Brighton's Fawlty Towers

My house having been cleared, I spent my last night in Brighton at a hotel which proved to be the original Fawlty Towers.

There was no heating and I had to get someone to bring an electric plug-in heater. The room smelled of stale tobacco. The toilet seat would not stay up. The windows had not been cleaned for years. The situation was by a busy road, which would not have been a problem if double glazing had been installed.

Breakfast was a parody of an English breakfast, with egg made from powder. The museli was disgustingly sweet and there was no plain yogurt available, only the sweetened stuff. Yet people were obviously satisfied. That makes one wonder.

An out of touch government

Filipp Moskvitin. Tsar St Nikolai Aleksandrovich. 2000, a photo by 01varvara on Flickr.

Talk of new royal yachts, King James bibles for every school pupil, a state funeral for Margaret Thatcher, point to a government that has utterly lost touch with its people and their aspirations and anxieties.

I am reminded of Solzhenitsyn description of Tsar Nicolas in his book August 1914 - piety combined with foolishness. It is as fatal combination as smartness without piety. Where is this going to lead?

Why I love Jesus but hate religion

Tesco in trouble

Apparently Tesco is in trouble. This might explain why. I doubt if I am unusual here. My order of preference for food shopping in central Brighton is

1. Infinity Foods, a local wholefood/organic food workers' co-operative
2. Co-op, good offers and own products, but poor stock management and seems disorganised, and nasty music at times
3. Sainsburys, quite good all-round but nothing special.
4. Marks and Spencer, consistent quality, good offers but shop is too big for shopping for just a few items and long waiting times, pleasant ambience.
5. Morrisons, good range, friendly helpful staff, atrocious auto-checkouts and nasty disco-music
6. Tesco, have taken over some historic buildings and ruined them, poor range of goods, things are often not in stock, staff are surly, unpleasant ambience.

The religion of peace strikes again

At least 35 people were killed in an explosion in a Catholic church in the suburbs of Abuja in Nigeria, while a second explosion rocked a church in Jos.

Guardian article.

King Jong III succeeds King Jong II

That's monarchy for you.

What needs to be done, and why

Robin Smith explains all in a 30 minute interview from Occupy London. Brilliant.