At least the clowns are happy...

So UKIP have taken 139 seats in the county council elections and have a decent claim to be the new third party in British (certainly English anyway) politics. Considering the sclerotic and managerial state of mainstream politics currently, riddled with out of touch career politicians and clueless wonks, this can only be a Good Thing, particularly since it is likely that the screams for an in/out referendum on continuing to be in the EU may become loud enough to be answered sooner rather than later. Whether the rest of UKIP's programme gets a proper tidy up or not as befits a political party which may soon have a real voice is still an unknown quantity, but I'll take them over the LiarDems any day (who I hope will soon be holding their party conferences in a phone box), and seeing the Tories running around like headless chickens today has made me very cheerful.

I suspect Nigel Farage will be enjoying his pint today.

Oh dear, I don't think I qualify as a leftie any more

...since I appear to agree almost word for word with the current council manifesto for UKIP. This has come as something of a shock to me; I always regarded myself as a natural left-winger, not withstanding my  disillusionment with the Labour Party in recent years; I assumed that fairness must reside with the left. But since Labour appear to have abandoned the disadvantaged to chase the Southern floating voter (most disgustingly with the failure to oppose the workfare clawback bill of IDS) I have been looking at alternative expressions of my views. I have long been sceptical of the EU, due to the fact that immigration has both depressed wages at the bottom of the labour market and displaced English workers from much casual work. I believe Tony Benn was correct and that it has done the man in the street no favours being part of the (expensive) club. We *should* leave.

So I guess I have no current affiliation, other than, tentatively, UKIP, along with many other disenfranchised former lefties. the future will be interesting. They aren't just little Englanders and Daily Mail readers any more.

Two IPAs...

...American style, obviously, but both from rather cracking West Yorkshire breweries. First up one of my favourites, Ilkley Brewery's Lotus IPA. At 5.6% abv it isn't a heavy hitter  compared to the US imports, but is fairly malty (like say a Czech pilsner) and full bodied, while being tangy and stuffed with tropical fruit flavours, it wallops all the bases rather than just being a hop bomb. A cracking beer I'd recommend to anyone.

looks good... not my pic, just one off the interwebs. If it's yours and you don't want it on here ask me nicely and I'll find another, or disable hotlinking. ;)

Moving on to Saltaire Brewery's Stateside IPA, at a slightly more robust 6% abv. This sets out its stall immediately as a hop-forward gob-puckerer, thinner and less balanced than the Lotus but with some tasty pine resin and citrus US hop flavours. Goes down scarily quick for the strength and is very enjoyable. Another win for Saltaire - I actually wanted their excellent Kala Black IPA, but Keelham Farm Shop was out of stock so I got this to try instead. On balance I'd rather have the Kala as I'm a sucker for Munich malt, but this is a very good beer so I won't sulk too much. Doubleplusgood. *hic*

(Again, not my pic - this is actually off the SB website I think. Let me know if you'd rather I took my own pic lads if that's the case)

Class? I've got none, me. Oh alright, I'm a middle class tosser.

*May contain slightly inebriated rambling and contradiction*

I've been reading about the 'new' seven class model some social researchers have been bibbling about, and while fairly interesting it seems to lean on some fairly binary assumptions about peoples habits, and doesn't take into account the London/SE effect regarding the likelihood of someone renting as opposed to owner-occupying their home - for instance my modestly priced 4 bed terraced house in the North would buy you half a crappy flat in a dodgy area of London, if you're lucky, and before the property boom was within easy reach of most working folk, which is how I found myself a property owner twelve years ago. Nowadays I wouldn't have stood a chance as the same house is valued at 5 times the local average wage instead of 3. Down in That London where property prices are more nuts I can't imagine how people ever get on the ladder.

