Blog Review 824

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We expect the Lord Chamberlain, the Home Secretary, the Minister for Promoting Virtue and Punishing Vice, to be calling for censorhip. But the Culture Secretary?

It doesn't seem to be a stimulus proposal, rather, an all time expansion of government.

Perhaps it would be better to simply do nothing?

Adam Smith and the labour theory of value.....that he didn't in fact have one.

Life really isn't inescapably political.

A style guide aid to those wanting to write for The Guardian.

And finally, excuse us, but we're off to polish our egos.

On the fifth day of Christmas...

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My true love sent to me: five gold rings. It probably means the first five books of the Old Testament, but to me five rings means the Olympics, which are coming to London in 2012.

Well, they say that. But it's a typical government-led project, so who knows? The London bid for the games put the cost at £3,375m, but in March last year Tessa Jowell revealed that the cost had risen to £9,325m - a tripling of the costs in just a few months. Something of a black hole, which the hole-vaulting Culture Secretary explained as due to VAT, inflation, and a whopping £2,700m 'just in case things go wrong' fund (a figure larger than that the original estimate for building the entire Olympic Park). And that's unlikely to be the end of it, since officials are said to be working to a £12bn target. With the credit crunch, private financing and sponsorship deals now look shaky, and after Mumbai the cost of security has been ramped up, so taxpayers are likely to find the Olympics rather expensive.

Film of the Year No. 3

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3. Gomorrah

It’s not easy to summarize the plot of Gomorrah, mostly because there isn’t one. Rather than taking a narrative approach, the film simply follows a group of loosely connected characters around a grim Neapolitan estate ruled by the Camorra, the local mafia. Based on the 2006 non-fiction book by Roberto Savianno (who has been in police protection ever since), Gomorrah is a bleak, brutal film that pulls no punches and offers no easy answers. Indeed, such is the film’s commitment to realism that even Italian audiences needed subtitles to understand the heavy dialect it is filmed in.

If you sit down to watch Gomorrah expecting ‘the Italian Goodfellas’, you are going to be sorely disappointed. There are no characters to root for, and no compromises made for the sake of entertainment. And at no point in the film is it possible to vicariously enjoy the gangsterism being depicted. But that, surely, is as it should be. Real-life organized crime isn’t glamorous – it is a vile force that corrupts and destroys everything it touches. Gomorrah is a deeply powerful reminder of that. Watch the trailer here.

Blog Review 823

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Minister announces a direct attack on free speech and insists that it is not an attack upon free speech. Just don't expect us to cooperate.

This isn't a new idea but that doesn't stop it being a very good one.

A look at how the BBC created its editorial line on climate change. Not, you won't be surprised to hear, a pretty sight.

Sometimes it doesn't matter which decision you make: just that you do indeed make a decision. Dithering simply makes things worse.

A report from the front lines of the green generating revolution.

Labour's campaign song all the way back in 1997 was "Things Can Only Get Better". And so it goes.

And finally, these aren't the seven best criminal capers of 2008, for the best are the ones that have gone undiscovered. 

On the fourth day of Christmas...

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My true love sent to me: four calling (or colly) birds, which in A Partridge in a Pear Tree are said represent the four gospels or the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Well, my true love is now breaking the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which makes it illegal to sell wild animals. It also demands that animals are given a suitable environment, diet and housing.

Regulations proposed under the legislation tell pet owners not to feed their dogs chocolate or let their cats sit on the toaster. Although feeding your dog chocolate is not actually a criminal offence, it can be used in a court of law as evidence of your guilt on other charges, which can leave you open to a prison sentence of a fine of £20,000.

Film of the Year No. 4

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4. Changeling

Who would ever have thought that Clint Eastwood, once Hollywood’s drifter/cowboy/anti-hero par excellence, would also become one of America’s most celebrated directors? And yet his recent filmography – Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima – really says it all. He still appears to be improving with age though, since his latest effort, Changeling, is undoubtedly his best to date.

