GMB Ballot Paper for Leader of the Labour Party

I'm not a member of the Labour Party but then again I'm not "a supporter of any organisation opposed to it" so according to my GMB ballot paper I can vote for the next leader of the Labour Party.

There is encouragement on the form to vote online as it is

immediate

secret and secure

carbon neutral

saves GMB money

Fine.

To vote online you have to enter the Security Code part one and the Security Code part two from your ballot paper. Guess what? My ballot paper has a blank security code part one and a blank security code part two.

I can't be the only one, can I?

So my vote is going via Royal Mail.

The Globe and Hal IV

Sunday we saw Henry IV Part i at the Globe.

The seats were nominally priced as they were sold as restricted view, in the corner at the side of the stage. We managed to see most of the action.

Roger Allam as Falstaff was brilliant. It's only now that I understand Robert Nye's novel Falstaff.

Art Deco In Eltham

Saturday we went to see the Art-Deco Eltham Palace.

Rullsenberg enjoyed the Art-Deco world and I enjoyed the happiness on Rullsenberg's face!

It's a great day out in South London according to English Heritage.

Thomas Carlyle's House

After visiting the Red House we wandered through Chelsea, just in time to see the privileged scion leave their privileged schools. Finally we found Thomas Carlyle's House.

Now Thomas Carlyle is one of hose eminent Victorians that you think you should read, then you read bits and pieces and sum him up as an old racist curmudgeon. There must be more to him than that.

Samuel Butler, in a letter of 21st November 1884, wrote "It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four." And that's a good epitaph.

The Red House

Just back from a weekend in London with Rullsenberg.

Visited William Morris's Red House at Bexley Heath. Discovered that much of the refurb and reinstantiation of the original Arts and Crafts features from the 1950's onward was done by Ted and Doris Hollamby. Admirably done.

According to his obit in the Gruaniad Ted Hollamby also oversaw "refurbishment of the exterior of the bombed-out church of St George's-in-the-East, a gloriously eccentric work by England's greatest architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor."

One big stain on his career, was the plan for the desolation that is Thamesmead. So the film A Clockwork Orange is connected to William Morris. Nice.

Economics: A Fantasy

Much of economic theory is abstraction, built upon a foundation of mixed metaphors, that sets a policy agenda that then becomes a way of impoverishing countries.

Kickitover has a sticker to stick on introductory economics text books. *C*O*R*R*E*C*T*I*O*N



And here's two economic theorists doing a rap: Keynes and Hayek.



Where is a free market? I've yet to see one.

[ The rap video came via Duncan's Economic Blog.]

The Earth Shakes

I get hiccups and the earth quakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Seems it was scary for all involved. Thankfully that's now all over but my hiccups are giving me aftershocks.