Anyway I digress. I did the quiz meself, and came out as 'New Affluent Workers', I assume because I own my home, use social media and have a middling income. But what does that actually tell you about your social class? Some folk don't think it matters. That's patently bollocks - it colours not only how you see yourself and your own prospects and the things 'people like you' can do, but how those outside your caste see you. And it isn't always about money. Being personal. I have recently realised after believing myself to be working class my whole life, that I'm not really. My dad is a skilled manual worker, who was able to command a good wage and conditions when working for others. (Tick the 'C2' box) However he also ran his own business several times with varying success, as a market trader and hard scrabbling one-man-band garage owner (C1? Really?). And my mum, who officially doesn't count in the traditional measure of class by father's occupation, after years of shop and factory work ('D') trained at college as a primary school teacher as a mature student, becoming edumacated and acquiring a professional job ('B') by the time I left home. We didn't have loadsamoney when I was growing up and there was a fair bit my schoolmates took for granted we didn't get - partly as my parents were frugal and wanted a decent foundation for their future. Very aspirational. So I was a bit confused as to whether I was working class or not. I felt working class - half my family lived in council housing and had traditionally working class jobs, and my family had earned its keep as skilled labour for generations.

But does this really apply to me, as a thirtysomething adult with a university degree and a disturbing fondness for poncy beverages? How many shelfstackers drink Lapsang Souchong and filter coffee, and if unable to pay for them would just not bother? Yes. I'm a tea and coffee snob. Its not an income thing, we're not flush. I'd rather have one cup of decent filter coffee when I get up - Aldi's filter coffee is actually very good, at £1.79 for 250g - than sup fucking supermarket instant all day, and for a difference of 3p a teabag I'll buy posh teabags that are tasty than the harsh generic stuff, I figure I save the difference since I don't have milk in it. The point - that isn't a typically 'working class' value judgement to have made. A small thing I know, but on such ephemera class identity these days turns.

Attitude - does the world owe me a living? Definitely, I'm with Crass on this one. You take us off the land, you owe us a means of sustenance. This isn't to say that one shouldn't need to work for it; merely to have a means of doing so, since self-sufficiency isn't a realistic option in post-industrial revolution Britain. In practical terms that means a realistic chance of a job paying a living wage, or help to fund a business of your own. So as far as that goes I suspect I'm a socialist in economic terms. I believe in equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome is in the lap of the gods to some extent and down to luck and individual talent for the rest. I don't resent the bloke up the road who spots a gap in the market and uses it to make some brass, more than me - if I had spotted it first and had the spare cash and relevant skills/contacts to do it first, I would have without a second thought. So I guess I also believe in free enterprise. Very thatcherite (curse, spit). Disclosure: My degree is in business and management. My cohort was full of entitled rich kids from fee-paying schools - I was a mature *cough* student with a young family, scraping by on a grant and working every hour I could get in the holidays (lucky me eh? No such ladder up nowadays, and not much casual work either). A fair few used daddy's connections to get a start in some corporation on graduating - fair enough. I still didn't like many of them, though I admired their confidence. So a mixed bag there, and probably consistent with my 'aspirational skilled working class' upbringing.

Back to taste, and aspiration. Culture is an important indicator of social class, according to the researchers mentioned, and going by my lived experiences. Both me and my better half have struggled with being intelligent and independently minded working class kids growing up, knowing that the things we found interesting or cool were derided or considered 'poncy' or 'boring' by our peers, while staring at the other class gap with our friends from middle class backgrounds who took their wider horizons for granted. It can leave you feeling disconnected - you have nothing to talk about with people who watch sodding Coronation Street, don't read books, get their opinions from the tabloid propaganda rags and look at you like you're an alien visitor if you try to talk to them about anything beyond what's on telly or what that bitch from down the street did on Friday night. Yet you don't feel like you belong with the affluent, complacent middle class types either. So you either feel like an impostor, or a class traitor - you're clearly not typically working class and actively look down on people 'like you' for being a bit thick, boring, or narrow minded, and still don't identify with being middle class because you didn't grow up with money and were sneered at and patronised by these people when growing up because the way they lived wasn't like us so we felt awkward in their homes, and didn't have the same assumptions about where our lives would lead after school that they did. At 15 I was sick to be a market trader, or to have my own small manufacturing business with friends where we could flog the cool stuff we'd designed and made. University wasn't really in there other than as an abstract - I assumed I'd be pushed into it at some point since I was flying academically, but I wasn't really interested in anything other than skateboarding and making money by working. I did squeeze in A levels at the local college while working part time, just in case. By 20 I was a young father-in-waiting, jumping from job to job while struggling to make ends meet, living with my fiancee in a high rise council flat. Some of my neighbours were *strivers*. Some were *druggie wankers*, and antisocial career claimants. So I didn't identify with many of them either, despite our dismal economic status. Nine months after the arrival of our eldest I was enrolled at university, aiming to make the best of our chances. I had the choice, due to previous efforts. It cost us dearly in financial terms, setting into motion a spiral of debt which persists more than 15 years later due to unforeseen circumstances, and I hope one day the gamble pays off.

