Confession time

Oh blog. I'm sorry. My heart has been won by another... for now...

I just love Tumblr. Far too much. Is it the new twitter?

Giaconda smiling

A big hat tip to the former journalist and Twitter loather who advised me to trip along to the Giaconda Dining Room on Denmark St. It's in that weird little patch at the top of The Charing Cross Road that appears to have been a building site for 15 years.

This place is a serious find. Think Galvin before he made it. Or Andrew Edmonds. It has that understated feel - you are entering a room - food will be served - such wonders.

Instantly a carafe of water arrives. Sparkling. Free. It is replaced as soon as it is drained. Olives. Bread. The menu is lovingly described. The specials are many and special.

This place is top of the list so far this year. A terrific find.


-- Post From My iPhone

Great gag

There are a couple of absolutely corking gags on this site which I love (hat tip to Simon Goldie). This one is great, but I'd also recommend "Drobkin" which has one of the best payoffs I've ever heard.

Dogs' bums

Dogs' bums, originally uploaded by Rougefern.

Readers of this blog will have been irked by the looming presence of Margaret Thatcher for the last few weeks. I've decided to knock her off the top spot by posting this photo of some dogs arses. Enjoy.

Margaret, Sue and Diana the geography mistress

I was ten when this aired on Nationwide in 1982 and, old duffer that I am, I remember it clearly. Just saw this show and thought it worth posting the clip. I think it shows the beginnings of a fearless dialogue with politicians. I love the look of almost uncomprehending rage in Mrs Thatcher about two minutes in, unused to being quizzed by such a well informed punter. No wonder Denis thought she was a put up job.

There is a certain something about Tories being interviewed pre 1997, and Mrs Thatcher captures it here. Never, never an admission of fallibility. I wonder if that has changed, or whether we could be heading back into that world.

Co-operating in Waltham Forest

Just in from Waltham Forest Co-op Party's annual general meeting where (blush, blush) I was re-elected vice-chair. We've got a really good team in place now and, with a relatively small number of members, are hoping to be able to build a presence in the borough.

The great thing about the Co-op Party is that we can work alongside some organisations which are making a real difference to people's lives, and try to get them better known. The Waltham Forest Credit Union is a great example - lending small amounts of money to people who can't get credit from the main banks, but also encouraging them to save too. A really good way to slowly build up a nest egg, while borrowing community money, the interest from which benefits the community. It's a great system. Maybe we should get Fred the Shred to join...

growing up

growing up, originally uploaded by neffi1uk.

And one other before I hit the hay. This image was caught by my friend Justine. It's of the boy wonder's transitional object known as Patchy. He's chucked it to one side in favour of the Wii. Just a beautiful image really. And some great socks...

In praise of Mr Draper

Not particularly a political post. I just wanted to say that Derek Draper's had a rough week. Tory bloggers are after him, because he has finally provided an answer to them. He can actually call them out when they overreach, as Iain Dale did over Carol Thatcher, and Guido has done over his appalling commentators. That's quite a rare thing. In Derek we have a Labour personality, not a politician, and not an ex-insider who's only interest is spilling the beans (Lance Price). But someone who can put up a redoubtable defence, and set out a positive agenda, and not care too much about the brickbats that then come flying.

I know people are worried that Labourlist is just a vehicle for him, but just look at it. Look at the articles, the range of voices. Derek has to be front and centre, it's a good thing because it means the site is taken seriously.

To coin a phrase 'there are 17 bloggers that matter in the Labour Party, and to say that I know all of them would be an understatement.'

Sorry...

No title

Mick knows where the dead go.
He followed them abruptly,
From that hawthorn field corner
Hot and quiet and smelling of pain.

Looking now you see the Somme or Ypres.
Fertile ground with death overgrown
And moments of violence blurred away
With grass and hedge and hoe.

They speak of place memory;
Of an imprint in nature of some violent act
But in the corner of that forever field
Lark calls, and the sway wind takes on.

Bob Bob Ricard

Apparently AA Gill didn't like BBR, where I took the Nip for a Valentine's Day dinner on Friday 13th. He was extremely rude about the staff, and very curmudgeonly about pretty much everything else.

I'm going to be a lot more polite about the place than that, but not entirely sure I'll be heading back either with clients or the bevvy of sophisticates that make up my salon. That's the era they're going for at BBR. Rich socialites in ermine stoles, cigarette holders poised elegantly. But in recessionary Soho it looks out of place. The champagne button on the table looks forlorn, as if it might have been well used in 1933 and 1983, but not had much action since. I'd feel a bit weird about pressing a button like that at the moment. I see the spectre of the Prime Minister hovering above me wearing a frown. But that's just me.

Basically, BBR. Looks fab. The staff were trying to be nice "Hello Simon!"... then to a waiter "Ten" (shit - was that points out of a hundred?). I was ushered to my table. I quite like the pink waistcoats of the staff and the good looking types wafting around the place. Not enough to make your heart soar (Ben) but OK. My issue is with a £23 steak that was really ordinary. And £7 ice cream that was three weeny blobs in a perspex bowl. Having said that the salted caramel ice-cream is incredible, and that rescued things a bit.

