Beating 'em, joining 'em

Have recovered now from the BUBB Xmas party on Friday afternoon, which contained the usual high jinx. I won't divulge any of the embarrassing antics of myself and the staff - after all, as the saying goes, what gets photocopied, stays photocopied - but in hindsight going to Oxford Street to look at the Christmas lights, which someone had told me featured umbrellas, after drinking the number of snowballs I had, probably wasn't a great idea.

I was back there on Saturday to have a more sober look at them and as you can see from the picture, the use of brollies and fairy lights really is impressive.

I was also impressed with the hordes of protesters gathering to protest against capitalism and climate change. There was something ironic that on a day when Oxford St was car free to enable greater pedestrian mobility, you couldn't move for placards. And some protesters displayed an hypocrisy to climate change and capitalism that even I would find hard to beat. You couldn't help but admire those who I saw stuffing their faces in McDonald's (that most anti-capitalist and environmentally friendly of all the companies - beef production has zero impact upon the planet) and then enjoying the Xmas festivities on Oxford St while doing a cheeky bit of Christmas shopping (that most anti-capitalist and environmentally friendly of all the pagan celebrations hijacked by religion - where loads of presents are purchased with almost zero waste and packaging). Fair play to them. Still it was a day out and an excuse to paint their young children and drag them along as well.

Elsewhere I have been busy making a virtue over my pig-headedness earlier this year to disclose my expenses. The media circus over this was bang out of order and what did we learn once we had all spilled the beans? Steve Crikey at CFDG really needs to get out more, Deborah Allcock-And-Bull at the Directory of Gampal Strange is a party girl and Hubert spends more than me. So what? It tells us nothing (apart from the fact that, luckily, Hubert spends more than me ha ha ha ha you spendthrift Hubert, playing fast and hard with your members' money). There is currently a working group looking at this matter (and I'll be asking to see their expenses claims) but I am having no truck with it, especially as I wasn't asked to be part of it. We do our job, we incur expenses, we claim them. End of.