Days Of Boules And Roses

Boules

I went to the regional boules championships last week and, as usual, spent an agreeable few days with the regional championship regulars. My team didn't do that well but we will never know exactly how well. The regional President of the national boules association gave a (too) long speech at the beginning saying nothing of relevance except not to beat him up and to play in a good spirit. It wasn't clear at the time why anyone should want to beat him up but became so very shortly afterwards when it turned out that he had changed the system for deciding teams positions at the end of the championships. Few players, if any, understood the new system and it seemed that the officials didn't either. Only the top ten teams were given their positions and we weren't one of them. So the President's actions served simply to ensure that the players were pissed off and wanted to beat him up, the opposites of what he stated as his objectives. I think that properly qualifies him as what the French commonly know as a “vieux con”. It also made me reflect, not for the first time, that to appreciate Provençal methods of organisation a good understanding of chaos theory is required. Whenever I made public speeches I always wanted feedback; the honourable President clearly doesn't but someone should tell him he needs it.

The trip was nonetheless very enjoyable. Michel, who drove me and his wife and friend Jacques to Gréoux, in the Alpes de Haute Provence where the championships were held, chose a “straight line” route through the Alps' foothills just north of here. It took us through country that I hadn't seen before and where lavender fields stretched from horizon to horizon. I made a mental note to return there sometime in the summer when the lavender is in bloom; it must be a magnificent sight (and smell). The height we were at, well over 1000 ft, suggested that what was growing was what the French call “lavende” rather than “lavendin”. I'm unclear about the distinction (both look the same) but understand that the former keeps its colour longer when dried and has a milder smell. However, “lavende” apparently grows well only in land at over 1000 ft and fetches a much higher price in the markets so I presumed that that was what I was seeing. However, when I buy lavender oil I buy the “lavendin” variety. My nose can't detect the subtle distinction in smell between the two and the “lavendin” oil is both much cheaper and more intense.

Roses, Roses, Roses

They are one of my favourite flowers, a preference that I probably share with very many others. So here are photos of some of those that I have. The first two photos show the two roses I have climbing over the arch at the back of my garden; the yellow and white one is Pilgrim, the pink one Shropshire Lad, both from David Austin. The third photo is of two bush roses in my back garden; the yellow one is Graham Thomas and the copper-coloured one Pat Austin, again both from David Austin. I visited David Austin's garden some 20 years ago and it is an experience that every rose lover should surely experience at least one time in their lives. The other rose garden I remember from England with great affection is the walled garden at Mottisfont, in Hampshire, which is open to the public in June in the evenings, when the perfume of the roses, and the pinks and peonies planted below them, is at its strongest.

To supplement the roses both honeysuckles in the front are in full bloom (and I have roses in the front too, also in bloom, Penny Lane, Dublin Bay and The Fairy). The perfume on my balcony and around the front of the house in the evening is wonderful.

Clochemerle Country And Garden

Clochemerle Country And Occam's Razor

Friends Steve and Jo have just moved house, as readers of this blog will already know. So they have changed address (obviously). A problem is that the village has recently named all previously unnamed roads and given every house a number. These new names and numbers have been notified centrally to the government, as required, but not to any other body that may be involved, such as utility companies. That is the responsibility of the residents themselves. And this is where drop-down menus and the tick box mentality come in. Quite obviously, when you move house you have to have meters read and new addresses for bills notified. But…………..the utility companies have drop-down menus for addresses to be recorded and, since they haven't been informed of the new addresses they can't recognise them. In the case of Steve and Jo, they also have a right to a new identity card. Same problem; they have to register their address but from a drop-down menu that does not recognise their actual address. Problems, problems………….and what is the solution? It's easy; when new addresses are registered they should be made to update all relevant databases of addresses. Why doesn't that happen, automatically? Because someone isn't THINKING. Why not? Who gets paid to THINK about the work they do?

