Prime-time Drama

I have to confess I've never watched Midsomer Murders. It certainly has its fans (albeit some rather ironically), but it's never appealed to me - too twee, too slow, too - well - middle England (which I gather is its fundamental appeal). When it comes to detective dramas, if it ain't Rebus I ain't interested.

So it's doubly annoying that I've spent most of today in a state of PURE RAGE over this piss-poor excuse for a prime-time television programme.

Word reached me late this morning that there was some drama occurring in King's House over a Midsomer Murders script which had been received by officers with a request to film in Brighton. I won't go into the tedious and convoluted details of the (*ahem*) "storyline", but suffice to say the denouement hinged on bent Green Planning Committee members.

I can't begin to describe how angry I was when I heard this. SO. ANGRY. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

As the local Green spokesperson for Planning, and our lead member on the Planning Committee, I was virtually exploding with rage at the thought of anyone daring to suggest that Green Brighton & Hove City Councillors could behave corruptly, especially some Soho scriptwriting chump who probably thinks Climate Change is what happens when you turn the aircon on.


Oh boy, was I LIVID. I steamed over to King's House to find out what the f*** was going on. To cut a long story short, I eventually found myself on the phone to one of our lawyers, who told me he'd read the offending script and had promptly sent a very stern email to the Midsomer Murders producers suggesting they cut all mention of Greens from the story.

"I don't think they realise the situation down here", said the lawyer apologetically. "I have now explained to them that the Green Party has a nationally renowned historic association with Brighton & Hove.

"I have also advised them that you're one of the biggest Green Groups on any local authority in the country, and that we have a Green MEP who may well be elected to Westminster next year.

"It could all just be an innocent mistake", the lawyer continued hopefully. "Anyway, I'll let you know what they say on Monday."

Well I'm sorry, but I pulled a big [hmm] face at this. It could be a case of genuine ignorance - after all, prime-time TV drama scriptwriters are probably too busy blowing the froth off their cappuccinos and agonising over which Gucci loafers to wear to pay much attention to provincial local politics. Who can blame them for not knowing that nearly a quarter of Brighton & Hove City Council is made up of Greens?

But the conspiracy theorist in me can't help pondering on the serried mass of luvvies and associate types entrenched within the heart of the New Labour machine...

And I started wondering: are Labour really bricking it that much at the prospect of losing their Brighton Pavilion parliamentary seat to Caroline Lucas that they'd resort to shoehorning a not-very-subtle "GREENS ARE BAD" message into the televisual equivalent of the Daily Mail?

This is a mystery worthy of investigation by DCI Tom Barnaby himself. As it is, I'll have to wait until Monday when I'll hear more from the lawyers before deciding whether or not to really kick off about this (*fumes*).

Blog Assessment; Bee Amazement; Bong Amusement

Blog Assessment

I'm now almost five weeks into starting this blog (yes, I know it feels like longer ;)), and this evening I started to worry slightly that I've been doing it wrong.

Yes, I've been making some punchy political points about both local and national government policy issues, and yes, I've tried to give my, erm, dozens of readers a flavour of the work I carry out on a day-to-day basis on behalf of the residents of Preston Park ward. I've also blogged at length about the recent European elections, and the current local by-election in Goldsmid.

But equally I've also been wittering on about things I like (art, architecture, food, horticulture etc) and things that amuse me (smoking fish, Morrissey heads), which aren't necessarily directly connected to my work as an elected Green, or to my efforts as an activist (although to me, the personal is always political).

It feels like a dilemma: should I scale back on the fripperies and observational stuff to concentrate only on being a Politics Robot? Or should I leave out the campaigns and the elections, and just content myself with musings about urban meadows and street art (etc)?

Ideally, I'd like to keep on doing both, but I don't want to appear inconsistent and/or (*ahem*) 'random'.

This ISN'T an official Green Party of England & Wales blog, but I am a Green councillor, and I'm very mindful of the potential for tension in including both my personal musings and my political mutterings in the same blog (*eyes P&P imprint to right*).

Answers on a postcard please (or via the 'post a comment' button), but in the meantime, here's a bit of both:

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Bee Amazement

(Charlie Brandts, a White House carpenter as well as beekeeper, collects the first batch of honey from the beehives on the South Lawn of the White House, June 10, 2009. Official White House Photographer: Lawrence Jackson)

So we all love Obama (yes, we do!). But this week I started to love him even more when I learnt that he's keeping bees at the White House. I am so thrilled by this! - it's amazing, visionary, and totally leading by example.

I have, erm, a bee in my bonnet about bees: some readers may be aware that the escalating demise of the honey bee is a serious cause for concern, and potentially a catastrophe for agriculture and ergo humankind.

