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Circuses
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I spent a good part of my youth picketing circuses against the use and abuse of animals. Heady days. To a very large extent we won the argument. The circus is no place for animals. Big cats, elephants, horses, etc., should not be in captivity and transported around the country or Europe. Very few circuses now touring the UK bring non-domestic animals.
However, as I wander around Munich over the festive period, I see the circuses are in town. Circus Crone’s poster is iconic (above left). The two clowns holding a crown with images of wild animals charging and roaring through.
Also in town are three other circuses, not all with animals. Circus Baldoni-Kaiser (right) bring their Christmas circus to the city, here showing horses but no big cats or elephants.
By way of competition, the City hosts the Chinese State Circus with captive dragons for added fire risk.
Finally, Sleeping Beauty as circus is performed by The Circus of Imagination, albeit in a theatre. I suspect the beast is a human in disguise? 
Spoilt for choice nonetheless!
For anyone interested in reading further about why animals should not be in circuses, Animal Aid in the UK has published a useful factsheet on the topic: http://www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/factfiles/circus.pdf
Christmas 2012
I did not do very well collecting pictures of really awful Christmas decorations this year. So, of the four that I did briefly upload, I nominate the Christmas tree at St. Pancras Station in London as the least impressive. I wrote: “St. Pancras Station in London has gone for an unimaginative concept – cashing in again on the Olympics with this tree adorned with medals and a slogan about what a wonderful summer of sport it was. Even if it was a good idea to squeeze any more out of the Olympics, it looks a bit rubbish.”
The best is Munich Airport: “Munich Airport generally puts on a good show. Usually – and this year is no exception – the displays are secular. The displays are always above the escalators to and from the S-Bahn. This gives the opportunity to give the sense of movement. Left is this year’s, featuring lots of polar bears, fishing seals and a sleeping man, complete with snoring.
Merry Christmas to all readers – normal business resumes…
A short break
This blog is now on holiday (see post 13 August 2012). I’ll be back on 10 September with some images and reflections on travel with a tandem along the Rhine and the usual topical areas; not least the state of the railways and the inevitable getting back into the swing of things after the Olympics. The economy is in poor shape, if I am not mistaken.
The special relationship
So David Cameron is now in The USA shoring up the special relationship. The speeches yesterday on the Whitehouse lawn were 
somewhat over-the-top with respect to how fabulous the Camerons and the Obamas are. The description of beacons of liberty, freedom, justice, etc. from both sides seemed to have a certain other worldliness quality. Where does constant regime change, interference in other countries’ affairs, Guantanamo Bay, assassination squads, privatisation, bank bailouts….fit into all of this.
Nice clothes.
Cameron and Europe
David Cameron made an appearance on the Today programme on 6 January 2012 and once again defended his veto at the EU. Clearly his position has not changed, but Evan Davis did stress once again his own perplexity when it comes to what was actually achieved. The recording can be found here.
Mike Weatherley MP – not representing Hove and Portslade
Weatherley celebrating criminalisation
My Conservative MP, Mike Weatherley (pictured), is quite a self-publicist. He ‘sends’ me his monthly newsletter in his quest to inform and influence. Increasingly this newletter is used to express his uninformed prejudices which I am increasingly offended by. I am sure that I am not the only one he offends in his constituency. I want to use my blog to make clear to him and others that he rarely represents my interests and I do not want to be associated with his intolerence.
For example from his recent newsletter:
Victoria Gardens campsite
Having recently been successful with my campaign to criminalise squatting, I have also taken the campers on Victoria Gardens in Brighton to task. Long-term camping in public spaces as a form of protest is unacceptable. The point of the protest was made long ago and it’s now just about a group of lazy campers hanging around for a fun time in front of our Royal Pavilion. This is not something that the public should have to pay for or put up with. Hard working taxpayers have had enough of these freeloaders. After publicly condemning the camp, I popped down to put my concerns to them in person. They claim to represent “the 99%”, so I informed them of the views of the REAL 99% – and told them to tidy up and go home.
