Where has all the power gone? Part 2

 And life only.....

Sunday

To take up where I left off....  After the Power Station and views across the mighty metropolis, I wandered a while, wondering why an Iranian car might need to be on the pavement.....

But it's none of my business....

It isn't my business.

I am only a passer-by.  A passer-through.  I should not be questioning the rights (the wrongs?) of others.  Like when a cyclist approaches me on a footpath and says, Hi.  Good morning! and I want to say, Fuck off, this is a footpath, not a bridle path, I know that if I do, then I will be the recipient of abuse.....

So I don't question an Iranian vehicle on the pavement.....

I was in the National Portrait Gallery, recently reopened after a touch of varnish. I see parliamentarians on the wall while weary visitors take little notice:

And Katherine Parr twinkles down at me from 478 years ago.  The wrinkles of power so flat in two dimensions:

Sunday morning, I return to the 'village' of Harpenden for a memorial gathering to remember my friend Irene.  I stop for a while with Colin, whose late wife was so dear,  then we walk round the corner to socialise with those who still stand.  It is great, but sad, and tinged with my own memories of how we all used to gather in each other's houses, when Amanda was well.....

Colin used to be in the Navy as codes man and so we discuss the use of Enigma machines and the way that his code books used to have lead bound into them so they would sink should circumstances demand they had to be jettisoned....  And he has some Bristol Cream.....  So, so normal....

Then back to Kentish Town for a BBQ with daughter Hannah and friend Michael.  

Under the supervision of Denmark (the Prince of):

I am an atom in the whirling life of London. There is everything going on and most of it is way beyond my comprehension.  

Piccadilly Circus is alive, citizens of the world abound:

Someone sings:

Someone dances:

In Leicester Square someone juggles blades:

Nearby a sincere young man sings:

Though not everyone cares very much:

And there are those who want to keep moving:

And those who don't:

In the French House young women are relaxed:

And outside young men dance (after a fashion):

Opposite the Ritz I spot a yellow car:

And in Berkeley Square no nightingale sings, but I note that a Ferrari is for sale at a few pence less than half a million quid....

Then at the Connaught Hotel, where a single room for a single night will set you back £1,000 at least, there is a nice big white Rolls Royce with a Qatar number plate:

Oh, I would like a Qatar number plate.  No need to worry about parking.  No need to worry about ULEZ, nor the Dartford Crossing.  

And I might like to stay at the Connaught (though I guess I might feel a little out of place....)

Perhaps just a drink? Though an 1893 Sidecar, celebrating the 100th year anniversary of the Sidecar, a combination that pays homage to one

of the finest Cognac from that era (Adet 1893, Cointreau 1980s, fresh lemon juice), will cost you just £1,400.

There are many ways of interpreting power. Money has its effects. Brute strength has its way. The significant reluctance of Nadine Dorries to follow up her threat to resign shows the shabbiness of some tired and shallow people. The fall from grace of a private Embraer Legacy aircraft travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg yesterday suggests that no one is invulnerable.....

But power still throbs through our societies. I remember the thick cables that powered the Electric Arc Furnace at Brown Bayleys Steels Limited, Leeds Road, Sheffield. They were several inches thick, and as the furnace was powered up, they twitched and switched as if possessed. 

I'm out of here.

And if my thought-dreams could be seen

They’d probably put my head in a guillotine

But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

Bob Dylan

Or

I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain……. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world.

Dolly Parton

Where has all the power gone? Part 1

It's life.....

Saturday

 

Although the masters make the rules

For the wise men and the fools

I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

 

 

My daughter, Hannah, and I travel to Putney to see my aunt. Eve, my mother’s younger sister, was born in Kerala in 1925, and at 98 she smiles, but cannot get up. She speaks, but cannot hear. Her powers are, inevitably, fading, but we communicate by means of a whiteboard, and drink a glass of water together.  She is less mobile now than when we celebrated her birthday in March, but her spirit is still strong.

 

She is in the front room of her home, visited briskly three times a day by social workers who get her up from her bed in the morning, help her to the toilet, and then put her back to bed in the evening. Not really very different from my wife, Amanda’s, routines (Although Amanda is in a care home now.)