Finally - on benefit claimants. From what I've already disclosed, it should be apparent that I'm an aspiring, educated, apparently middle class person who wants to succeed and is willing to work hard to do so. Yet currently, we do receive some state benefits. According to the ConDems and most of the media this negates everything else and makes me shiftless lazy scum, sleeping off a lifestyle choice (I get up at 6.45 every day, sorting out a scrum of schoolkids before cracking on with a variety of chores, a part time college course and other activities. Don't let that stop you imagining me sat in a vest, watching jeremy kyle in front of our fictional 50" plasma screen telly all day while I laugh at my hardworking neighbours). I doubt I'm the only one in this position. Hopefully I won't be for much longer. So am I middle class, working-class or 'Shameless' style underclass dependency junkie?

*Head explodes*

True words, reposted

A commenter known as bullingdonmorons made this post earlier this month, and folk have been repeating it elsewhere. With any luck eventually enough people will see it for it to resonate with those who didn't already know it to be true.

Not my words, but I can't agree enough:

How to wage a war upon the poor.

Probably the most disgusting thing about this coalition has been their propaganda war against the most disadvantaged people in society. By the deliberate spreading of lies, they have facilitated a systematic assault upon the poor, the sick and the disabled. And they have knowingly misled the public for one simple reason, to enable them to totally dismantle the welfare state.

There are lies, damned lies, and then there are lying Tory bastards.

The welfare state has led to a 'something for nothing' culture?

It may be utterly repugnant to hear millionaire politicians who have never worked a day in their life telling us that they are ending the 'something for nothing culture', but it's also utter bollocks. Only 2.5% of the total welfare budget of £200 billion actually goes on unemployment, whilst the vast majority of unemployed claimants have worked, and paid taxes, for years and are now on benefits due to redundancy, sickness, disability or having to care for someone. Millions more are receiving benefits due to poverty wages. The Welfare state is actually a massive state subsidy to business which enables it to pay poverty wages and charge exorbitant rents.

Living on benefits is a lifestyle choice?

Only 0.1% of benefit claimants who have claimed for 10 years or more are actually unemployed. Less than 5,000 people, out of over 9 million 16-64 year olds who don't work, have been on Job Seekers Allowance for more than 5 years. Less than 0.1% of the 20 million working age households have 2 generations that have never had a permanent job. Despite strenuous efforts, researchers have been unable to find any families where three generations have never worked.

People won't work because benefits are too high?

In 1971, JSA equalled 20.9% of the average wage. Today, it is worth 10.9%. These people are living in poverty. There are 8.5 million people receiving benefits in this country. There are more people IN WORK who get benefits than not working. The majority of all housing benefit claimants are IN WORK. 6.1 million people classed as living in poverty are from households IN WORK.

People on housing benefit live in mansions?

Our newspapers continuously bombard us with these stories. There are around five million claimants of Housing Benefit; of which there were five families who received over £100,000 per year, all living in central London. The average award of Housing Benefit is approximately £85 a week. Only 3% of families received more than £10,000 a year support, and 0.04% received more than £30,000 a year. And no-one ever mentions that housing benefit goes straight to the Landlord and not the claimant.
And those large families screwing the taxpayer? There are around 130 families with 10 children and only 10 families with 12 children IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY who are on benefits.