Bees are also a symbol of industry, and the symbol of my hometown (see right for a snap of the beautiful mosaic floor in Manchester Town Hall): I love the little fellas, and I'm hoping to do some work on (or even with) them soon (now fuelled by Obama-spiration).

Here are a couple of pix of some apian chums closer to home (well, Bowdon, last weekend) to be going on with:

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Bong Amusement

Last Sunday my family and I went for a walk at Lymm Dam - an area of rural fringe land abutting the M56 which has been beautifully restored in recent years by a regional agency and community partnership project.

Pastoral beauty and tranquillity notwithstanding (and somewhat regrettably, given the fact that we're now both in our thirties), it doesn't take much to reduce me and my brother into Beavis & Butthead-like fits of the giggles:
Lol etc ;) (Etymologists might like to know that "bongs" is derived from the mediaeval (old French) word "bancs", meaning "wooded banks".)

After a lovely walk (during which we saw chaffinches and goldfinches), we ate some delicious cakes provided by the Lymm Brownies. At 30p for a big fat slice, it seemed churlish not to. Ah, Mysterious Cheshire!

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So there you go - tit and tat. Like I say, answers on a postcard or via 'comments' please... I enjoy blogging about the incidentals as much as I enjoy blogging about hardcore politics/industry stuff. Maybe I need two seperate blogs (*brain melts at prospect of moar difficult coding*). All advice and constructive criticism much appreciated.

The Rubble Club

Another story which caught my eye this week was the news that architects who suffer the ignominy of seeing one of their buildings demolished in their own lifetime can now seek solace in a new online support group: The Rubble Club.

To qualify for Rubble Club membership, architects must be alive and not party to the destruction of the building in question. The building must have been intended as a permanent structure and its destruction must have been deliberate.

This struck a small and sad chord with me. As a lowly trainee architect who was working in practice at the same time as studying, one of the few things I ever designed at work which actually got built was the toilets at Fleet Services McDonalds on the M3 (yes, I know, you can add having to do work for McDonalds to the list of reasons Why I Never Became an Architect).

Picture the scene: it's June 2003, Mr K & I are in the first flush of romance, and we're merrily heading down the M3 en route to Glastonbury. The sign for Fleet Services hoves into sight, and excitedly I squeal "ooh, stop, stop! I can show you something I designed which got built!" (note at this stage I didn't tell him exactly what this, erm, splendid thing actually was).

So we pulled into the services, and I led Mr K to the services building, giddy at the prospect of sharing an admittedly small and not very glamorous achievement with my beloved: they may only have been toilets, and they may well have been located in the world's most reviled fast-food outlet, but I'd designed them and they were mine.

We came to an abrupt halt in the entrance hall. Confused, I scanned the garish fascias of the various kiosks and shops. I couldn't see McDonalds. What I could see was a new-fangled "healthy eating" salad joint in the space where McDonalds had been.

I was gutted. All trace of my toilets had been obliterated, thanks to McDonalds dramatically scaling back their UK operations in the face of the 'Fast Food Nation' backlash and a hostile media. "What is it I'm supposed to be looking at?" asked Mr K? "Nothing," I said sadly. "I'll tell you about it when we get in the car".

So we returned, much subdued, to the car, and I said a silent goodbye to my impermanent monument to human ablutions.

What makes this even worse is that, since reinventing themselves slightly, bloody McDonalds have now re-opened their outlet in Fleet Services! Pah.

So in my own tiny way, I really feel for the members of the Rubble Club. I wonder if they'd let me join?

Building Regs FAIL

There have been a few big stories this week in the built environment world.

Top of the list is the universal disappointment and anger expressed by industry professionals (from architects to contractors) at the Government's decision to scrap the proposed ‘consequential improvements’ clause in Part L2A of the Building Regulations, which would have forced homeowners building extensions to improve the energy efficiency of the rest of their property.

Quoted in Building magazine, David Strong (chief executive of sustainability consultants Inbuilt) said:

“To not even consult on this beggars belief. On the one hand you've got Ed Miliband committing the government to reducing carbon emissions by 80% together with the recent consultation on the existing stock saying how important it is to reduce emissions from existing buildings if the government is going to hit its targets.

"Yet they have decided not to consult on the single most important measure that could help them to do this”.

He added: “I think the reason they have dropped it is we are leading up to an election and the question is would it pass the Daily Mail test.” (I couldn't have put it better myself.)

Ironically enough, the launch of the Part L consultation document came on the same day that the government outlined its five-point plan on how the UK can reduce carbon emissions.

Pathetic and short-sighted doesn't even begin to cover it. This Labour Government doesn't care about Construction, and it doesn't care about cutting carbon emissions.