The Future's Bright The Future's...

A combined public municipal building housing the local council offices, the public library, the registry office and god knows what else, probably a swimming pool and a health spa sponsored by Preparation-H.

My sister in-law recently went down to her local library with her daughter to find that it had been closed down, seemingly without any fore-warning. My sister in-law stated that this must be because ‘only my children and I are ever here.’ This closure of libraries is happening up and down the whole nation and why the media has been all wrapped up in the phone-hacking scandal the future of the library has been discussed behind open but ignored doors. So what could the future be?

One idea put forward by the local government association and the MLA (the museums, libraries and archives council) is that the libraries could shared there space with the council offices, police stations, NHS surgeries, local museums, health spars and sports centres. All based in one large, possibly purpose built, super hub. The centre of community, all things to all people, and no doubt in their minds, the minds of the LGA and the MLA, it would be somewhere that would be full of light and life, clean, well kept and well funded. I would just like to ask where is all the money going to come from to fund these ‘Super centres’? To look and any of Leeds’s council offices or police stations it is easy to see that there is no room in the existing buildings in the centre, even the library is running out of space. So where, pray tell, would these centres be? There is of course another problem with this idea. Exactly how local will these ‘Local’ centres be? My sister in-law for instance lives a good twenty minute drive outside of the city centre, is she really going to frequent this super hub. Thats twenty minutes in clear traffic by the way, a rare thing. SO how local is local? If this idea can save the large city centre libraries what is the hope for the smaller local libraries?

Another idea for these smaller libraries is it trying to get them to remain open through some sort of corporate sponsorship, either by local, national or international businesses. No, it is the wonderful mobile library. The small collection of books that travel just for you to find that they have no books of use or turn up a different times on different days every week. Is this really the answer? Or is it now that the true idea of society, not the big society of the Conservative party but the local community, to step forward?I have a fairly large collection of books and it is people like myself who may just save the idea of the local library. If the libraries are closing what is happening to their stock? Who will inherit those well loved and thumbed books that have a smell that takes me back to my childhood? Well if there is some kind hearted individual with space and an inclination could they not take on the role as the village or small town librarian. Is the future of the small town/village library a small town philanthropist? Is the future a house full of books using library thing as a reference system? (www.librarything.com) Is this what the small public library will look like?

Is this its new front door?

(All be it on its side.)

And I am not saying this should be done for free, surely if the libraries are closing a payment of say £20,000 a year would not be to much to pay someone to keep this facility available? Maybe it could be arranged by appointment as well, like booking a table at a restaurant, well no ones house is that big and the person must be allowed to take time to go to get shopping etc... I am not saying that this idea is perfect but you know what, it might just work.

THAT IS ALL.

And now, as is now the tradition. Todays recipe.

Broad Bean Balls.

Shell about a kilo of broad beans, blanch for about thirty seconds in boiling water and then take off the skins. In a food processor (its the easiest way) blend a good handful of coriander, two chilies (more if you want them hot, less if you want them mild) salt and pepper and the broad beans. add a little flour until the mix if fairly stiff, add some roughly chopped spring onions (about two for some crunch). make the mix into small balls and deep fry for about a minute or until the outside is dark brown then place on some kitchen towel to drain off any excess oil and serve hot with mint yogurt dip, or treat them just like falafel's.

Enjoy, I am off to watch the Sweeney, The Sweeney, ba ba ba ba ba ba baaaaaa
you slag!

They Don't call them hacks for nothing.

As someone who has considered a future in journalism (although my spelling and grammar will need a lot of work) it comes a no surprise to me that the hacking scandal is now spreading to other papers apart from the News of the World. This has now been going on, for what seems like, time immemorial. Will it ever end? How did anyone not think that the NOWT (i understand that this is acceptable) were using underhand tactics is beyond me, it is, sorry was, full of trash, stories that no one would really like to admit to and most of it definitely would not come under the heading of news. It has long been a fact that tabloids as well as the broadsheets would pay rewards for stories, probably bribes for leads and have had a close relationship with the fuzz (or police if you will), all to help with circulation numbers. Toady a man won a settlement to be paid compensation by eight newspapers because of the reports that he was a murderer, a line feed to the papers by the Bristol police, and the number of papers is also expected to increase. This seems to be just another sign of irresponsible reporting by some of the national papers.

At the head of the hacking scandal is what i consider to be the lowest of the low papers (apart from the Sunday sport (a newspaper?)). Although I know people who read it I must always ask myself why. This dirt is now spreading to papers such as the Daily Mirror with the most hated figure of Piers Morgan rearing his head. Could this be a witch hunt for some of the most hated men in the mass media? Well if it is i can’t blame them. So why did the NOWT and, supposedly, other papers use such underhand tactics and why O why did the NOWT hack the phones of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy? The answer dear friend is readership. These kind of stories sell the paper, these stories are what you want to read. Aren’t they? Well I can only really answer for myself, in which case the answer is no. I really don’t care about many of these stories that came from the hacking scandal, the only story I care about is the hacking scandal, exposed wonderfully by some pure investigative journalism by the guardian. The stories that came from phone hacking are much the same as the stories that were covered by the recent ‘super injunction’ fiasco. Stories about who is sleeping with who and so on and so forth, then again I suppose this is exactly the kind of place that the gutter press should be in.

