My life is one long battle against insanity, self-loathing and melancholia, and right now I'm losing it.

Video of the week:

Pink Floyd - High Hopes

From The Division Bell, which I may have to have a listen to in full. The song itself isn't completely my thing, but the beginning piano notes offset by the bell chimes is beautiful. I've never really got into Floyd but I'm been aware of them from a young age thanks to my pa; the album covers are ingrained in my cerebral cortex, they freaked me out a little bit when I was a kid so I still get a shiver when I see them. Well this whole video is like that, there is some incredible imagery in there, mostly coming from really messing around with scale - huge sky-filling flags, and a tiny kid with an enormous teddy bear. But does anyone know what the symbols on the balloons mean?

"You beribboned buffoon!"

Tony Hancock in The Lift

I have acquired, happily, an MP3 player.

Happily, but in an awkward way, it's an iPod (nano).

Obviously this is a gorgeous (and tiny) piece of kit... but I'll be damned if I'm downloading iTunes.

Doesn't seem possible to just use it as an extension of XP's filing system - or rather, you can move as many files on to it as you like, but they just magically disappear...

anyone got any bright ideas?!

London two days ago:

Lovely falafel wraps at Zack's (Lebanese) Deli, one of the cafes which make (Stratford) Westfield's 'Great Eastern Market' a big reason to actually set foot in the thing. Thing is, you have to go through the food court to get to the market. The food court, obviously, was heaving, and the market was all but empty. I guess the weird foreign food wasn't helping to draw people in - wot, no chips? Us brits should be ashamed.

Free ride on the Southeastern high speed line from the Stratford box - wasn't sure whether travelcards would be accepted, ticket barrier spat it out, but member of staff was much more open-minded. Unfortunately his counterpart at St Pancras had a clearer grasp of the rules, although prison/extraordinary rendition was thankfully avoided. I could see it in his eyes, though... how dare one attempt to travel between two stations, both of which one can travel to perfectly legitimately? Anyway the travelcard rules on the TfL website are clear that this isn't allowed, so I feel pretty chuffed to have done it.

The new Kings Cross concourse is pretty nice, but I look forward to when the rest of the work is done and you can actually see and make sense of the front of that lovely train shed again.

Greek mezze for nosh, in solidarity (here's hoping the left do even better in new elections and that they tell the rest of Europe where to stuff their euro). Very tasty but very rich, all I wanted to eat yesterday was a nice green leaf.

The Shard is very, very, very nearly done.

No photos.

I still feel wiped out now, although work's been bonkers so it may be that too. Also, I may be getting old.

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Boy am I feeling angry right now.

People of London: seriously?? You want that moron for another four years? Sure, he makes you laugh. He makes me laugh. That's no reason to put him in charge of your transport system and police service! Ken Livingstone and the Greens' Jenny Jones both gave good speeches (can't find video footage though); I'm chuffed the Greens came third... and sad that it'll be Livingstone's last campaign. Not too confident in Labour coming up with another decent candidate, seeing as they're effectively tories without the balls to admit it these days. The sooner Miliband gets elected as prime minister and shown up to be the idiot he is the better.

Anyway. As for our Unison ballot: I thought it was a little odd, they were being very careful not to guide us either way (as explored by unionist Moz Greenshields). I thought there must be some reason for this - yeah, turns our it's because they've got as much balls as Labour. I hope you're happy, Prentice. You fool.

I've just voted big fat GREEN, and you can take this, Cameron, Clegg and Miliband as a big fat f!ck you.

Your turn, people!

If we're seriously considering situating missiles near residential apartment blocks for the Olympics to fend off all those evil maniacs (the ones that aren't us, obv.), shouldn't we just not have the bloody Olympics? I think so. All those in favour...

It's almost impossible to highlight parts of this Media Lens article without posting the entire thing - you need to read it, all of it (also this). There are also a number of useful/fascinating links in it. Nevertheless:

Most fundamentally, the new Act removes the formal commitment of the Secretary of State for Health to provide healthcare for every man, woman and child in England (it does not apply elsewhere in the UK - yet). In effect, this removes the founding principle of the NHS which was set up in 1948. It means that one of the finest health services anywhere, created by the British people in the wake of the Second World War, has just been primed for demolition.

Private companies will be able to move in and take over NHS infrastructure such as hospitals. The new law also allows hospitals to earn up to 49% of their revenue from private patients; previously the limit was 2%. Doctors and nurses say this will create a two-tier system, with one queue for the rich and one for the poor, with the rich having priority regardless of the seriousness of their condition. So that’s goodbye to one of the founding principles of the NHS: to supply care based on need, not the ability to pay.

(...)

Many of the MPs and Lords who voted the bill through stand to gain financially from the Health and Social Care Act. In a responsible democracy, this would be deemed a serious conflict of interest, and yet it would presumably not come as a shock to a British electorate used to unpleasant surprises – if they ever get to hear of it.

Research by Éoin Clarke has revealed that 333 donations from private healthcare sources totalling £8.3 million have been gifted to the Tories. (Click here for the database of those donations and ‘gifts’.) Moreover, the website Social Investigations has compiled an extensive list of the financial and vested interests of MPs and Lords in private healthcare. This list, says the site, ‘represents the dire state of our democracy’.

(...)

And then there is Andrew Lansley himself, the Tory Secretary of State for Health. John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, gave £21,000 to fund Lansley’s personal office in November 2009. According to a senior director of the firm, 96 per cent of Care UK’s business, which amounted to more than £400 million last year, comes from the NHS. Hedge fund boss Nash is one of the major Conservative donors with close ties to the healthcare industry. He and his wife gave £203,500 to the party over the past five years.

(...)

If this had been happening in an officially-declared enemy state, the British news media would have been shouting themselves hoarse about corruption, greed and the pathetic state of ‘democracy’ over ‘there’. If this had been happening in Libya (under Gaddafi) or Syria or Iran, the airwaves and newspapers in this country would have been filled with condemnations and scorn about the oppression of the people by an unaccountable, tyrannical government.

That is it happening under their noses here at home, largely with the corporate media's connivance, says it all.

‘People Will Die’ - The End Of The NHS. Part 1: The Corporate Assault

Some of the links:
Health Emergency
Phil Hammond v Andrew Lansley on Question Time
Éoin Clarke's NHS carve-up map
'Healthy competition’ in the NHS is a sick joke by junior doctor Max Pemberton

I have been balloted, as a Unison member, as to whether I would like to accept the government's recent proposals on changes to the NHS pension scheme.

The short answer is no.

The long answer (thanks Fry) is f!ck no.