Happy Friday, despite a mid week wobble, it’s been a pretty good week. Although it’s getting a bit darker and chillier in the morning, they sun has been shining and today is a half day as we’re off for more team building this afternoon. I’m not objecting but we have got to be the best built team in Christendom by now!
So it’s been bad week for news, in that the news has been bad, however, my faith in the parliamentary system has been restored and I’m glad that MP’s listened to their constituents and not their party leaders. Also Ed Milliband, if David Cameron thinks you’re a f**king c**t you’re doing something right, finally.
1) Tourism in Washington DC. I was going to be a tourist in Washington in September, now I’m not but this is interesting nevertheless and the same applies to London, sometimes it’s easy to forget how different your city is for others. Though I would never have any problem with ‘the stand on the right, walk on the left’ rule on the metro, I am tickled that the Washington Metro offers how to cope lessons, I wish TfL did too!
Washington, D.C., is in the heat of tourist season. The metro is packed with bored children whose dads are enthusiastically preparing them for the wonders of the National Museum of American History’s Conestoga wagon exhibition. Tourists idle on the left side of the escalator, one hand on a fanny pack-laden hip.
2) Jamie Oliver – opens his mouth, has have a go at poor people. It was judgemental but some of the comments on the Guardian’s reply are even worse.
“I’m not judgmental, but I’ve spent a lot of time in poor communities, and I find it quite hard to talk about modern-day poverty. You might remember that scene in [a previous series] Ministry of Food, with the mum and the kid eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive fucking TV. It just didn’t weigh up.
“The fascinating thing for me is that seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods.”
3) Miss South replies to that statement.
In this piece, you skirt very close to blaming poor people for just not trying hard enough. Now, I think I’ve covered this before here and I have no great urge to rehash the points (although I’m poor and I do know that a hash makes an inexpensive meal at least), but I’m staggered by your lack of responsibility here Jamie.
4) Pensioner parkour. One for my mother to try!
George Jackson, 84, who was suffering from a bad knee, joined the class in the hope of easing his discomfort. While he admits he also struggled with the balancing exercise, he has practised the activity since, turning his regular stroll through the park into a parkour workout. It’s a skill which George hopes will help him stay upright on the pavement during the icy winter months.
5) How to cook the perfect Cherry Clafoutis. I can’t express how much I want one of these right now!
6) Why you are a bad person if your child goes to a private school. Some of the people I love best in the world sent their kids to private school, I was most cross with the ones that voted Labour. This is why.
Many of my (morally bankrupt) colleagues send their children to private schools. I asked them to tell me why. Here is the response that most stuck with me: “In our upper-middle-class world, it is hard not to pay for something if you can and you think it will be good for your kid.” I get it: You want an exceptional arts program and computer animation and maybe even Mandarin. You want a cohesive educational philosophy. You want creativity, not teaching to the test. You want great outdoor space and small classrooms and personal attention. You know who else wants those things? Everyone.
Whatever you think your children need—deserve—from their school experience, assume that the parents at the nearby public housing complex want the same. No, don’t just assume it. Do something about it. Send your kids to school with their kids. Use the energy you have otherwise directed at fighting to get your daughter a slot at the competitive private school to fight for more computers at the public school. Use your connections to power and money and innovation to make your local school—the one you are now sending your child to—better. Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.
7) Why America (and the UK) shouldn’t be bombing Syria. I know that the idea of doing nothing seems horrific but if 1 million child refugees isn’t a red line, then neither is a chemical weapons attack on civilians. What we could and should be doing is trying to persuade China, Russia and the Arab League to apply some pressure. Or making sure that the countries taking in those refugees have the money and workers that they need. The list of countries where there is a civil war and there’s been minimal or no intervention is a mile long. The time when British forces could go in, knock Johnny Foreigner on the head and teach them cricket and fair play, if it ever existed, is long gone. Cameron, Hague and co should look to the history of British involvement in the Middle East and try and learn the lesson. Maybe the US and the French could do the same
It’s completely unclear how much military strikes will weaken Bashar al-Assad’s regime and also completely unclear to what extent a weaker Syrian regime serves American or humanitarian interests. Military engagement has potentially large downsides and essentially no upsides. But we can brush that all under the table with the thought that there are no good options, which makes it OK to endorse some shoddy ones.
Except, in this case, it’s total nonsense. Obama has an excellent option. It’s called “don’t bomb Syria.” Don’t fire cruise missiles at Syria either. Or in any other way conduct acts of war. Condemn Assad’s violations of international humanitarian law. If rebels violate international humanitarian law, condemn them, too.
8) It takes more courage to say that we can’t do anything about this. Simon Jenkins is sadly right, I wish we could solve it, but we can’t.
The Syrian civil war is awful to witness but not exceptional. The Lebanese civil war next door claimed 120,000 lives and created millions of refugees. The Iraq war, a similar sectarian conflict, claimed even more lives and continues to do so.
Sometimes it takes courage to conclude of foreign conflicts that we can only do more harm than good by meddling in them. But the idea that not meddling constitutes “allowing them” to continue is a short route to madness. The logic of most civil wars is that they end either when the combatants fight each other to exhaustion, or when some neighbouring power invades and quashes them. Dropping a few bombs would have been the nearest the British government got to Cameron’s own charge of “standing idly by”. It would have been careless of outcome, halfhearted intervention, intervention-lite.
In Syria the human misery is intense and agonising to watch. It merits extremes of diplomatic engagement and humanitarian relief, to which outside attention and expense should surely be directed. Bombs are irrelevant. They make a bang and hit a headline. They puff up the political chest and dust their advocates in glory. They are the dumbest manifestation of modern politics
Nic Dempsey 