'we lost. but we are prepared to learn from our mistakes.'

 here's a song (co-written with allen lanier). 

'we lost. but we are prepared to learn from our mistakes.' remark artists group chlo delat on the failure of video to usher in an era of direct democracy and participatory art (or at least they do in this telling).

elsewhere dylan riley argues that 'culture must... be decapitalized; it must cease to be an asset.' horsemouth would imagine the sheer snark that adorno would raise faced with the term culural capital. 

horsemouth is back out in the wilds again. he's half-way up a hill half-way between hereford and abergavenny (as he is fond of remarking). no rabbits on the lawn when he woke up this morning. the chickens are still in their shed. he didn't make it up onto the common for a walk around yesterday. he has refilled the bird-feeder

today horsemouth begins his time on the abbey rota (unlock it AM, lock it back up PM) depping for his mum. it looks like being a beautiful (if slightly cooler) day outside. 

horsemouth has published his books, films, gigs, events list for june 2023 (remind him to add the artforum article to it). already it doesn't look so bad as when he started, it looks like a reasonable cultural performance. 

the boundary commission reports for england, scotland, wales and northern ireland are in.  

there is an attempt underway to make elections 'fairer' by rendering the numbers of electors in each constituency more equal (at round about the 70000 mark - plus or minus about 5% and excepting 5 islands, the isle of white, anglesey etc.). 

they will now form the basis on which the next election is contested.

as a means of improving the representativeness of existing parliamentary democracy these measures are doomed. the drivers of under-representation in parliament are the first past the post system, lack of voter registration (particularly among the poor and the young - the recent (pointless) introduction of voter ID requirements will only exacerbate this) and third party effects 'splitting the vote'. 

what it will do is strengthen the position of the conservatives (by about 15 seats in a good year) and strengthen the representation of  MPs from the south of england within parliament relative to their scotish, welsh, northern irish and even northern english colleagues (who are divided and thus ruled). horsemouth sees no political benefit to the central power in under-representing the scottish, welsh, northern irish and northern english, it just allows resentment at rule from westminster to fester further. 

of course none of this will help the tories this time around. they are at the end of a 15 year cycle. only opposition and whining constituents in MPs surgeries await.

more broadly the redistribution of seats from where the people were to where people are by population reveals the  relocation of people from the north and the regions to the south of england in search of work. further these figures do not even count the millions of EU citizens now not eligible to vote in UK parliamentary elections (but eligible to pay taxes). 

of course few of the levers of power are really in the house of commons (more are in the boardrooms of the city and with multinational capital) but it is a useful puppet show with which to manage the inevitable dissent of a working population that sees less and less of the benefits of that labour.

ok horsemouth is away to open up the abbey.