The Christmas Bunch: The incredible industrial-electro origins of Alison Goldfrapp

Having a rifle through my tunes tonight I rediscovered three releases from an obscure outfit called “The Christmas Bunch”. Like a fair proportion of my records, these were all bought second hand. In fact I think I grabbed them all for less than a quid over a few years in the late 80s.

They sound OK. Not amazing, but there’s enough going on to hold your attention. And I quite liked the anonymity of it all, after over twenty years holding onto these records I was still none the wiser about the people behind them – (insert ominous crescendo) until now.

The first Christmas Bunch product I found must have been their “Hit No. 1” single. A one-sided twelve inch with minimal rubber stamped markings and a biro scribbling announcing it as 230 out of 250 copies.

It ain’t bad actually – characteristically stiff “dance” beats which could politely be described as motorik. There are some nice vocal samples and arrangements which remind a bit of the Art of Noise. The actual vocals spoil it for me a little, a bit too earnest and shouty – even for me, ha ha.

“Hit No.1” also came with this intriguing free gift, made up to look like an executive toy or educational tool:

As you can see, it’s two circles of printed card with a central pin. Windows in the front card reveal words printed on the rear one, in combinations like “glitter [….] ofcorruption” and “hide […] behindyoureyebrows”. This forthright rejection of spaces between words would be an enduring theme.

So when the album turned up a little while later, I figured it had to be worth another quid or so…

“Get Out Of My Face” is a six track affair. It even has some credits on it, which are difficult to decipher because of the lack of spaces between words. Nevertheless the label yields a useful “all songs (c) 1986”. The back cover states that it was recorded in London, Luton and Sussex and  announces that the group “are Clyde Ely Goldhurst”. I have no idea whether that is one, two or three people cos of the lack of spaces.

Side One is a bit more”beaty” and includes “Hit No.1” again. “Private Property”and “Dreamtime” remind me a little of Fad Gadget at his most croony – but with a slightly posher voice.

Side Two is more to my liking and verges on electronic chillout territory. “The Elephant Bar” is filmic and jazzy, a bit like some of Barry Adamson’s solo gear. Luckily the only vocals are wispy female operatic ones. (Hmm!) “Last Chance” almost sounds like a more plinky plonky Massive Attack or something. “The Fridge” might consist of pitched down church organs and choirs.

I then forgot about the Christmas Bunch for a while until I stumbled on this record in Brighton one summer:

I think you’ll have to agree that this cover either heralds the magnificent or the tragic.

The back cover reveals that the full line up is “Nick Sample featuring The Christmas Bunch”. Side A is “Marvelous Person” and features Margaret Thatcher doing vocals over an almost adequate “acid dance” backing. Whilst I doubt this ever got played at Shoom, it’s an interesting novelty record and yet another example of old industrial types dovetailing with acieeeed. Or maybe that’s too naive – it’s billed as “Yet Another Acid Cash In”. That guitar solo is a no-no though.

Side Two is all the vocal samples done acapella for all you mash up mixmasters out there. I’ve had some drunken fun with these over the years. Which is why it’s not exactly in mint condition, even by the standards of certain sellers on GEMM.

Actually, hearing it again, I’m not clear if it’s clever editing of Thatcher or a soundalike. She comes out with stuff like “I am a marvelous concept… we must take away the fruits of people’s labour” and stuff. There’s a newsreader type bloke in there as well gobbing off about “profits are modern warfare” and suchlike.

And that was the last I heard of ye Xmasbunch. It looks like they made at least one other record, which judging by its cover might include Michael Heseltine stepping up to the mic. I’m not about to start paying 5 quid for their records though. If anyone has any further information then please feel free to leave a comment below or drop me an email.


So anyway, where does Alison Goldfrapp fit into this? Well after occasionally googling for info on The Christmas Bunch to no avail over the years, this little snippet turned up tonight:

“Alison was born in 1966 — or earlier. She was in a LCP student film made in 1988 (find it on myspace) and also in 1985 also. She was NOT 15 in 1985! She was in a band called the Christmas Bunch. Do the maths.”

