Life, lies and the choosing of naive political arseholes

I've written before about how marketing took over from economic theory and in our lives we've all seen how social media started to dictate political choices. I laugh at the expression choices as its been the most marketed of terms. We want to choose. Eh, no we dont want to choose. We the voting public are sophisticated enough to know that choice is not a luxury a well functioning democracy can offer. As soon as you put choice into play you discard 84% of what most societies need. My favourite choice to get angry at is choice over schools. The people choosing dont understand that teachers leave and are recruited. They dont understand that past performance is no guide to future performance. It feels like rookies at the dog track being handed a programme and being told trap 1 likes to rail. Check the speed out of the traps as the winner is usually the winner at the first bend. Well except when its a fast finishing Black Moselle wearing the striped jacket of trap 6 in the 1980's era of powderhall, plunket brian and the deadly seriouos deadbeat. In my job as I tried to amass enough money to become a promoter of people with talent, aka, bands, I encountered the odd politician. I never knew about my condition back then I just said it as it was. Vinny to Treasury Minister Angela Knight at the Masionhouse in London, launch of CREST "You should sack your speechwriter. CREST is fantastic for removing risk from the industry but its just cost for the private investor. You should drag them into a room and kick the shit out of them. I'm sure there were very good words and fully formed sentences but it was nonsense. I know I'm Alan McEwan, I work for Stocktrade. We're an EO broker, and I know our costs per trade have just gone up." And the response "Who are you? I, I, I think it is a good deal for private investors........ "Yer maw, I'm away for a fag," and just then I felt the collar. One of my pals Tom grabbed me to save the minister any more humilatiation, my words, or aggravation, his words. It would be a few months until I encountered the Labour opposition minister. Wow! I thought. What a useless pair of individuals in such a short period of time. I knew the Tory story but the Labour one was the same. Vinny to Labour treasury spokesman in Edinburgh constituency "We'd like to find more ways to give staff a share of the company. At the moment we as Directors can divide a bonus pool and give them a chunk of cash but we'd like to give them more equity in the business. A wee Marx thing about the workers owning the factors of production. We do the profit share shares and the SAYE but we'd like to do more. AD - "Oh no we dont want to do that, not since Maxwell. We dont believe in that." He mumbled on about how they're happy people who have bought shares in privitisation etc and I have never felt so low. We've just added another 160 jobs in the last year to your constituency and you only want to reward the WHO! The Roger Daltreys of this world. I'd heard a lot about how NEW LABOUR had moved on or moved away from the party faithful. I was never a card carrier of any party but this one was clearly disappointing me. I'd voted for a pay more tax party all my life. I'd voted for a European party my whole life. Now I had to decide whether to vote for Tory Light as we headed into 1997. I had an ambition to pay £1m tax in my life. Every time the rates went up I would smile and think we are ambitious and want a proper caring democracy. I hadn't bargained on Gordon Brown and Tory Blair embarking on their own wee ego trips. I wasn't a fan of Major but when Mo Mowlem got the agreement over the line, it was one thing that made me think parties could work together. Brown bankrupted the workers with his pension fund theft. The tories never reversed it as they knew it was a devious trick they wish they'd thought of. They coud never have done it but he did. Countless pension funds are now underfunded. The Clown from Dunfermline thought he was stealing from the rich. He wasn't, he merely demonstrated a massive misundertanding of the poor and how pensions work. He clearly had no idea of how the market is cyclical and how pension funds can be 200% over funded one minute and only 87% funded the next. Market go up and down which is what I tried to show his dittery sidekick earlier in the decade. He clearly only saw certain over funded, or well run pension schemes and didn't see the others who had teetered on the brink. IN fact he clearly never got the AD memo about how MAxwell had raided the pension fund, or maybe thats where the first cornel of an idea had come from. Who knows where the fly Fifer found the stupidity to plunder his own voters, but his sleight of hand was the belief that 25 years on nobody would remember. After his plundering the employers stepped up their use of the pension surpluses. I think that's called O'Grade Economics. The reason this social science exists is because it believes that actions can influence decisions. Political actions on Taxation may result in a change of Behaviour. Sorry if I just sounded a bit exasperated. Its like watching Liz Truss getting elected because the country wanted to undermine itself. It seemed the country felt the poor were getting marginally richer and so if we all have a shakedown they'd be really poor and not be able to clog our doorways or polling booths. I heard them cry out, 'My house has lost half its value but its a small price to pay given that Liz is moving on up' It was the ultimate signal of marketing over economics that in my head Kondratieff desrcibes. 40-60 years ago we moved into a style over substance debate. Style won and now we have built in obsolesence, its now at level 83. It used to be that most cars lasted a lifetime then it became clear they needed to sell cars every 10 years, then every 7, 5, and now 2-3. Even the planet is not to be ignored. You now need an electric car. Truth is you probably dont. Truth is you do probably need to downsize and live in smaller place and consume less. I digress. Style wont keep you warm and it certainly wont feed you. Marketing departments will continue to sell you more food than you need with diet sheets to make sure you bin half of what they've sold you. Economists are still trying to help but they're drowned out, (mostly by each other!). Consumption is not the most important part of the economy. Its an integral part but just one we need to be mindful off. A society is based on people interacting and enjoying an existence. When we're dead there is no consumption although a few in the Funereal industry may disagree. When Thatcher moved us to a service industry I had a chuckle. She had spotted a huge gap in the market. Death and Taxes. That's the only thing we can be certain of. Forget the mining and manufacturing industries, we need to service DEATH as I'm removing taxes. I'm working on my eiptath. Hmmm, I might be onto something here! Thank you - my name's Fat Al and please enjoy the buffet as my alter ego Vinny is currently doing..... Footnote - When I was younger, so muc younger than today, my uncle was editor of the Scotsman and didnt support the union in any way, but now I'm older and I feelso self assured, ..... I almost want to stand for election to make the case to rejoin Europe and to adopt the Euro as the currency. I dont go for isolation and I do want to recognise that rogue states will come unstuck and so being part of Europe will be more beneficial than swimming in the north sea trying to catch mackerel with our badly made teeth.