So what is the answer? Greater regulation? An independent board much like OFCOM? I don’t think so. These kind of solutions in many ways will challenge the freedom of the press, self regulation then seems to be the way forward, self regulation with an enforced greater transparency. Tell us at least how information was gathered, trawling through bins, interviews, paid informants, whatever, just tell us and tell us that it is legal even if it is a bit underhand.

And now it has been announced that the police, and soon I guess the FBI, are launching a new investigation into the computer hacking that has allegedly been taking place and all to bring us the ground breaking stories of who is sleeping with who. With that kind of in-depth investigative Journalism I am surprised GRAZIA hasn't been frayed into this whole episode.

Just one more thing, it has been announced today (friday the 29/07/2011) that as of next year the BBC will no longer be the main holder of the F1 rights in the UK and that sky will now be showing every race live and the BBC will only have every other race. This I think is a real shame and a little of a strange decision on the part of the F1 rights holder. Why would you change a sport that relies on viewer numbers for the sponsorship etc to a pay channel and whats worse one that has adverts, I mean adverts in the middle of a race how stupid. I hope that this decision gets over turned by FOTA as it seems to me that this is in breech of the concord agreement between the F1 teams and the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone. Wankers!!!!!

THAT IS ALL.

and now, you lucky sods, TODAYS RECIPE.

Hot Spicy Asian Broth.

Create a stock base with chicken bones, half an onion, two mushrooms, salt and pepper a stalk of celery and a hand full of kaffir lime leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for roughly twenty minutes then add dried chilli flakes, a really large pinch, and simmer for a further five minutes. Pass through muslin and keep the stock. Fry onion and garlic with 3 fresh chilli's, when the onions are caramelised add enough stock for a bowl of soup, and reheat, strain the stock and discard the onion etc and add cooked noodles to the stock ( in a bowl) add some sliced spring onion and a few drops of sesame oil to garnish. To make a mightier soup you could add some nice shredded lemon chicken.

There they go again

So it has been a while hasn't it. I have been away and now I am back and something has got my goat. First let's look at a video

Is there anything you notice? Well they all have an accent and they are all men and there lies the problem.

This well known establishment has the most sexist policy I have ever heard of. It has long been a agreed fact within the world of catering that a mans position is behind the bar or on the front desk and the ladies are on the floor serving tables. This might seem sexist but it most defiantly has a practical side more heavy lifting is involved in bar work not to mention the shifting of barrels and women generally have a nicer temperament to wait on tables apart from that god knows why it is always a male maitre'd in all the movies. These distinctions are all blurred in the modern world of catering. Or so I thought......

This wonder of deco design and italian style is akin to one of Berlusconi's bangs bangs parties. The current Italian prime minister is well known for his attitude to the fairer sex. I didn't think that this extended to the whole nation but guess I should have known better.

it seems that inside this restaurant male chauvinism is alive and well. Two friends of mine have worked in this location, both attractive females and both fully capable at any job a restaurant might throw at you. One of my friends was told she was to ugly to work there, well not told to her face she overheard two of the managers talking loudly in italian a language that she happens to be close to fluent in. The other lady, after working seventy hour weeks at a well known hotel chain, got told that she was too short to work on reception, could only run food to table (to be seen but not heard) and at most could only possibly handle working a maximum of a twenty five hour week, this was of course because she was of the lesser, weaker, stupider sex.

How can it be that in this modern world a place such as this exists? How can this happen? Well it seems that the world of catering is the forgotten profession. No private health care and no options for pensions, fifteen hour shifts with one break, sexist managers and staff, low wages, breaking the law at many levels and what worse? The fact that this industry is glamorised by the media but is not investigated for approaches such as this, or the employment of chefs from abroad so wages can be lower, that's rather close to slave labour for my liking. I am not saying that all restaurants and establishments are run in this way it just seems that a lot have this hidden behind the scenes and I haven't even mentioned the bullying that chefs seem to get away with to the extent that it is accepted on tv and seen as entertainment.

So what can we do? Well first of just don't go to this restaurant, support independents that are on the small scale, in the Leeds area think reliance, rivers meet in ls26 or just anywhere that seems to be nice, the food is not that good at bibi's anyway, last time I ate there the steak tartar tasted like fish. THAT IS ALL.

And now for a new feature that I am going to call TODAY'S RECIPE catchy eh, and as a treat today you will get two.

Broad bean anti- pasti

Shell and cook the beans in boiling salted water for five minutes then rinse with cold water and peel.
Chop a good handful of basil, a large handful, and crush and chop 3 cloves of garlic. Mix the beans, basil and garlic in a bowl with olive oil, just enough to cover the beans, add three drops of Tabasco ( or more if you like it spicy) salt and pepper to taste and a tiny splash of either cider or White wine vinegar. Stir all in together and put in the fridge to chill. Works well as a cold accompaniment to chicken or warm summer salads, great with cheese and on a ploughmans.

Quick tomato salsa.

Quarter as many tomatoes as you wish ( cherry or small vine tomatoes are best) finely chop shallots or sweet red onions, mix in a bowl with a good glug of olive oil and a good glug of White wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, but the salt is important it will draw the liquid out of the tomatoes and provide more flavour. Leave this mix to sit in the fridge for a while. Just add tobacco to make it spicy.