But £166 for two, three courses, one bottle? Hmmmmm. Not convinced. Classy but it's no Salt Yard (which has yet to be bettered in my book).

Great views

I didn't get any pics so I'm going to let Flickr do my job for me.

As I was trolling through Covent Garden last night, looking like a clown in my DJ I saw four sights that made my heart soar.

I looked through the Garrick Club windows as darkness fell.

Then looked up and saw this

St Martin in the Fields was looking fabulous

and finally this - totally magical.

Next time I really should remember the camera...

Vince at the Reform Club

On with the black tie last night for a political dinner at the Reform Club. Vince Cable did a turn and the audience was hanging off his every word - amazing how distance from power makes you a positive guru. As soon as you don the mantle of authority you become strangely suspect. I wonder if that's just a British thing.

Anyhow I asked Vince whether he'd consider being Chief Secretary if asked. He said no, but clarified the shifting relationship the Lib Dems have with their stance on coalition government. He said that currently the LDs would be prepared to go into coalition with either side in the event of a hung parliament. Presumably this is would be qualified depending on the circumstances, but it did show that the party has moved a long way to the right from the days of Kennedy.

A Lib Dem / Tory coalition. The very thought sends a long shiver down the spine. I still think Vince is one of ours at his core.

Keep calm and carry on

You'll have seen this poster which did a double back flip through cool a few months back and is verging on the mainstream now.

The English red. The crown. Keep calm! Carry on! Words that speak to the heart of us lot, who still on occasion have upper lips stiff. What I didn't know was that, in the dark Chamberlain-led hours before WWII, two million of those posters were run up, ready to be plastered on billboards up and down the country. As the first air-raid sirens wailed our forebears would be made resolute with this simple message at their backs.

But a change in view, a shift in policy, a feeling that this didn't need spelling out must have occurred. The poster was never used, was pulped, and a copy found a few years back. And now it's gone viral - loads of people love it. It speaks to us.

Almost 70 years on that poster is doing what it couldn't do in 1939. Speaking to our better nature. Firming up the upper lip. Keep calm. Carry on.

Totally life affirming and wonderful

Gordon's War Room

This is Gordon's new office set up. Why is this interesting? Well it shows that the bunker mentality of last year has been swept away, and the the approach is now very much open plan. This set up is called the 'horseshoe' and sits at Number 12 Downing St.

Gordon is much more accessible and advisers can shout across to each other, generate ideas and be a bit more nimble and creative. Tom Watson and Liam Byrne are there - chatting in the background. It's probably the most dynamic image of Gordon we've seen, because it shows that he has really made an effort to change his approach, and be much more inclusive with his team. Gives me great heart.

Labourlist

Derek Draper's promise to even up the Conservatives' domination of the blogosphere took a small step forward over the weekend with the quiet launch of the beta version of the Labourlist website, complete with an interesting post from Peter Mandelson, and a weird picture of his Second Life avatar.

The site is pitched in a different way to Labourhome which has a pretty much 'anything goes' policy on content. Labourlist instead focuses on generating debate and content from senior party figures. Which is probably why it has been totally mobbed by disruptive and negative comments from 'Tory trolls' as they are affectionately known. Who are these people?!

It's intended as a serious space for party activists and those with a genuine interest in positive debate, so worth checking in to see what some of the key party figures have to say.

Rule 5

Rule #5: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

Jim Jarmusch.

Fine - I've nicked this quote.

Dvorak

Dvorak. New World Symphony. I wonder what it is about that piece of music? My Dad probably, because one thing he gave me was a really eclectic musical taste. I remember this being in the house when I was small. This and Sibelius and War of the Worlds. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said.

But this one. There is a simplicity and purity to the New World Symphony. I almost see Dvorak, pouring over the manuscript and not quite able to believe what he's getting down. Almost as if it has to be - this music. Quite strange for him I think.

Also - Dvorak - great name for a Doctor Who villain.

This is what happens when there's work to be done. Radio 3 and tea. Come on!

New Year tactics

Scowls and frowns are the language of New Year. These few days in early January where the winter bites and we emerge blinking back into reality... Hard days.

I try to take some steps to soften the blow. The first is to avoid newspapers at all cost. Don't get me wrong; I love a Times or a Guardian, but there is a persistent miserabilism in the UK press these days which is bad for the spirit. Good job no-one believes much of anything they read there any more or we'd all be stringing ourselves up.

Second step, which I'm less good at, is to go into work with a plan and stick to it hard no matter what. Get something achieved because that makes you feel great.

Third step. Sort a treat for week one. I'm going for a floatation tank session here.

Us lot. We feel abandoned in new year. If we're lucky we've just had two weeks of warmth and looking after. The telly's been on, the desk a memory. Suddenly we're back to life. It's tough. So be nice to yourself.

-- Post From My iPhone

Let's engage the brain

Shamelessly cosying up to one of the UK's most energetic and interesting intellectual forces I might be, but if the RSA's Matthew Taylor comes up with this stuff when jogging out on Saddleworth moor, then imagine what he does when he's really applying himself.

These links will take you through to some thoughts he's been having on a new progressive agendafor the UK.

Intro is here

Part one - this bit is on one of Matthew's particular interests, the social brain - really fascinating.

Part two

Part three - on politics.