Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

And my new blog is called.....

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Closed beta testing having seen my new blog name getting the thumbs up - thanks Dizzy, Blue Eyes and Catherine - I now declare my new blog open.

It can be found here - http://quizzicalgaze.blogspot.com/ . I think that the name is fairly suggestive of content and it has three zeds in it, which is really rather fine.

Any readers linking, subscribing or reading Croydonian should change their links, as I am closing the blog. I will not be posting here again, and I will switch off the ability to make comments. Thank you readers from 2006 to date, especially those who checked in of late to see whether I was ever going to post again, in particular these fine folk - in alphabetical order - All Seeing Eye, Capitalists@work, JuliaM and Lakelander.

I intend to post on the same sorts of thing as before, and the dropping of the name does not indicate that there is anything amiss in Chiswick or my life more broadly - very far from it, more that the url and the croydonian name appearing on my posts and comments is both inappropriate and anachronistic.

Labels: Blogging about blogging

posted by Croydonian

Coming soon - a new name, and a lot more blogging

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

I have decided to start afresh under a new, and non-geographical name. I landgrabbed a name on blogger yesterday and currently have it in closed ~~alpha~~, erm, beta testing - as in I say 'I'm calling my new blog [x], what do you think?' Old friends should feel free to e-mail me for the prospective name. I would note that is is astonishing quite how many great names have been taken by folk who posted once, five years ago. I am not altogether decided as to whether I'll use blogger or wordpress, which is another reason for not making too much noise about the name.

If feedback continues to be positive, I'll use the new name, and will continue along the same lines as before. This blog will then be closed to comments and have a final re-direction post.

Meanwhile, this little hissy fit from the NASUWT :

"Responding to the statement by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, that he will stop Ofsted from inspecting the contents of children’s lunchboxes, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ Union, said:

“This is a blatant attempt to distract the public.

“Whilst encouraging people to think about whether Ofsted should inspect lunchboxes, the Secretary of State is pushing through Parliament a Bill that will allow his favoured academies to charge whatever they like for milk, school meals and refreshments.

“Children’s health and nutrition is clearly a low priority when compared with enabling privatised schools to profiteer.

“This is yet another barrier for some families to admission to these elitist institutions.”

Being a picky eater, I went in for packed lunches at secondary school, and would not have allowed an inspector anywhere near what I was eating. Probably by wolfing it at break, rather than by taking a Luther-like stand, I hasten to add. I rather approve of both of the Govemeister's schemes, by the way.

Labels: Blogging about blogging

posted by Croydonian

Keeping an eye on the French, so you don't have to.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

See, I'm not dead. Anyway, I think a French survey round up is called for:

Humanité (the Communist Party daily, not the species) has asked the Plain People of France how they view the prospect of doing away with the maximum 35 hour working week,and the results show limited cause for faith in the youth (-ish) of France -46% of 18-24 year olds think it a good idea. Granted, a majority oppose it, but the pro figure is higher than for any age group bar the 50+ cohort. This would suggest that younger folk have made the connection between the difficulties in joining the workforce and the rigid laws surrounding employment on the other side of the Channel.

However, outbreaks of common sense in those parts are invariably matched by something that deadens the soul, like this from ifop:

'Do you think that capitalism and the free market is a system that...'

-Functions well and should be kept

-Has its problems but there is no alternative

-Functions badly and should be replaced

The French gave the first option 15%. Yes,15%. And 33% opt for Year Zero, with the rest hedging their bets. Note that option one secured 65% support in the 'People's Republic' of China. We managed 45%/45%/10%, which is also quite encouraging.

A poll on French attitudes to the SNCF provides the opportunity for a joke so obvious that as yet undiscovered civilisations in other galaxies can see it coming:

'Do you think that SNCF are keeping to timetables better?'

We have voting demographics to hand, so place your bets for the joke...

And, yes, it is the Front National which is among the least impressed with punctuality at 14%. Perhaps they have in mind an Italian template that could be followed.

Elsewhere, Dominique Strauss Kahn is the runaway leader among possible Socialist candidates for the presidency at 37% to 26% for my old mucker Segolene Royale, and Lille looks likely to suffer Martine Aubry longer (16%). Perhaps Martine should hire an assassin, as a DSK-less list has her top of the tree at 32% to Sego's 31%. Cutting to the chase, Sarko would beat anyone except DSK in round one. Round two would see Sarko lose - badly - to DSK, Aubry or even Francois Hollande. Sarko Vs Royal, round 2 shows as a tie at 50% each.

Labels: France, Sane economics, surveys

posted by Croydonian

The things you can pack into a minute....

Monday, October 04, 2010

Spotted this on a cinema site and thought it deserved a narrower audience:

"The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet come together in a special journey from a snowy Ukrainian picture-book village to the imperial splendour of the court of Catherine the Great. Vakula, the son of the witch Solokha, attempts to woo and win the beautiful but fickle Oxana. It seems hopeless, but when the Devil, a witch, forest sprites and a host of colourful characters are involved, he could be lucky after all! Tchaikovsky's music is packed with showpiece solos, dances and choruses: from grand polonaise to haunting chorus of water sprites to rustic revels – and there's a true Russian flavour with Alexander Polianichko as conductor and several star Russian singers".

Shades of the Monty Python 'Summarize Proust' sketch:

Labels: Light relief

posted by Croydonian

Why Labour has chosen the right Miliband

Thursday, September 30, 2010

No Labour party leader with an unabbreviated first name has won a general election since 1974 - Harold Wilson. Since then, Mr Tony succeeded in '97, 2001 and 2005 while Michael, Neil, John and Gordon have all failed. Jim presents a bit of a problem, but I'm sidestepping that.

I suppose that Balls or Burnham would have been in with a shout come 2015 too, while Ms Abbott would have joined the long list of losers too.

Labels: The horror that is the Labour Party

posted by Croydonian