OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Autumn Leaves

Mancunian Rain, Oldham Street. Towards Piccadilly, Manchester. November 2008

Went to see the Fleet Foxes last Sunday - what a band! Close harmonies that sounded like a cross between the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash and enough of a folk-pop sensibilty to make their compositions interesting enough to bear repetition. Recommended. What made it even better though was paying student union prices over the bar. It was like going back to 2005 ;-)

Its John Martyn tomorrow night. Let's hope he survives until then.

Glad Obama made it - not that I think the World will change much - it'll just be nice to hear an American President articulate his thoughts without the rest of the World shitting themselves.

A 'black' President? Who'd a thunk it?

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Up here in Manchester we're about to balloted on whether we want a congestion charge. Well, not just a congestion charge to be fair but a congestion charge as part of a package to bring billions of investment into the region's public transport system. An extension of Manchester over-priced tram system, more buses and routes, more of everything really.

But only if we vote for the congestion charge which will be based on two charging rings. The outer ring begins if you cross the m60 heading towards Manchester and the second inner ring does the same if you cross the inner ring road. There's a bit of dispute about the charges, could be a maximum cap of £5 or £10 per day but, whatever they end up at, I'll guarantee they'll go up if we vote yes.

Now I have a few problems with this, not least the fact that I wouldn't trust any of the slimy bastards urging us to vote for it - a cracking argument to vote NO for a start. But, more worringly in my book is that with all this talk of 'public transport' we seem to be missing the fact that we don't have a public transport system and we haven't had since Thatcher convinced the masses that deregulation and privatisation would transform our tired and wheezing railways and buses into a sleek and shiny homogenous network that would whizz the masses wherever they wished to be at a fraction of the cost they were used to paying. Railway timetables would interact with bus timetables and vice versa. The new Uber-Transport system would be that quick, that efficient that only fools (and Cabinet Ministers) would choose not to use it.

Ah yes I remember it well.

What we actually got is what we have now; expensive, filthy, unreliable and full of the sort of shell-suited tossers who have never had a lesson in common courtesy in their entire celeb-obsessed lives. And not public - except for the public subsidy these private companies receive from those of us who get up in the morning and go to work. The very same who are being asked to pay the charge.

Another aspect of the whole kit and caboodle is that it's just blackmail. "You can have all this investment but only if you vote for the charge." Why? We either need the investment or we don't. It shouldn't be bedecked with feckin' conditions. Having said that if it needs investment then who better to invest in it than the private sector? You know the fat cats who own it? Why ask me for a sub?

And don't get me started on the "Vote Yes" campaign. For the past two months or so we have been subjected to a highly expensive biilboard campaign beseeching us to vote yes. None of those portrayed in the ads will pay the charge because they go to Manchester outside of the two charge windows morning and evening. The only ones who actively embrace the charm that is driving to Manchester morning and evening are people going to and from work - the ones who are already taxed on their car, the fuel they put in it and the right to earn a wage.

Mind you it's all being done to save the planet apparently. Well fair enough. I would whole-heartedly back anything that was truly being done for the all the right reasons and keeping cars and vans out of Manchester should be supported if it will help save the planet. But, if that's the case then the fact that the investment has got to be paid back from the charge would seem to indicate that they don't think people will stop driving into Manchester. It's not helping to save the planet, It's a CONgestation charge, that's what it is.

So, you can probably guess which way I'll be voting considering I live within the outer ring and work within the inner.

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Some evil bastard stole my Mother's purse while she in the local supermarket. £70 he/she got away with. It's probably gone straight down his or her neck or into his or her arm. I'm beginning to get that pissed off with life I'm considering taking the Daily Mail on a regular basis.

*Rises from chair and goes to lie down in a dark room muttering and cursing........*


Cornerhouse cinema. Manchester. Dusk, November 2008


Traffic Bokeh. Deansgate, Manchester November 2008


Aliens return to Old Trafford to collect Wayne Rooney after his Earthly sojourn. 2m cameraphone.


Bloody Christmas again! It's barely November!


Albert Square, Manchester. November 2008


The North Pole, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, November 2008


The North Pole, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, November 2008


The North Pole, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, November 2008