I am a scab

On Tuesday, local authority workers went on strike in protest over government plans to scrap a so-called "rule of 85", which allows council staff to retire at 60 if their age and length of service add up to 85 years. The fire service, police service and health workers have had the "rule of 85" kept in place to protect their pensions; local authority workers are the only group of public servants who have not.

Working as a temp for the city council earning a meagre £7.00 an hour with no affiliation to the unions and not a member of the pension scheme, I had no reason nor could I afford not to work.

So I had to cross the picket line. In the days leading up to the strike I was remembering images of the violent clashes between miners and police during the Thatcher years. I had been reassured that I wouldn't have any problems crossing the picket line but still, I was apprehensive.

When I got to work there were two people on each of the three entrances. A guy on the line asked me why I was going into work. "I'm a temp; I can't afford not to work," I replied defensively. I didn't know how much hassle to expect and felt intimidated. He was perfectly nice about it. He asked which recruitment agency I worked for. Suspicious, I was reluctant to tell him. "Don't worry," he said. "We've made arrangements with all the agencies. Not a problem. In you go."

And that was it. The sextet of workers manning the picket line fucked off at 10.00am to go join a rally in the city centre and didn't came back for the rest of the day. I'd had nothing to worry about but it still felt weird being at work, as if I had somehow betrayed somebody somewhere. At least, it felt that way for a couple of hours until I realised that I didn't give a fuck

Namesake

Just to clarify, I am not this Steve Kane. I am an entirely different Steve Kane and I've never hosted an American talk radio show.

Thank you.

One of those funny things...

Some time last year - I don't remember where or when - I caught a really cool music video on TV starring Mark Heap; you may have seen him as the curious artist Brian in Spaced or in Chris Morris' Jam or Green Wing. Anyway, this music video had a very simple conceit: Mark Heap getting out of bed, leaving his house, running for the bus, falling down the stairs of the bus when he gets off, turning up on the doorstep of a house, going away, playing in the park with some small children, returning them to the house, going back to his own home and taking a bath - but the whole thing is shot with one of those chest mounted steadicams pointing back at the actor's face that Darren Aronofsky is so fond of. The video is therefore dominated by Mark Heap's wonderfully hangdog, long-suffering face. Right at the end, as he submerges himself in the bath, he thinks back to the day out with (presumably) his children and, finally, a smile creeps across his face. It really is a lovely little video.

Unfortunately, at the time I saw this video, I didn't know who the band was or what the song was called. This annoyed me because the tune was really good.

So, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago; I am making good use of Last.fm's "similar artist" function to find something a bit like Red Snapper - one of my favourite bands who selfishly broke up a couple of years ago - and one of the bands that popped up was Four Tet. Ooh, I thought as I listened to Four Tet, this is good. I'll make a note of them and buy some of their stuff.

Today I popped into HMV after work to have a mooch around. I went over to the dance section to see if they had any Four Tet. They did. Hmm, which one to buy, I thought. I had done a bit of research and all of the albums had received good press. I spotted the latest one, Everything Ecstatic, and figured that it was as good a place to start as any. But then I noticed Everything Ecstatic Films & Part 2, a two disc package with a DVD of videos to accompany each album track and a CD of extra remixes. It was only £2.00 more than the regular album so I figured, what the hell?

I get home and I stick on the DVD. The first track, A Joy has a frenetic animation of hand-drawn abstract shapes. Very interesting. Track number two, Smile Around The Face, starts up - a man getting out of bed, leaving his house, running for the bus... I jumped out of my seat, yelped and pointed at the screen: "It's that Mark Heap video! It's that Mark Heap video!" By complete accident, I had procured the very video I had been wanting to find for nearly a year without knowing who the band was or what the song was called.

Don't you just love it when that happens?

---

Oh yeah, the reason I was in HMV looking for music to buy is because today is my birthday. Thirty-one years old. Yay, etc.

Sundry literary guff

The Grumpy Bookman has reviewed (or 'overviewed') the first 40 pages of Roger Morris' debut novel, Taking Comfort. Despite admitting that it is not the kind of novel that he usually reads, the Grump gives the book a positive recommendation.

Roger will be joining other authors to be published by the controversial Macmillan New Writing imprint at a couple of reading events next month. I hope to attend so that I can heckle and throw mouldy vegetables at Roger as he attempts to read.