Readers of this blog will know that I have posted on the subject of squatting before. Mr Weatherley is quite clearly a fan of the housing Minister, Grant Shapps, who ineptly equates squatting and murder. Mr Weatherley, some of us owe our homes and wellbeing to squatters. The country as a whole owes much to the squatting ‘movement’ such that it is. Moreover, there are not too many bulwarks against the property owning class that Mr Weatherley’s elitist party celebrates. Squatting is one of them in its demonstration of the inequity associated with housing that is a malaise in our society. And I suspect that Mr Weatherley, like the housing minister, Grant Shapps, thinks that he is protecting people who find their houses squatted after they have been away on holiday or business. I do not condone this, but this is rare. Most squatting is targeted at criminally empty properties that can and should be brought into habitation, preferably under some collective ownership and/or management. I would have thought that was a better use of his time, criminalising empty property. Mr Weatherley seeks to criminalise expressions of liberty and freedom in the name of protecting it.
There is more to say about Mr Weatherley.
Gongs
It is that season again, the New Year’s Honours List. What is it really all about? Okay it is about honouring people who have achieved distinction in the arts, learning, science and public service. I know. But even then, golf: Rory McIlroy MBE aged 22 and Darren Clarke. Come on! Sport more generally. Then call me a cynic, we honour Gerald Ronson, former felon turned good guy (for subsequent charity work). Then there is Peter Bazalgette for bringing Big Brother to our screens – is notoriety on the list of qualifications? Hedge fund manager and Tory donor Paul Ruddock. Well done!
Ingolstadt lecture theatres
It is always interesting to visit other universities. Notwithstanding the people, the architecture usually says someting. Yesterday I was in Ingolstadt in Germany visiting a colleague. The campus such that it is offers a very relaxed and open environment for staff and students alike. There’s lots of glass – and hence natural light. Lecture theatres are always curious places as they are invariably enclosed boxes with steeped seating. One looks very much like another. Look at them from the outside and they are pretty anonymous. Not the ones at Ingolstadt, however!
Banana case
Originally posted 2 August 2010: Here’s a little innovation for you from Sainsbury’s. Those of you li
ke me who carry bananas around know only too well that they are prone to damage in one’s bag. The solution, a protective case in the shape of a banana!
However, the designers may not quite have got the curvature right. For my organic banana this morning, I found the curvature insufficient. This meant that I had to squeeze it in to the case. Consequently, when I retrieved it this morning after a typically strong cup of coffee, it was as bruised as if I had carried it uprotected in my pannier bag. On what basis did the designers decide on their average curvature?
Time now for a bit of a rant: easyJet! The route between Gatwick and Munich is troublesome. It is never on time, but now even worse it is prone to cancellation. Now there is another little trick. Instead of cancelling the flight, they ‘postpone’ it to the following morning. Actually, they put on a completely new plane – unscheduled – which one has to take even if it is no longer convenient. Normally, if they cancel the flight, one can make a no-cost transfer to a flight of choice that reflects one’s changed circumstances. What’s more, because the flight is not on the system, they force passengers to check in manually. I waited 2 hours to check in earlier this week, even though I only had cabin baggage. What was Michael O’Leary saying about easyJet’s performance recently? Suffice to say, easyJet, my next journey will by by rail.
Marie Jahoda Lecture, 2011
This annual keynote lecture is usually in my diary. This year the speaker was Professor Luc Soete of the United Nations University- Maastricht. In a previous life, Professor Soete had worked extensively with colleagues at SPRU, University of Sussex (with which my research group shares a building).
Professor Luc Soete
It was an extremely interesting lecture; indeed, I was not expecting it to be so. Professor Soete is an economist. His thesis was unexpected. Essentially he turned on its head Schumpeter’s notion of Creative Destruction whereby economies and humanity move forward, sometimes by the destruction of the old – whether it be products or modes of production. Professor Soete posited the idea that perhaps not all innovation was good (a bizarrely accepted phenomenon). So what we were presented with, alternatively, was Destructive Creation. Professor Soete focussed on the financial crisis, but equally, this destruction is taking place in the public sector with any number of services being destroyed by cherry picking private sector companies being invited in to leave the state with rump services all in the name of innovation, entrepreneurialism and economic development.
In terms of policy responses, Professor Soete offered a number of familiar initiatives; notably rearming the regulators so that they can tackle the abuses by private sector utilities in particular. These are old hat. States are not particularly interested in rearming regulators in our interests. We’ve all seen how regulators are routinely disarmed by policy makers (all readers of this blog should see Inside Job by Charles H. Ferguson). There was no suggestion that perhaps the system was broke and needs replacing (not fixing).
Professor Soete had one interesting policy suggestion. Because children are going to bear the brunt of this Destructive Creation, perhaps they should have proxy votes in elections. What form these proxy votes should take was not clear. But I think it is a good idea providing the proxy is not the very same people who have brought us to this nadir.
Be informed 