'fourteen year fever dream'

'those who would endeavour to extirpate evil from the world know little of human nature.'  - boswell's london journals, 6th july 1763.

yesterday a grey day. rain begins (not clearing fully til monday). 

horsemouth is enjoying reading anna neima's the utopians: six attempts to build the perfect society. he has finished the section on rabindranath tagore poet and founder of a utopian community. the film-maker satyajit ray studied at his school (er. as did future prime minister of india indira ghandi). 

horsemouth is on to dartington hall. 

if he gets bored he will swap back to the carlos castaneda. carlos has been flying with silver crows but after a night of terror where he was seemingly attacked by a doppelganger of his teacher don juan he has abandoned his magical apprenticeship. 

'what is it that is coming to a close? this fourteen-year fever dream of failures, absurdities and outbursts of reaction...' so asks william davies in his article in the LRB. 

there is a tendency to view the madness of the last 14 years as originating from the tory party but horsemouth thinks it originates from the people - the post financial crash austerity drove them crazy. the belief is that if the government is sensible and dull that will be enough to save us (horsemouth doesn't think so). 

the election brings a number of questions. horsemouth opposes reform (charitably it is an anti-immigration party that contains some racists). that four million of horsemouth's fellow citizens have voted for it is deeply worrying but their support is about where ukip's support was in 2015. that they have picked up new voters (anecdotal) means they have also lost earlier voters (interesting). 

let us be blunt about this, it is reform's splitting of the right wing vote that has brought down the tories - otherwise the tories could still well have been in power. it is not that the people have chosen labour. 

the first passed the post electoral system is a very strange beast - it gives the appearance of clear decisions by the electorate on the flimsiest of majorities. it does this because of vote splitting. horsemouth is waiting to see the gallagher index for the uk 2024 election. he supposes he could calculate it himself if no one will calculate it for him (now there's a task for a rainy day).  

the labour party have an opportunity to move the dial in british politics by changing the economic conditions under which many millions live. horsemouth thinks they will fail to seize this opportunity and so the madness will continue. 

horsemouth is taking a look at the weather back at his mum's for the next few weeks (where he will soon be). dew it looks awful - certainly for the first week (mostly rain and not too hot) and then the second week (some sun but mostly grey). we are still up on a generous 16 hours of daylight a day. 

in theory a practice with howard today.