Benefit cheats are bankrupting the country?

Benefit fraud amounts to about £1.5 billion a year, less than 1% of the entire budget. To put this in perspective, the bank bailout equalled 1,000 years of benefit fraud. Meanwhile, £1.3 billion gets underpaid each year and a further £16 billion goes UNCLAIMED every year.

We can no longer afford the welfare state?

So who is really bankrupting the country? Well, the richest 1,000 people now possess £414 billion between them, a sum more than three times the size of the entire UK budget deficit. The richest 1% of the population are estimated to possess wealth of about £1 trillion. The richest 10% control wealth of about £4 trillion. The Quantitative Easing programme has increased the personal wealth of the UK’s richest 20% by enough to pay for Job Seeker’s Allowance for the next 100 years.

The people of this country are being shafted, but instead of the blame being directed at the real culprits, the rich, it is being aimed at the most vulnerable, the poor, with our own Government shamelessly leading the way.

And every one who believes their bullshit should hang their heads in shame.

Slightly inebriated weekend ramblings

Bit of a rambling post this one, which I won't apologise for since I'm currently three beers to the wind and counting. News wise it's been a relentless doom-and-gloomathon of coalition cruelty and lies, the weather has been snowy and 'orrible, and I've barely had a moment to myself thanks to an endless parade of sickly offspring crying off school and coughing into tissues. Nevertheless I insist on being cheerful and bollocks to it all.

I think some top tens are called for. First up, ten favourite beers of the moment, which are subject to frequent change.

In no particular order:

Wychwood Hobgoblin (a mainstream but tasty dark ale, 5.2% abv) - just because. And it is for lagerboys, if they want some. Hobgoblins all round!

Naylors Pinnacle Porter (available filtered in bottles in many discerning northern shops, 4.8% abv) A rich, dark ale full of roast and coffee flavours with a citrussy finish (Styrians?) - very drinkable. Naylors' best one in my humble wotsit.

Timothy Taylors Landlord (superlative Yorkshire best bitter, 4.1% abv bottled, 4.3% cask.)  Goes without saying, I'm a Keighley lad after all!

Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout (bottle conditioned, 6% abv) - a rich dark, liquoricey, intensely flavoured stout from a cracking Barnsley brewery. This one will put hairs on your chest.

Youngs Double Chocolate Stout (widely available, 5.2% abv) In chilly weather I like my stouts. And I finally tried this this year after resisting for an age, as I don't have a sweet tooth really as far as booze goes - but it isn't really sweet. Just rich, smooth, a bit warming thanks to the abv and full of coffee and dark chocolate flavours. Really rather nice.

Marstons Strong Pale Ale (widely available, 6.2% abv) Unpretentious, smooth strong ale with a good hoppy bite, does exactly what it says on the tin. Even my dad likes it.

Black Sheep Riggwelter (ubiquitous in Northern supermarkets, 5.7% abv) Tasty, bitter strong ale. Satisfying on a cold night and full of flavour, good stuff!

Jennings Sneck Lifter (ditto, 5.1% abv) Another dark liquoricey one, like Riggwelter's little brother. A very nice ale and somewhat better for when you have to get up early. ;)

Saltaire Hazelnut Coffee Porter (in decent northern bottle shops, 4.6% abv) Works well, another interesting brew from Saltaire Brewery. Rich and flavoursome but not too heavy, not bad at all.

Ilkley Lotus IPA (again good northern bottle shops, 5.6% abv) - full of tasty American hops, well balanced and easy to sup. A tasty one and great cold on a warm day - if we ever get one.

Currently missing from this list are any brews from Ossett, since my favoured stop off for local ales, Keelham Farm Shop on the A644 near Denholme Gate, aren't currently stocking any. Shame - their 'Excelsior' and 'Treacle Stout' are both excellent.

Enough beer listing for now. Once I've got around to clearing out my cellar/brewing space, I will doubtless be brewing most of my own ale again soon so the above will become occasional treats.

