it since and suspect it might have not stood the test of time. But there were a number of remarkable features. Firstly, being made in 1983 it was made at the threshold of the digital age. Kids as school had ZX spectrums and they could do nothing of interest with them. This thriller about digital conspiracy felt so new and on the edge. TV inspired by Kraftwerk. But secondly it was that Griffiths had the lead role, playing a repressed, beaten down civil servant working opposite (but not with) an even greyer colleague.
Griffiths gentle voice and distinctive shape got him many character roles. But I still think nobody today would risk casting like this in a high profile thriller. Griffiths character proves, after many reverses to be tenacious and brave. It was luddite at heart, fearing a Kafkaesque world that through manipulation of computers peoples lives are changed.
I am now going to put Bird of Prey on my Birthday wish list.

Commuting for Big Kids

Commuting is a grim reality of London life, but made more bearable when the grim task can be made to feel a bit more like play.
 Was bimbling home from work last night on the bike with a couple of miles to go. As I went round a bus, a black figure flashed past on a Bianchi. He was on the drops giving it full gas. Ahhh temptation,  I could not resist giving it a go. For the uninitiated, one of the joys of cycling is drafting. if you can sit close to the guy in fronts wheel you  get a massive helping hand. If you get in the middle of a big bunch the effect can be huge and exhilarating. I kicked myself into life and sprinted to get on his wheel. It is these moments when one is not commuting through Croydon anymore  but in some imaginary breakaway in the Tour. I managed to get on and enjoyed the ride for a mile. My man was keeping a decent pace going.  I thought I had better come through and take a little turn on the front. It would have  been rude not to. As I came round I realised it was Northern Jon, one of my club mates from @oldportlianscc.
One of the true pleasures of cycling is it allows grown men to chase around acting like big kids. But there is another pleasure in seeing somebody you know through the sport out on the road by chance. These are the kind of experiences that makes commuting by bike so different from jamming my body into a sweaty tube or exchanging gestures with other motorists as I sit burning precious fuel in a traffic jam. One hears about the dangers and aggravations of cycling in London, but these little, unsung pleasures that set it a part.  

Metal Theft

Most landlords and builders are rightly fed up with metal thieves making off with pipe work and cabling with no concern for the consequences. Interesting to read that in Turkey they have gone the whole hog and pinched an entire bridge. 

Native

Sometime back I watched an interesting documentary about a Native American tribe who had transformed their impoverished community by building a casino on their reservation. Basically so much money was rolling in people were fighting to prove their membership of this tribe. What seemed sad is that yes the casino provided wealth but is wasn't doing much else. Most of the community was still affected by unemployment, they weren't producing much. But the casino meant enough money was coming in. It was fragile though because it relied on the State's laws on gambling.
I was chatting to my brother last night. We were talking about how you can measure a nations true wealth. It occurred to me that we have become very similar to that Tribe. Our casino is bigger, its the Stock Exchange but there are plenty of parallels. Beyond the south east and the orbit of the financial sector all meaningfull industry is gone and the government is often the main employer. The casino has is ups and downs and the whole place depends on it. However much we may despise the bankers there isn't much of a fall back is there. If the roulette wheels stopped turning we would be in the dodoo. Then the next question, is it an 'if' or is it a 'when' the wheels stops turning?

Boris goes Splat!

Cystal Palace played Chelsea in the League Cup 15 years ago on  a night when it pissed down with rain and the Selhurst pitch was a bog. ascwasctheir style palace hoofed a ball upfield. It should have bounced harmlessly into the Chelsea keepers arms. But it didn't, it went splat into thevmud and stayed there for the on rushing Palace player to score. Boris Johnson being interviewed by Eddie Mair reminded me of that splat.  Mair seems to be offering an approach to the political interview that has been out of fashion for so long it is hard to recall if it ever existed before. Since Paxo battered Michael Howard with his Mr One Question assault the bark has been as important as the bite. The interviewers manual demanded that when confronted with a political big beast one should harry the prey from the off. Hence Humphries surly snapping, Paxo's impatient scorn and Marr's acidic disdain.
But that seems to be shifting and a softer but no less effective style is emerging with Eddie Mair.  Boris Johnson is the kind of bruiser well able to go toe toe with those that favour the frontal assault. But Mair took him apart yesterday with a more tangential low key plan of attack. He tickled the trout. Rather than exaggerated indignation he went with subtle questions that aggregated gently but deliberatly. Of the current crop of politicians Johnson is amongst the most successful in the media, but he does rely on being Boris to bounce through any sticky stuff. Yesterday morning it was all splat no bounce. 

Lucy Meadows

It is a terribly sad that Lucy Meadows chose to take her own life. It is sad that narrow minded spite stirred up in the press played a part in that. The press has its jargon about this kind of thing 'monstering.' But it is simply bullying, picking on somebody who is much weaker just because they are different.
Her decision to transition may have been confusing for the children she taught, but was unlikely to do them any harm. The same can't be said for the values of those that hounded her. But it is not a story entirely without hope. It appears that her employers were supportive. Something that would not have been the case a few years ago. I also sense the views of the press are a bit behind the zeitgeist. A couple of weeks back I was in a pub in Croydon on a Saturday night. The pub was busy but I noticed a small Trans group were there. They were relaxed, and nobody seemed phased.