'lies, damned lies and quotations'

"figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.' - mark twain 

(ps. there is howeverno evidence disraeli ever uttered this line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics).

horsemouth recently got into a debate with john smith about child poverty statistics (in john's new role of fully paid up contrarian) wondering if  there ever a time in England when there wasn't child poverty? and when there were times of less, and why was this?

horsemouth held it was  post war - welfare state, more equitable distribution of the profits, running out of steam through the 80ies , 90 ies but admitted  that would be quite a bit a research - last year the child poverty stats weren't as bad (and before). he was not sure people bothered collecting statistic on the poor until victorian times - it's one of the things cobbett does in his rural rides is try and assess how well fed people are, but he's not collecting figures. this probably doesn't happen until the time of  engels, cole and postgate's the common people mentions a survey of london wages in 1747. being a contrarian John Smith suggested that maybe there were no poor to collect statistics on.

cobbett has a view of prosperous rural self-sufficiency (before the arrival of paper money and stock-jobbing) but songs such as four loom weaver (where during a cotton shortage the whole family shuts itself up in the cottage and starves to death) suggest that things weren't always so rosy.

horsemouth thinks that clearly if there are no statistics then the problem can't exist (this is the governments attitude - it is very careful which statistics it gathers and which could only e provided at 'disproportionate cost') - but wondered (on a practical level like cobbett) how many kids at john smith's school get free school meals. apparently lots of them, they've just started a breakfast club, because most don't get breakfast. Some were only getting one meal a day before this at lunchtime.

if there were only 20% of kids in a borough in child poverty would that be more acceptable? or 10%? or the 15% current national average?

horsemouth should probably read the report more carefully before rushing into 'print'.

'life is a pure flame. and we live by an invisible sun within us' (hard times dub)

today is the birthday (in 1605) of the accidentally knighted sir thomas browne. a writer celebrated by coleridge and johnson and connolly (and if horsemouth remembers correctly malcolm lowry - yes google supports this interpretation). horsemouth has found a copy of his the major works (edited by c.a. patrides) and will be making several expeditions into it today in celebration. horsemouth had forgotten the lowry- melville connection, furthermore he had not realised that lewis mumford had written on melville (pierre still languishes unread).

cobbett entertains - he sits on the hillside at old sarum (capitalised thus THE ACCURSED HILL) cursing malthus and cursing the political establishment and their plans to emigrate(soon to be transport) the poor. 'hard times' says a passing peasant. he curses birkeck and his enthusiasm for the backwoods, he remembers advising birkbeck's daughters not to let their father take them more than 20 miles from boston,  even though birkbeck died in the attempt.

howard (or john smith as horsemouth should now be calling him) is continuing to work on noah (now titled noah again) - he has a fine exhausted ending / middle 8 for it. noah is tenth in descent from adam, he is the father of shem, ham and japeth. the rainbow as a symbol of hope becomes important. 

yesterday horsemouth travelled to the supermarket to stock up on coffee and museli ahead of the collapse of civilisation, he also made soup and harvested some of his beans (he will store them for replanting next year). there are some tomatoes on the plant (but they have not gone red yet and it's a bit of a race to see if they will). horsemouth is pinning his hopes on the visible sun for this one. the catepillers have polished off his nasturtiums to the barest stem and vanished - apparently gardeners often plant nasturtiums to distract the catepillers (according to john clarkson). he has some nasturtium 'seeds' for next year. the peppers are doing well - especially the italian frigatelli , the fennel is still thriving.