The (true) story centres on Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single-mother in 1920s Los Angeles who comes home from work one day to find her young son, Walter, has disappeared. Some months later the LAPD (seemingly mired in prohibition-era corruption) find a child and claim it is Collins’ son. It isn’t. But when Collins’ tries to tell the police that they turn against her, insisting she is mentally unstable and an unfit mother. But what happened to the real Walter? Can he be found before it is too late?

Changeling is flawless cinema, and it would be surprising if it did not feature heavily in 2009’s Oscars. Jolie is superb, and Eastwood’s classical style and mastery of tone and atmosphere makes Changeling reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece Chinatown – high praise indeed. It may sound like mere melodrama, but the narrative shift that occurs part way through the film turns Changeling into something altogether darker and more disturbing. It’s still showing in cinemas, so be sure to catch it if you can. Watch the trailer here.

Blog Review 822

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Looking at charts of industrial output makes some think that this is the Great Depression Part II. Others think that looking at industrial production isn't all that important or informative.

The idea that government action opened up opportunity and competition is so ahistorical as to be breathtaking....

Something we forget at our peril, voluntary transactions benefit all of the participants in them.

The last time the government started throwing money around like a drunken sailor there was no corruption, oh no. But it does rather matter what you consider to be corruption.

Some thoughts on not spending money like a drunken sailor.

Rough figures, but some individual blogs seem to be getting about 15% of the web traffic of national newspapers.

And finally, the turth in a quiz answer.

On the third day of Christmas...

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My true love sent to me: three french hens, which in the song apparently represent the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. I'm not sure there is much of any of them around today, though.

On the faith side, we might be making progress. Dorothy Glenn of South Shields was told by her Housing Association to remove her four-foot Santa and Christmas lights in case it offended non-Christians. However, her non-Christian neighbours said their kids loved the lights, the Council repudiated the demand, and the Housing Association was forced to apologise. Councillor Ahmed Khan, who represents Mrs Glenn's ward, commented: "It's this kind of nonsense that sets race relations back twenty years." Quite.

As for hope, well, I don’t hold out much hope for our economy in 2009. And charity: it's remarkable how many things that should be done through charity are in fact done through coercion as government takes money out of our pockets to do them. And then take the credit, of course.

The trouble is, that when governments intervene, private funding dries up. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution found that in the 1800s, when it started to accept government money. It found that for every £1 it took from the government, it lost £1.40 in private donations. People couldn't see why they should fund something that the government was paying for. Now the RNLI proudly refuses all government money. Bravo!

Film of the Year No. 5

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5. The Orphanage

Laura grew up in an orphanage, but was later adopted. Years later, she and her husband Carlos buy the orphanage – which has since fallen into disrepair – and move in with their own adopted son, Tomas, intending to reopen it as a home for handicapped children. Before long, Tomas starts to communicate with an invisible new friend, who may be just a product of his young imagination, but could be something altogether more sinister...

The Orphanage is everything a horror film should be. Unlike most recent examples of the genre – which tend to rely almost exclusively on gore and extreme violence to unsettle the viewer – The Orphanage puts story and atmosphere first, scaring us with the unknown and the unseen, and connecting with the audience on a deeper, more psychological level. Ultimately, that makes it all the more terrifying.

Too often, films like this fall at the final hurdle, failing to deliver on the suspense they have built-up. Not so here: what makes The Orphanage transcend it genre is the knock-out blow it delivers in its final act, a brutal and unexpected twist that lingers in the mind long after the credits have rolled. Highly recommended.

Watch the trailer here

Blog Review 821

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An interesting thought to lead into the New Year. If only economists were as arrogant as everyone thinks economists already are.

Another one (and very much Deepak Lal's view, he who is one of our Fellows here), that governments are in essence glorified gangs of criminals.

And a cynical if true view of how philanthropy works out in practice.

The man who predicted the future of the American car industry.

Too much time on your hands? See if you can beat Netsmith's donation of 303 glasses of water to those who need it.

Another charitable effort that could use some help and attention. Time, money, even stocking fridges with beer......

And finally, we'd have gotten' away with this if it wasn't for those pesky students.