OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Hard Times

During these days of so-called enlightened management in the workplace, how nice to see that some things just never change. For a good old dose of nostalgia for anyone as long-in-the-tooth as I, today’s BBC news website takes the biscuit. The relevant bits follow:-

“Struggling steelmaker Corus is to cut 1,150 jobs as it battles to stem losses in the UK. The future of a further 2,200 workers on Teesside remains in doubt.

Sir Brian Moffatt and other senior directors faced accusations of incompetence and mismanagement during the company’s AGM. One shareholder said the Corus board of directors was the worst in the world.

He said they should resign en masse because of a series of "blunders" which had depressed the company's share value. Other speakers accused the board of showing disregard to workers who felt "alienated and let down".

The board was asked to explain why bonuses were being paid to executives this year amid huge losses and job cuts. The majority of shareholders attending the meeting in London voted against accepting the remuneration report from the company. (My italics.)

But proxy votes meant that the policy was overwhelmingly accepted.”(My italics)

Now that’s what I call taking the piss !!

Link. A Photograph of You

There was a semi-decent documentary on the, always interesting, BBC Four TV channel last night. Robert Capa, war photographer, founder of the Magnum photo agency and original champagne socialist deserved a channel with more consumer penetration, but the consumers were probably watching *absorbing* crap like this.

According to all the old women interviewed, and contemporary accounts from the likes of Capa’s one-time lover Ingrid Bergman, he was a good-looking, sensual and sensitive man. Sadly – I felt – the doc concentrated just a little too much on this aspect of his short life.

He was an extremely brave man and one of those photographers whose photographs many will recognise. From the first wave of landings in Normandy 1944, to the early blitzkriegs of the Spanish Civil War, Capa observed and recorded the major wars of the twentieth century. He finally shuffled off his mortal coil after standing on a land mine in Vietnam.

I’ve ordered his biography – should make good reading.

Stormy Weather

Some exceptionally impressive thunderstorms today in North Manchester, with more promised.