Happy Friday!
Every Thursday I start this draft and I’m never certain whether any of the links about Brexit will still be relevant. I wonder if politicians have the sense of how history will view them and if they think they’ll get a more favourable opinion on their behaviour with the benefit of hindsight? Because they are absolutely mucking this one up….
Amoral and venal: Britain’s governing class has lost all sense of duty. This is so true…
Brexit: May vows to resign before next phase of negotiations if deal is passed. Yet again May had the chance to put the country first and instead, she put the Tory Party first…because well this…
Brexit is a national crisis. Not a careers fair for 22 Tories
Even Now, Brexit Remains Impossible to Understand. It’s always interesting to see your culture reported from another and I’m with them on the impossibility of explaining what the hell is going on. One of the things that stood out for me, that has nothing to do with the story is part of this sentence ‘she told me at the Tate Britain’. Here that would be ‘at Tate Britain’. I might say the Tate Modern but never the Tate Britain, which is either the Tate or Tate Britain. Language is weird…
‘It’s going to be our little paradise’: can co-ops solve the housing crisis? This is a good balanced article but the reason we have a housing crisis is the disconnect between the cost of property and wages. I have a great landlord and I’m paid above average but I still pay nearly half my net wages on rent, if you add basic household bills (all of which have risen this year) 56% of my net monthly income goes on keeping a roof over my head. When you add travel, food and all the other things that need to be paid for it’s a lot. And remember I’m one of the luckier ones, I’m paid slightly above the average London wage (not as much above as I thought but way above the average wage in the country!), my employers have a really good pension scheme that I don’t have to pay into, I don’t have children to pay for and because I live on my own, if I had to I could spend a week living on supernoodles! So if it’s difficult for me to navigate, what’s it like for people with less money and options and worse landlords? We are building a world where you’ll only have a decent life if you have affluent parents, which is scary and needs to change…
From benzene to BaP: the toxins strewn across Grenfell
How to stop landlords profiting from homelessness? Compulsory purchase. Too many MP’s are landlords so this will never happen but why not, nothing else is working.
The revolt at the Vatican shows the church is still failing women. There has been a lot of talk about child abuse in the Church and I don’t ever want to minimalize that or set up abused women in the Church against abused children. However, all of this is actually the same thing, bullying and abuse by clerics who think that they have the absolute power and support from the Church. Priests are supposed to be servants. What no one is really talking about is that the people who run the Church, men are corrupt and they have corrupted the Church. I don’t believe in a literal devil but if I did, I would find him in the Vatican. That is the elephant in the room, priests (not all but most) have perverted their call to service into being served. It’s a corruption of Jesus’ message and it’s all about power, having it, wielding it and being able to do exactly what they want. Unless and until that changes, and it’s not likely too, the Church will be more about politics that Christianity. Harsh but fair….
Liking Books Is Not a Personality
America Blew It on Arugula. This made me laugh and yes they should embrace English and call it rocket! (they should also do the same for aubergines, courgettes and coriander too!)
Nic Dempsey 
I have to say I don’t get the hatred for Marie Kondo. If you’re (one’s) happy with your (one’s) level of possessions, that’s fine, move on. Other people aren’t and want some help, surely that’s ok?
I could understand the criticism if she dictated a certain number of books (or other possessions) or said they had to coordinate with your decor (the phase- is it over?- for colour coordinating your books irritated me. Why would I put cookery books with Jane Austen and history of the cinema because they all have the same colour spine?!) But she says keep the ones that spark a reaction in you. It’s up to you if that’s 2, 20, 200 or 2000.
Or, radical suggestion, ignore what she says about books and just declutter what does bother you?
Sorry, had no idea I felt so strongly about it! I just can’t comprehend why people, in this case presumably well-educated people, can’t let others do what makes them happy just because it’s not what makes THEM happy. I would agree that the population as a whole should value books and reading more highly than they do, and they should also stop buying stuff they don’t really want or need but Marie Kondo can’t be held responsible for either of those things.
I’m with you. I do sort through my books (mostly to take up to Barter Books and use as credit for more books) but in the age of the Kindle most of the ‘disposable’ books or the really heavy ones go on there and the books that I buy are ones I love and have or will re-read, I’m not getting rid of them because they are necessary. But I grew up with the queen of anti clutter (my mum) so I have a finely honed purge instinct but there is a lot of wisdom in what she says.
Some of the comments about Marie Kondo seem to be coming from a place that is racist “we don’t want this Japanese women, that won’t even learn English, tell us what to do”. But I think for years there has been an anti tidiness thing going on. The “I don’t clean, I make memories with my kids” or “I’m too busy to have a tidy house” the Iris Murdoch living in filth (even before the dementia) but being intellectual and writing books. As if you can’t do both! I notice how when I say l don’t have a TV, people apologise for the amount of telly they watch! Which I don’t get, love what you love and don’t tuck on someone else’s yum. For advice on decluttering and folding clothes etc, use it if you need it, don’t if you don’t! I love the idea of folding clothes the way Kondo does but it’s never going to happen while I gave so much else to do. Maybe when I retire!!