Another top ten I hear you say? No?

Ten fantastic albums I like, and don't care whether you do or not, you tin-eared muppets:

PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. By turns soulful, bluesy, plaintive, gutsy, world-weary, exultant. Her best album IMO, not even Thom Yorke can spoil it.

Agalloch - The Mantle. Sprawling progressive metal opus, including the brilliant 'In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion', which is 14 and a half minutes of wow. Really.

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Swampblood. Just crank it up, crack a bottle of Jack and ease into it. Rootsy Southern rock at its best.

Pixies - Trompe Le Monde - Full of wit and great riffs, as well as Kim Deal's surprisingly sultry vocals as an effective counterpoint to Black Francis' shrieking.

AFI - Sing The Sorrow. Before you start this is actually good. The mix of gothic and hardcore punk aesthetics combine with some great songwriting  for their best album I reckon. One of my favourite crank it up and sing along, driving in the dark albums.

New Model Army - No Rest For The Wicked. This was one of the records that woke my teenage brain - growing up in a decimated post-Thatcher Bradford, it articulates the sense of loss, anger, pride, defiance - and hope - perfectly. And the basslines are to die for. I even have a NMA tattoo, so that I can never forget my roots and values, even when (hopefully) I grow old and affluent.

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette. If you only buy one classic UK punk album, make it this one, the Pistols were rubbish. Full of clever, snarky, catchy tunes. They're still touring and still highly entertaining.

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless. Ambitious, delicate arrangements buried in thundering walls of noise and feedback, wispy vocals, beautiful and somehow comforting. Still a classic.

Jack Off Jill - Clear Hearts Grey Flowers. Angsty, sparky alternative rock thrashing but very catchy with compelling vocals, equal parts purring and threat. Great.

The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Eclectic, sprawling double album with some fantastic songs - contains all the classic Eighties' Cure components - self-flagellating lyrics, flanging guitar riffs, evocative spidery basslines, pop hooks. Self loathing you can sing along to and somehow feel happier afterwards - needless to say this was my favourite album when I was 14.

I probably wittered on enough for one post. A final observation - people have layers. Like onions. This blog will take awhile to show off all mine. I like onions. *hic*

Twats

Just a few thoughts on the utter spinelessness of the Labour party, hereafter referred to as the Pink Tories. At what point did they completely swallow the divide-and-conquer bollocks of IDS and the other arsewipes trying to draw a line between benefit claimants and 'hardworking families' - when most of us know that the two overlap? A fair day's work for a fair day's pay used to be their mantra. I guess the unemployed don't count. The thing that pisses me off the most is that workfare is not in any way beneficial to the jobseeker, other than in a small minority of cases where folk genuinely lack any work experience - how does a graduate or someone who has spent 20 years in work possibly gain from being forced to stack shelves for Poundland or Tesco for their £71 a week? Is it really going to go on their cv? The only beneficiaries are the corporations benefiting from the free labour, and the WP contractors like A4E and Ingeus getting paid thousands for each poor sod they shove into workfare. Its all about box ticking so they get paid and sod all to do with helping folk find real jobs - with the handy side effect of punishing people (who have mostly paid in during their working lives through NI) for daring to be out of work. And now we find that Jobcentres have targets for the number of people they have to sanction, i.e. leave to starve.

There must be a better way of weeding out the few who genuinely don't want to work - for a proper wage - or those few who are swinging the lead, than forcing the unemployed and the sick and disabled to jump through hoops. The situation is compounded by the inhumane ATOS assessment process for ESA, forcing the sick and mentally frail on to the Work Programme. It's no wonder there have been suicides and stress related deaths. And to their shame, LABOUR introduced the Work Capability Assessment and awarded the appalling ATOS the contract to administer it, though the rules have been brutally tightened by the ConDems. I joined the Labour Party after the last election, believing that despite their authoritarian tendencies and nannying they were at least on the side of those with the least. I no longer believe that, and have torn up my membership card.