The events will be taking place at the Pan Bookshop, 158 Fulham Road, London (7 April 2006) and at Goldsboro Books (12 April 2006). Roger has also set up a dedicated Taking Comfort website.

And speaking of Charlie Williams, which we weren't, he has given a very interesting interview to Ray Banks over at the Noir Originals website that you can read here.

We know where you've been

The Open Rights Group (ORG) are a not-for-profit organisation aiming to raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses. My friend Suw Charman, who is Executive Director, has cajoled me into making a contribution that will mostly involve researching certain issues and writing up summaries for the ORG wiki.

My first assignment was to find out what I could about the National Vehicle Tracking Database. "The what?" you may ask. It's hardly surprising you have not heard of it because there has been very little coverage in the media and yet there could be serious ramifications for vehicle owners. Here is the summary I wrote for ORG:

A new national surveillance system will record the movements of every vehicle on the road for at least two years. A network of cameras will automatically read every passing vehicle registration plate and this information will be used to create a database of vehicle movements. Police and security services will be able to use this information to analyse the movements of every driver in the country for several years.

Thousands of existing CCTV cameras are being converted to read number plates using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. These cameras will provide coverage 24/7 on all motorways and major roads as well as cities, towns, ports and petrol station forecourts.

A central database will be installed alongside the National Police Computer in London to store the details of 35 million number plate "reads" taken per day. The information recorded will include time, date and precise location. The camera sites will be monitored by global positioning satellites.

Subsequent developments after the initial launch of the scheme in March 2006 may include extending the storage period to five years and incorporating more cameras into the network, thus increasing the capacity of number plate "reads" per day from 35 million to 100 million.

Sources:
Association Of Chief Police Officers
Common Dreams News Center
Spy Blog

So, if you own any kind of vehicle, the authorities will have a record of your every move. You might reason that anything that helps the police to track stolen vehicles or known criminals would be a valuable tool. You might say, "Well, I have nothing to hide." You might be willing to give up a little of your privacy for the greater good in these dangerous times. Yes, but what is the error margin with the current ANPR systems? How can the system recognise false number plates? Criminals have been known to place forged number plates over their vehicles' plates in order to evade detection. What if one of those false plates has your registration number on it? What if a terror suspect has a false plate with your registration number on it? How would you feel if the security services hauled you in on terror charges based on such evidence? Oh, but there must be failsafes in place; somebody somewhere must be responsible for preventing abuse of this information. Well, perhaps you should read this...

ANPR Strategy For The Police Service 2005/2008 - "Denying Criminals the Use of the Road" (PDF, 184.43 KB)

and this:

E.C.H.R., Data Protection & RIPA Guidance Relating to the Police use of A.N.P.R. (PDF, 88.77 KB)

... and tell me where it says who will be responsible for ensuring that your rights to privacy are protected.

Of course, the police and security services are up against it and need all the information they can get in order to keep us all safe; but the lack of reassurances against potential misuse of information on our movements must surely be a source of concern.

Bloody computers

I have just wasted an hour of my life trying to save a WAV audio file onto a CD-R. A whole fucking hour. Fucking thing kept getting about halfway through and then locked up. And then everything else locked up. Even the shut down function locked up.

Simple thing, simple bloody thing: put file from hard drive onto CD. But no. Wouldn't do it. A whole fucking hour and it wouldn't do that one simple thing.

So then I scratched the CD to oblivion with a pair of scissors and then jumped up and down on it. I really did. I, a grown man, scratched a CD-R to oblivion with a pair of scissors and then jumped up and down on it in one almighty tantrum. My fucking computer has reduced me to the level of a screaming, foot-stamping child inflicting petty violence to inanimate objects. It wasn't even the CD's fault and yet I unleashed my unequivocal wrath on the poor thing - pure blind rage.

It's ridiculous, it's absurd. I am laughable. I may be going mad.

Charlie Williams' da man

Congratulate, if you would be so kind, my close personal friend* Charlie Williams whose latest tome, King Of The Road, has received a cracking review from Matthew Lewin in The Guardian.

"... this is gloriously funny stuff and so original that other writers must be gnashing their teeth in jealousy." High praise indeed and well deserved.

Read the review here.

Well done, Charlie.

* OK, I've only met him in person once but we did get quite drunk.

Jai Clare at Authortrek: Addendum

And now there is an interview with Jai up on Authortrek.

Read the interview here.