Deadbeat Christmas Compilation #1

I was doing the countdown to Christmas in my head and lo behold! There is a star....and in the case of Deadbeat 16 of them.... The CD produced by Gordon Tucker as he cleaned up the DB masters in all their Dolby + nonsense is superb and this first CD will be available with the book and CD 2 of the Greatest hits in the summer. Get in touch if you want a copy. Talk of the book and a gig to cement your place in history is like my memory, fleeting. I will try to get in touch with some of the icons and try to repeat the iconic events at a venue in September next year.....judging by my past performance I'll need a lot of encouragement but I thought I could organise a golf day as everyone must be playing by now.....at the iconic Arthurs seat golf club, aka Prestonfield. Its a great track and handy for the train station for you out of town travellers......and if you dont play golf, there's always a drinks buggy to operate.... So back to the CD.....sometimes I name the song first and other times its clear I haven't. I never had a career in journalism as I am shit at writing but I do enjoy it almost as much as listening to the music! My favourite song has been saved for the second CD but regular readers know what that is. Track 1 dancing bears - Lost in my mind Track 2 - The very thing - conventionality Track 3. Metropolis - burlesque Track 4. I heard Catherine sing - autumn 1904 Shirley sang with them and only she'll know if it's her voice on this Track 5 - standing still - the floor I was lucky enough to interview Thomas and David as Slaughterhouse 5, RIP David. Track 6. Miles and miles - the relations Muggins died recently and wasnt part of the band but was part of my Perthshire experience so RIP Track 7 Trust - Track 8 - pulsebeat plus happy children sinking ships Track 9 - About you - life support Track 10 - bone of contention - strawberry tarts Track 11 - poltergeist - twisted nerve Track 12 - who do you love - strawberry tarts Track 13- way of the west - Napalm stars Track 14 - run out of time - the invitation Track 15 - influence of love - sunset gun Track 16 - loose on you - circus of hell

40 years ago today

Yes I just dyed my hair blue and the inverted skunk look didnt go down to well for Christmas. Back up the road I went topping up issue #6

and finishing collating, stapling and distributing #7. Hilary had a drawing of Edwyn for #7 and it would set Christmas 82 and the new year 1983 alight for Deadbeat. Roy Terre was getting into the groove Fran and Graeme getting involved too as the interview with Durutti Column with pictures by Fran duly arrived in the December 18 1982 - January 6 1983 issue. We only put the dates on to remind us it was time to put another one out but it worked. Fanzines were supposed to burn bright and die off but everyone from the bands, the punters to the shops everything seemed to want us to fly and my hunt around scotland for the best venue to munch a cheese and onion toastie just grew and grew into an annual review ......40 years ago today, ha ha!

Callum Easter - Fans at work - Thank you

How good is it just to listen to the fans.