Library Cutbacks

So £735,000 is about to be cut from libraries across the region. Can we really be surprised, given we have just had an election in Newcastle? What is shocking is the swiftness of the attacks on this type of public service, and one on an already minimal existence.
   What's really disgraceful, is that this, I feel, is an attack on a lifestyle. I must surely not be the only person out there who, with excited anticipation, visited a local library growing up with a sense of wonder at all those books to borrow - for free! Now that possibility for kids, their parents, or both, is being eroded to a degree that people just won't bother going in the first place.
You may think this is being overly dramatic - that library services will continue in some form; they no doubt will, but by removing a desire to visit a library on a regular basis, what motivation is there for kids to get into reading in a way that remains with them their whole lives? And when you consider that Stoke-on-Trent (the biggest cuts culprit) doesn't exactly have a reputation for a high level of literacy, the council appear to have shot themselves in the foot. How can they hope to 'market' themselves as a thriving city when the vast majority of its population are the ones to suffer?
   These draconian cuts are getting more and more personal. And once more the working-classes are the ones paying for them - not just financially but socially and ideologically. It all comes back to holding down the prospects of ordinary working people whose avenues for learning are constantly shrinking.
  Welcome back Labour. Can you spell b*****ds?

Local Elections

Today's the day for people to vote for TUSC. It will be interesting to see the results. Although we are not expecting to win, it is a very definite statement of intent from us.
On a stall last week a guy came up to the stall and asked how long we were there for. As Andy said, "until we achieve socialism!"
This is how we see TUSC and the Socialist Party in general.

There's...Something on the Wing.

As you may know, if you have any kind of freeview/Sky channels, Star Trek is doing the rounds in various guises. At the moment Voyager is being repeated a second time on Sky Atlantic, and the Next Generation has started again somewhere else.
   But at the moment I'm watching the Original Series on CBS Action. Not because I haven't seen them before, but because like the anally-retentive soul I am, they are in order.
   Though I remember them being shown (repeated, obviously) on BBC2 at some point, probably on Wednesday evenings and after the ill-fated Def 2, it's that old adage of vaguely remembering what happens in an episode and from what season - this time, to quote Kirk in Generations, I'm doing it right.
  I'm not a comic book guy-esque individual who can quote dialogue ad verbatim, (I've not even seen an episode of Deep Space Nine) rather the opposite, I actually find these episodes hilarious in their stiltedness. But I am writing this blog to highlight what I see as interesting differences between the Original series and later series', not necessarily stylistically, but culturally.
     The main thing that crops up in the 60's show is the fact that all strange situations/characters/events tend to be 'unexplained' - ie "somehow", "unknown", etc. Only this morning I was watching (on planner) the episode 'Miri'. (featuring a young Michael J Pollard! He of Scrooged, Bonnie and Clyde and Tango and Cash fame!) The ultimate line was delivered by Kirk to his log when describing a replica of Earth - "it seems impossible, and yet there it is", as if "there it is" solves the need for any feasible explanation!
   I'm not even halfway through the first season and I'm 'lol'ing already. "Seems unlikely, but what the hell!"
     The Next Generation on the other hand, started the trend actual Trekkies refer to as 'technobabble' - the gobbledegook that usually involves sensors, replicators, warp core, etc. Only in the first season do some of the old habits creep through. Even in '87 sometimes "something", or "unknown entities" creep through, or some other variation of "Captain, somehow, against all laws of physics, the planet has disappeared". Makes the Death Star explanation look credible! But by and large, the Next Gen gave some attempt of scientific explanations for causes and effects, even if they were unintelligible. By the time we get to Voyager, these scientific explanations and technobabble seem to be the only rationales given -  in this respect the series goes from ridiculous to being so rooted in actual physics or theories that I as the viewer just don't care!
  Still you've got to admit, the remastered Enterprise looks pretty damn good. (The ship, not the sacreligious series)
It's life Jim, but not as we've known it.