SOLSTICE - horsemouth beset by santas (and not out of the woods)

8 years ago horsemouth played a gig at cafe bohemia.  he was (like the opening  scene of the city of lost children) beset by many santas (in fact the band albino dressed up in seasonal costume). horsemouth can't speak as to the quality of the gig he played but he had a most excellent time rattling through his hits. sean was there, and max (who took photos), horsemouth got  andrew minty and howard up to sing. 

today at some godly hour (21.47) it is the SOLSTICE. english heritage will be transmitting a sunnrise at stonehenge cast from about 7am tomorrow morning (sunrise at 8.09am).  we have the longest night and the shortest day. from here things can only get better (at least in the sense of there being more sun and daylight).

sadly the same cannot be said about the political situation. the government seem intent on rerunning the miners' strike (but with nurses, railwaymen and posties this time). horsemouth thinks they are just holding out to look good before they cave in, so they can drive the NHS to collapse and so provide themselves with an argument for wholescale re-organisation of these industries (with a greater role for the private sector). 

the problem with this strategy is that they won't be around to implement it (they'll have to leave that to the labour party and witless hamsters like wes streeting)

horsemouth has finished watching adam curtis's traumazone on the collapse of the soviet union and then the collapse/ failure to launch of democracy in russia, ukraine etc.. 

there's an argument doing the rounds that there's a parallel between the situation in the UK now and the situation in russia then - yegor gaidar (the then russian prime minister) even makes it at one point arguing that while the russians might have lost their empire (the soviet union) the british didn't like losing their empire either (but they had to get used to it as a poitical reality) - but horsemouth doesn't buy this analogy, it is being made for effect (things are just not that bad in the UK yet). . 

of course we are not out of the woods with the collapse of the soviet union. it is difficult for horsemouth to look at the destruction of grosny without imagining kyiv similarly treated. 

horsemouth supposes the take home message is however bad things are (they can always get worse).

yesterday he went for a wander over the common to ewyas harold. later he went for a wander with his mother and the dog down to the abbey and along by the river. 

in a bit breakfast. after which horsemouth will go for another wander round. we roll towards midwinter and christmas  and then the uneasy times before and after new year.