Glasgow

Rain live driving rods
Cats and Dogs
Football on a Saturday
Difference from all over
Crying child for their father after

“It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night”
An earlier night
The river turns red
Why is it never sunny blue?
Reflecting this railhead town
Rusting steel

Sending people away
Fighting darkness
Fighting for right
Against its polar
But yet, they didn’t return

Bombed for what they did
Tested like lab rats
“For theirs is a land of ‘Hope and Glory’”
Yet, yes, “Mine is the green field and the factory floor”

Can I ask a personal question?
Which are you on?
Where is labour now?
Not in my field
They’ve left, not me
Let us build from here!

In the Blink of an Eye

In the blink of an eye, the world spins
On it’s axis, slowly and wisely,
Turning night into day and back again,
As from space no-one can be seen,
No building is there,
And nothing you can hear.

When back on earth they ants are king
Collecting and foraging for their daily bread
Walking a needle breath’s distance,
The march of 1 million lives, for protection
Is needed, from soldiers to workers
When needed the scorpion will be devoured.

On Photography

Photography for me is an enjoyable hobby, although admittedly I do take it a little too far sometimes. It is a strange art form, maybe that is why I enjoy.

As an art form, it takes a strange place. A conceptual one as most of the best photos are, above anything else, interesting but follow certain mathematical and geometric rules or patterns. Much like artists such as Picasso or Mondriaan. I'm not really sure surreal Dali-esque photography works quite so well. One of his most famous paintings, 'The Persistence of Memory' works as a painting as like the oils he used, memory and time are fluid and not frozen onto a film or memory card.

However, this is not what I have come here to discuss, as interesting as it might be. It is the ethics of candid street photography that have been a little problematic. Take this discussion in the Flickr: Stockport group on the tactics of Bruce Gilden. It was a discussion with Air Adam that got me thinking.

The reaction against Gilden's style was that it invaded people's private space, that people were concerned that it might be a distraction for a robbery. Lets tackle the first issue. The invasion of personal space is a fair comment, in that, I would feel a strange letting a complete stranger in that close might be an affront. Well, we do give all sorts of personal information out regardless of who may or may not see it, for motives that we don't truly know on the grounds of trust. Also, the amount of CCTV arguably makes the argument of privacy a little absurd. For example, in town centres virtually every step I take will be watched on the grounds of security, used by the police and private firms. However, this is not always liked, but accepted as a part of modern life. As well, Gilden is trying to capture something that cannot be captured with telephoto lenses, ie, character and individuality. To deal with the second point, that of it being a distraction for something more sinister. Yes, it could be used as a distraction, but so could a street performance like a busker, a juggler and pickpocketing could happen on the tube. However, my photo could lead to an arrest of something like that. My advice, be careful.

I personally hope he does not flash someone epileptic.

Poem

A trancendance between the good and bad of life,
A pebble is always held
For a special moment, a release,
Will come and has come
But still there is a retention, in case
Something better might come along.

What if something does not come?
And there is a permanent, grotesque vanity
Assured to some basic level.

But what if thrown away too soon?
You'll never know what could of been
Unhappiness will ensue to the defeat,
Of a non earthly soul.

Broken Embraces Film Review

The latest Almadovar offering is much like his other works, about sex, time and change. These themes encapsulate in all of the characters. In particular in Lena (Penelope Cruz) and Matteo Blanco (Lluis Homar). The plot is simple, a narrative of events that happened in two whirlwind love affairs 14 years ago.

A plot that is laced with the usual surreal mix of fiction and sub-fiction, which embeds itself with a film within a a film. The change is sometimes subtle: Lena adopting a Monroe toupe, sometimes obvious: Matteo going blind after a car accident but change is always there, whatever the form, propelling the movie and the lives of the characters forward.

However, the recounting of why there was a name change causes a subversion of the idea of progressive time. It is during that tale of many years ago (another typical Almadover trait) that redemption is found the forgiveness happens at Matteo's birthday evening out, bringing the film to its cresendo, although for some, forgiveness is sought, but never given.

Eletoral Reform

One way to make sure that the legislature is more accountable is by reforming the voting system. Currently first past the post is being used for the elections to the House of Commons and English councils. This is a system that has consistently produced strong majority governments that have been able to push through their legislative programme. As well, it is a system that is simple to understand, one voter puts an 'x' next to the candidate or party that s/he wants and the candidate with the most votes becomes MP for that constituency, the party that has the most MPs forms the government.

However, there are still problems with the system. First past the post creates safe seats. This means that certain parts of the country are ignored throughout the campaign. Target seats are created and those voting in these target areas have an unduly high amount on campaigning in these areas and they have an artificially high impact on the election. The idea of strong governments is not always true, for example in 1950, 1964, October 1974 (February 1974 in fact produced a minority government) were all elections that produced governments of wafer thin majorities, as well, there are numerous hung councils for example Cumbria. Neither is this system of election fair. Some constituencies can be won by towering majorities, others by a fraction of a percentage point.

There are alternatives. Proportional representation is the main alternative and mainly offered by parties on the liberal left and is an idea that is worth looking at. Quite clearly the number of MPs correlates to the number of votes. In the purest form, the National list, this is used in Israel. The main problem is that it destroys the link between the voter and their local MP. The list is decided nationally, by the leadership of the parties meaning that the candidates are not accountable to the people, but the organisation that favours them. Also, there would be weak governments that would be at the mercy of smaller, perhaps more extreme parties in backroom deal coalitions, as even with the Conservative landslides of the 1980s and the Labour landslides of 1997 and 2001; they still did not get 50% of the popular vote. More critically, the National list has not been tried in the United Kingdom before though and is usually used in small nations where there is a limited population of voting eligibility.

The Alternative Member System (AMS) is to some extent a compromise between first past the post and the national list. There are single member constituencies by which first past the post is used, but there are top-up seats decided on a proportional list system. In Scotland and Germany, this is a regional list, but can be a national list. Ideally there would need to be 50% constituency MPs and 50% top-up MPs. However, there could be a risk as to the nature of MPs. This system or any system like it could produce two tiers of MPs, those elected representing people and those representing the democratic will of the people. Again, because of the proportionality of the system, coalitions will be formed, meaning disproportionate power given to small or extreme parties. AMS is successful in Germany and Scotland and so could be adopted for the UK with a proven track record of being beneficial for large nations and particular local issues.

It would seem that the proportional voting systems do not seem to form a creditable alternative. With a lack of control for the voter and too much power for the parties it would seem that constituency systems are more appropriate. The Alternative Vote (AV) is an option already supported in the Labour Party, for example, Phil Woolas suggested that it gives the most democratic accountability. The system works by each voter giving their preference in terms of 1 for the first candidate of preference, 2 for the second candidate and so on. However, the winning candidate will need 50% of the vote to win. This is achieved by the losing candidate dropping out and having their number twos attributed to the various other parties. Another benefit of this is that there would be no need to change the format of the ballot paper and has been successful in London and Australia. As with AMS this would allow for tactical and ideological voting and increase participation by reducing the amount of wasted votes that are perceived in many constituencies.

Single Transferable Voting works on a similar principle to AV, but gives a multi-member constituency and is rarely used other than in places where there is deep non-political divides, for example Northern Ireland. Although, for English council elections provide a tri-representative constituencies and allow people to vote for the candidate or a party or split between them.