Whatgetsmygoat

What a week! Our news has been dominated by one issue:MPs expenses. Right across the political spectrum, we have heard of our politicians abusing the expenses given to them by the taxpayer. From fully paid up mortgages to trouser presses,the stories have been mind boggling. We really have to thank The Daily Telegraph for exposing this abuse to the public.

The question is what now?The Right, in the form of UKIP and the BNP are hoping to reap the rewards of this. They will say that the traditional parties have been involved in a cosy little scam to rip off the tax payer. They will hope that the voters, pissed off with these revelations, will turn on the mainstream parties. God forbid that the electorate will turn to a racist cligue like the BNP or a bunch of Little Englanders like UKIP.

I have to ask, where is the Left??There must be a strong leftwing counterbalance to this. It's clear that capitalism and our system of democracy has been discredited. The banks have proved that they are greedy and incompetent. We are in this financial crisis because, the politicians failed to regulate the banks, and the banks became obssessed with bonuses and shares. Effectively, our whole economic system has been called into question.We need a democratic socialist alternative that outlines an alternative. We need widespread reform of both our political system and neither of the main parties are up to the job.

Gordon Brown has proved to be a disaster as Prime Minister, constantly reacting to events. David Cameron seems to be interesed in outfoxing Brown with no clear strategic vision. This a perfect opportunity for Greens or AN Other party to provide a serious alternative.

Now more than ever, we need new politics.

The news that the arts programme South Bank Show will be axed in 2010 comes as no surprise.I have watched a steady decline in the quality of ITV over the past ten years.The end of SBS which was a really good arts programme was one of the few programmes that was remotely challenging to ITV viewers. It never assumed that its audience are idiots or that culture was something to be ashamed of.

You look at ITV and you see a channel that has become a clapped out whorehouse of a channel.Old episodes of Quincy,gamesshows,Hell's Kitchen, X Factor and Emmerdale Farm. There is not one single programme of any intellectual weight. No current affairs shows like Weekend World or World in Action. The people who run ITV must assume that its audience are morons interested in soaps, celebrities and reality TV. Michael Grade has not improved the quality of ITV's output at all.

Those of us who watch television, have noted the amount of quality US drama on TV from The Wire to Damages. None of them on ITV! In addiction, when was the alst time that we saw a British drama that we all discussed at work the next day??Cracker?

One of the greatest documentaries ever made ,The World at War ,was made on ITV in the 1970s. Today, no tv boss would approve that sort of television.I assume that they would conclude that today's viewers are not interested in history or culture.Let's feed them crap like Emmerdale or Loose Women.

I can recall the days of The Sweeney,Upstairs Downstairs and Minder. Now there are no decent sitcoms produced, or even gameshows like Blockbusters.What have is a ratings obsessed, dumbed down channel that is risk averse with its eye on the bottom line.

The most tragic thing is that we have allowed this to happen. We would rather watch X Factor than a drama that appeals to our intelligence (like The Wire). If we want to blame anyone the sad state of our television,we only need to look in the mirror.

One of the many changes to our nation since 2000 has been the decline of the House of Windsor.By decline I mean that the Royal Famly have almost disappeared from national life. We now pay more attention to Wags,soap stars and film stars than we do to Princess Anne or Prince Charles.
Our media only seem interested in the royals unless there is new girlfriend for Harry or Willaim or a bust up outside a nightclub.We now regard them as semi celebrities.The decline of the Royal Family has been steadily progressing since the 1980s, when coverage by the press depicted the Windsors as a soap opera. The endless splashes in the tabloid press from the Andrew Morton books to the Paul Burrell revelations have seen a marked decline in royal coverage. Even more corrosive has been the reduction in respect for the royals as they became foddet for gossip hungry media.

Do you remember when the Queen used to visit a foreign country? It would receive widespread coverage. Now we hardly see or hear of the Queen and her family. Recently,she became a YouTube hit through her comments about Silivio Berlusconni( Italian PM)at the recent G20 summit.The fuss about US First Lady Michelle Obama touching the Queen created one of those fake media scandals that our celebrity driven media love to report.

The Truth is that the Queen is important.She is a symbol of our nation,representative of its history and and its changes which are to come. She has met every Prime Minister since Winston Churchill. Barack Obama is the 11th US President that she has met!We are truly blessed to have as Head of State someone who has acquired a huge amount of wisdom and experience. Someone who reprsents change and also continuity at the same time.

It is sad that we seem to have tipexed her out of our daily life. The deaths of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother showed that there is lots of affection for the Royal Family and that we have not quite succumbed to republicanism yet.

When the Queen passes away, we will realise what a treasure she is, and how luck we have been.

How many great films have we seen since 2000??There have been some really good films like Gladiator and the Bourne movies. There have been some good European films like Amelie, Hidden and the Lives of Others.

By and large, I think the films have been piss poor this decade. Way too many remakes of classic films like The Omen, Poseideon Adventure, and the Pink Panther!!Way too many sequels like Transporter,Saw and Hostel. It seems as if creativity has been totally drained away from Hollywood.Let's face it, we watch most of our cinematic products from Tinsel Town.We refuse to accept that some films from the Continent may be superior, but then we hate reading subtitles.Too much hard work??

If you look back over the past decade from 1990 to 1999, by this point we had seen Heat, Mission Impossible,Independence Day,Seven, Sense and Sensibility,The English Patient,Saving Private Ryan and Goodfellas.All are classics. Why? They have stood the test of time, we can watch them again and again.I know The Matrix inside out, and still enjoy it.The subsequent sequels added nothing to the original. L A Confidential is just pure class, with some kick ass performances from Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey.Do you recall the first time you ever saw Pulp Fiction? You knew that Tarantino had created something special,have John Travolta and Samuel Jackson done anything as good as that?

It's clear that as more film studios become part of entertainment conglomerates, the bottom line is the primary goal. Hollywood is more risk averse , keen to maximise profit from the global box office.The making of good art is the least of their concern.

The product that we consume in our cinema is going to get worse. Be prepared for more remakes and big screen versions of TV shows.

I wonder what will we watching in 2020??