 

We do not stay very long. I feel guilty but Eve is tiring and I have a ticket to ascend Lift 109, 109 metres up the north-west chimney of Battersea Power Station, whose website pronounces the following:  

 

AN ICON REBORN

 

POWERING LONDON, POWERING CULTURE, POWERING DESIGN

 

Battersea Power Station’s silhouette has long been a prominent fixture on the London skyline. Built in the 1930s and operational as a power station until the early 1980s, at its peak, it generated one fifth of London’s power. Since then, the building has provided us with a whole lot more than electricity, becoming a cultural icon after acting as a backdrop for an array of films, music videos, album covers and more.

 

Which, I suppose, was brilliant. Powering one fifth of London’s power.....  But who has the power now? Well, on the 4^th July, 2012, on the Channel Island of Jersey, a Malaysian consortium comprising Sime Darby Berhad, S P Setia Berhad and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) acquired London’s iconic Battersea Power Station for £400 million.

 

For S P Setia, one of the leading property developers in Malaysia, the Battersea acquisition is part of its strategy to seek out good opportunities in selected international markets to expand its operations, in line with its long-term objective to become a global property player. At present, the Group has presence in Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, China and Indonesia.

Sime Darby is a Malaysia-based, diversified multinational employing over 100,000 people in more than 20 countries. They are involved in key growth sectors, including: property, motors, industrial equipment, energy & utilities and healthcare. Founded in 1910, its business divisions seek to create positive benefits in the economy, environment and society where it has a presence.

 

And all of this may be fine, but I cannot help but think there is an irony somewhere. Wasn’t Brexit sold as Making Britain Great Again, a populist rant against ‘foreign’ interference?  

 

Standing atop the 109-metre chimney of the refurbished ‘Power’ Station I feel very small, and very powerless.  Almost (in the face of this mega-building packed with merchants, victuallers and accommodation) as frail as my aunt, bless her, is now.

 

I think, for a moment, about Britain’s greatnesses: – 

 

Railways: Seven UK railways are operated or partly-operated by Dutch state railway Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), including Merseyrail, Scotrail and the West Midlands Railway. Seven railways are operated fully or partly by French state railway SNCF, including Transport for Wales and the Thameslink.

 

Waterworks: Over 90% of the English water companies are owned by international investors, private equity funds, and banks. Only 8.5% of shareholders in the water sector are UK pension funds....

 

Energy:  If you are looking for a British owned energy company within the “Big Six” then you might struggle. In fact, it's only British Gas and SSE who are British owned. EDF, E.ON, Npower and Scottish Power are all internationally owned.....

 

Car companies:  Morgan is the only entirely British-owned and British-made car company on the list of UK car manufacturers. Only a few hundred cars are made every year at their factory in Malvern, Worcester, hence the waiting list for a Morgan can be up to 2 years.  Rolls Royce and Mini are owned by BMW; Audi owns Bentley; Jaguar Landrover belong to Tata;  the Chinese state motor company SAIC owns MG, and Opel (now owned by Stellantis) wholly owns Vauxhall.... 

 

Steel: In March 2020, British Steel was bought by the Jingye Group, a Chinese multi-industrial company specialising in iron and steel manufacturing. Port Talbot steelworks are owned by Tata (who, apart from owning Jaguar Landrover, also own Tetley’s tea....)

 

Energy companies:  Approximately 60% of the UK energy supply comes from abroad: from countries including Norway, Qatar, Sweden and the Netherlands, among many more. Around 60% of the UK's natural gas imports come from Norway, and 30% of it comes from Qatar....

 

I feel powerless.....  It is all beyond me.  I never have understood economics.  Nor politics.  I don’t apportion blame.  I don’t claim any high ground.

 

But isn’t there something fundamentally awry? This puny island nation voted by a narrow margin to leave the EU on the grounds that ‘we’ could take back sovereignty.  

 

Bring it on.....

 

For them that think death’s honesty

Won’t fall upon them naturally

Life sometimes must get lonely

 

Bob Dylan

 

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

[1965]