Grombles

I've just watched the second part of a BBC documentary about last year's so called Summer Riots in British cities where tens of thousands of youths attacked police, destroyed cars and buildings, and stole anything they could lay their hands on. This part of the documentary looked at the riots from the police point of view. It was very scary. The police had to stand there and simply take it. Wave after wave of hooded kids threw bricks, bottles, scaffolding poles - anything they could find that might cause injury - and the police could do nothing. Absolutely nothing, except, outnumbered, try and charge at the crowds in an attempt at dispersing them - but usually failing, and time after time having to fall back so they weren't exposed and picked off individually. I felt my fists clench tighter and tighter as I watched the breakdown of law and order escalate. I wanted those young coppers to use more force. Eventually I started to feel that I wanted them to use maximum force t...

My title sounds wrong, doesn't it? Journalists and economists - you know the types: instant experts on everything, but where the priority is not to inform, but to be considered smart - are telling us "What Britain needs is for the banks to free up credit to help more people start businesses". Politicians are telling us the same. "Let's lend or even give loads of money to get the economy jump-started." "The more money you make available, the more jobs you'll create" is Labour's mantra. In my opinion that's the opposite of what actually works for most start-ups. I understand that some businesses simply can't get going without a modest amount of funds, and a tiny few can't get going without an awful lot of funds (tricky to get a nuclear power station cranked up in the garage). But my advice is to starve start-ups for as long as possible. In fact if they can't get going and survive on virtually nothing, then you're simply ...

I'm delighted (if a grombler can be permitted to show delight) that there's a fitting addendum to my previous post about the antidote to TED enthusasteria . You will recall NEGA TED  was conceived following a chance encounter with a delegate from Sydney at the final lunch. It seems she had put her name down for a TED cycle ride to end the conference - very TED. Skinny exercise fanatics demonstrating zero-carbon transport combined with off-the-beaten-path tourism and a shared sweating experience. Far too positive for my mind.... and, as it turns out, hers too. Here's what she has just emailed me: Hi, Well actually I managed to squeeze in an extra TED story. One of my shoes spectacularly fell apart on the bike ride, and had to be tied up with a bike strap. The bike ride was actually a bit less organised than I expected and though we were taken there by bus they did not pick us up and, no one knew how to get back. It turned out we had to walk back (strangely challenging for...

I was struck by the story of Maajid Nawaz , a British citizen growing up in Westcliff-on-Sea who is by any definition an Islamic fundamentalist. He spent four years being tortured in an Egyptian prison (ironically now run by the Muslim Brotherhood) and emerged to found a movement known as Quilliam opposed to radicalising Muslims (and anyone else for that matter). He wants Islam to return to being a religion rather than a political movement. To explain how radical Islam originally charmed him into its embrace, he tells the story of growing up on streets filled with white skinheads armed with baseball bats and razors, intent on driving brown skins out of their territory. These thugs were nihilists with no moral values and imperceptible intellects. Lethal bullies, blind-eyed by the local authorities defending free speech, a fear of violence spreading, and a concern for votes (the BNP and NF were and are strong in places like Westcliff). Nawaz relates an incident where he and his brot...

I've just returned from TEDGlobal 2012 in Edinburgh. I'm addicted. It was my third TED experience including a brilliant TEDx at the London Houses of Parliament I attended the previous week. TEDx is a sort of mini-TED organised by enthusiasts, but with fewer Americans. So at the end of 5 days full-on brain porn (I sat through around 100 presentations or acts of varying degrees of wow ), there I was, balancing precariously on a beanbag while trying to keep equally precariously balanced 'healthy' food on my fork, when my similarly struggling neighbour from Sydney (younger but no less inept) introduced herself - as you always do at TEDs, in talks, bars, on escalators, even in toilets (yes, really). We sized each other up reasonably quickly - again, as you do - to discover that she too was a Grombler (although self-evidently not a Grumpy Old Man - but you get what I mean). It was her first TED and she asked me if people were always so effusive about everything that happened ...

Laugh and cry! I have no idea whether this is true or not, but you can see how it might happen. I suppose you could argue that someone had to manage the parking and he ended up being a paid volunteer, but at the end of the day, it's theft of course, from both the visitors and from the zoo who should have had the money - but then the visitors would still have paid someone, so maybe it's not theft from them. More complicated than it seems perhaps.

Most art galleries and museums in the UK are paid for by the state and/or private fundraising. Why don't we keep them free for British citizens but charge foreign visitors to use them. Not only might this cut down overcrowding, but it would raise essential funding where government grants are being slashed to the bone (and beyond). All you have to do is bring your passport. Another problem sorted.