I am about to confront what I suspect may be a similar problem in submitting my request for French nationality. The submission form is quite clear on what proofs are required and I now have all the necessary documentation to hand. So what problem could there be, other than an outright refusal, which the French government has the right to make? Well.…………….Steve and Jo in their application were asked for information that was essentially superfluous; so the same could apply to me. That could, in the worst case, amount to more than a hundred pages and, in again the worst case, need translation from French into English by an officially qualified translator at an official rate of 65 euros per page. The result could be 5000+ euros of expenditure for no useful purpose. Obviously I'm hoping that this situation does not arise but…………..why should it ever be possible?

Occam's razor. Occam's razor proposes that the simplest solution to any problem is most probably the best. Above all, you eliminate what is superfluous. Is there a Civil Service in the world that applies it, at probably an enormous potential cost saving to the Civil Service itself? There are, around the world, numerous professors of administration. Do any of them have a project to produce some kind of algorithm/template that would enable a government to extract the maximum of the information it requires with the minimum of documentation? If not, why not? Oh, and if they did, would any government pay attention?

Political Analysis

I have to confess to being a tribal Labour voter, although I did vote Lib-Dem in despair at the last general election. Over the years, my political stance has become pragmatic rather than tribal (pace my ancestors). I've now come to the uncomfortable conclusion that the political future of the UK must lie with the Conservative Party. This is how I see it.

Power in the UK has always, at least for more or less 100 years, resided in which political party gains the support of most of the middle ground. At the current time, neither of the main political parties owns that and neither seems to be seeking it so the UK is crying out for a party that woos the middle ground. That has happened before, in the 1980s, when the Social Democrat party, subsequently merged with the Liberals, was formed by disenchanted Labour party heavyweights. The party had a short life and any such new party formed would most probably have a similar life. Why? Because such a party is really just waiting for either of the two main contenders, Labour or Conservative, to come to their senses, at which point it gets blown out of the water. So which of the main parties might first come to its senses?

Ed Milibrand changed the decisive vote for the election of the leader of the Labour Party from the elected MPs to the Party members. These are people who will vote for all desirable social measures but not necessarily realistic ones or ones that will find favour with the electorate at large. They are a force for the kind of revolutionary government for social change which had power in 1945. Whether they are desirable or not is a matter of personal opinion but they are definitely not the middle ground. And..………..the Labour Party at the moment is powerless to change that. As currently constituted, it cannot change unless it can change the profile of its party membership, which is not within its own power.

The Conservative party, as I see it at the moment, is a hostage to its extreme right wing. Theresa May, whatever her inclinations, cannot afford to offend the extreme right wing because a revolt by it would bring down the government. She can afford to offend the left wing of the party as long as she manages to avoid too many abstentions/adverse votes by her MPs. So that is what she is trying to do in order to cling to power (whatever the consequences). The consequences may well be that the Party loses the next general election but that is not the issue here; the issue here is whether the Party can change. And it can, whether it chooses to do so or not.

Am I exaggerating the importance of the middle ground? Given the extreme right wing measures of the current government, an extreme left wing spell could well legislate corrective measures that would be welcomed by many (me included). But, in the longer run…….? The Labour government of 1945 succeeded in some amazing achievements and had its share of revolutionaries but it also had its pragmatists. Despite them, it lost the next general election. Is there a Harold Wilson in the current party to save the day? If there is, he is most certainly, on the evidence to date, being sidelined; the dogmatists rule.

My House

The Banksia rose at the back has more or less finished blooming but there are plenty of other pleasing spots of colour waiting for the other rose bushes to come into bloom and supplement them. The photo below of the front of the house doesn't quite do it justice as the blue petunia surfinas in the hanging baskets don't show up because of the shade thrown by the lime trees opposite. I've asked the Mairie to prune the lime trees hard but without success so far; I'll get more insistent next year. The problem for me is that, because of the shade, I need in the front plants that will flower happily in it and there aren't so many of those. That accounts for the number of geraniums, which I don't particularly like. I try to avoid the cliché scarlet variety (in the worst possible taste according to Oscar Wilde) but geraniums there must be at the moment. Anyway, I've had the first tourist photographers of the season taking photos out front so it can't be that bad.