'there is no document of culture which is not at the same time a document of barbarism' (in german and in catalan)

it is walter benjamin's deathday. he will die at 10pm.

he will commit suicide while confined in the hotel de francia in port bou by the spanish authorities. he will do this worried that he will be deported back into france and into the hands of the nazis. 

here horsemouth relies upon esther leslie's account of it (but he has left the book itself in london so he may have accidentally introduced some errors).

the rubble will mount up. there will be a tombstone.  there will be the inscription in the title on it 'there is no document of culture which is not at the same time a document of barbarism' (in both german and in catalan)

for horsemouth another written-in-the-morning-blogpost.

'for the housing associations that now dominate the social sector and the local authorities that provide council housing, rental income is 15% lower in real terms than 10 years ago – a decline partly caused by rent caps – while outgoings are spiralling, thanks to the rising cost of basic housing materials, and the necessity of meeting new environmental and building standards...' - john harris, labour beware...

here you see horsemouth in his sympathy for the landlord mode. 

horsemouth is mainly worried about getting the houses done up to an EPC C rating by 2030 in line with government requirements. (this is a mere five years away peoples). 

the government's social housing decarbonisation fund (which offers to fund some of it) is starting up again (but under a slightly different name). the problem here is that to access the money the smaller housing co-ops need to form a consortium to have the minimum bid number of 100 properties (more they need to have enough properties to allow for some of the properties or some of the co-op's dropping out during the course of the project such that they have 100plus properties at the end). 

horsemouth's co-op has 12 properties it can contribute to this (perhaps 13 at a pinch). 

how would horsemouth describe a consortium to people? well. you know the way people rope themselves together to climb a mountain? that's a consortium. (he realises this is not the most calming mental image but it does capture the element of risk and the necessity of solidarity required). 

horsemouth doubts that a consortium can be assembled. this is because it is outside the usual experience of the management committees and members of the co-ops involved. given the small size of most co-ops it requires many to be gathered together and  thus there are multiple areas where things can go wrong. many co-ops have limited surpluses to devote to these sort of things, many co-ops have limited numbers of active members who can take responsibility for it (and if one of them becomes ill...). 

anyway the fund will open for applications in the week beginning 30th of september and will close midday on 25th november.

horsemouth's  attempts to learn bell-ringing will continue this evening. in a bit he will go down to the bottom of the drive to pick up the recycling bin (he has done it). 

he has just seen his mum off on the bus to the village. she has the mobile phone in he event of difficulties.