(It’s in the midst of a discussion about her age, which I am not remotely bothered about – it’s easy to see why women in the media spotlight might obscure their age, no? For the record I have a lot of time for Goldfrapp – particularly their “Black Cherry” and “Supernature” albums. There’s a lot of inverted snobbery about them in bloggerland.)

To be honest I don’t hold out much hope for an anonymous single source on the internet actually being true. For all I know it’s someone who used to be in the band trying to reignite some interest in their backcatalogue. But it was an unexpected bonus which has added to the mystery nicely.

And… there is an “Ali Blank” credited on the sleeve of the “Get Out Of My Face” album…

Dusk & Blackdown: Margins Music Live

To the Albany in New Cross, via the brand spanking new train line which joins the previously isolated South East and North East parts of London.

The journey allowed me some time to ruminate on the mixed feelings I had about the event. “Margins Music” was a bold album, linking up the psychogeography of London with its various sonics. Blackdown and Dusk gave great interview in Woofah issue 3 and Mr Blackdown himself shared a bill with Georgina Cook and I at last year’s Creative Edge event at UCL.

Oh yeah and they got my best mate to remix their album.

But but but… doing a live show based on their album? Really? Once again full marks for ambition, but horrendous memories floated through my brain at the thought of it. Not least being munted at one of the mid 90s Tribal Gathering festivals and stumbling into the Metalheadz tent as they launched into a piss poor “Jazz Odyssey” with much backslapping from Goldie about taking it to the next level with “real musicians”.

The Albany was far from full when we reached. Mr HistoryIsMadeAtNight and I caught up with Melissa Bradshaw at the bar. Blackdown paced about, impossible to miss because of his height (one of the few people I have to look up to in conversation, ha ha!).

And then, without much fanfare, it kicked off. Dusk and Blackdown took to laptops, another geezer fiddled with the backing film, two ladies on vocals up front, a female percussionist and I think a female keyboard player, but I couldn’t quite what she was doing from my vantage point. An encouragingly multiracial and non-blokey line up, I felt.

Full marks so far – they’d not gone for anything insane like string quartets or jazz saxophonists. It sounded tight, Farrah and Japjit’s presence at the front was an all too welcome deviation from the usual problems of “bloke playing with laptop” which make performances resemble offices.

The sparseness of the audience and the laid back nature of the first half of the show made it hard to really get sucked in, but the visuals helped – lots of gritty footage of London, mashed up with Bollywood films and some neat on-the-fly video scratching and distorting. Despite that, there were still moments when I longed for the venue to transform itself into a big tent at a festival… I felt a bit stiff standing there, pint in hand, shuffling about.

That said it was an impressive debut, I certainly didn’t notice any fuck ups. The set increased in intensity throughout and there were some ace bits of percussion soloing. Vocals were faultless and occasionally had the hairs on my arms standing on end. Volume-wise it was still alright for talking to the man next to me, but that also meant there weren’t any rib-rattling b-lines.

Farrah and Japjit departed after a while and were replaced by… Trim. Woah.

Margins Music features Trim and Durrty Goodz, arguably the two most accomplished grime MCs in terms of abstract vocal impact. Trim specialises in woozy poetics that take a few plays to suss out – but always grab your attention.

This was hardly his usual territory though. It’s not like he’s even a regular fixture at the rare grime raves in London. The only other time I’ve seen him was at Dirty Canvas in 2007. But the Albany was all arty and not exactly banging and… people weren’t exactly waving their hands in the air bawling for a reload. He did great though, sliding out some top abstract bars (and, uh, some slightly more base ones!). He even improvised some lines about kicking back and enjoying a beer when he spotted me and Mr H.I.M.A.N. doing precisely that.

Then Farrah and Japjit rejoined the group as they raised the roof for the final track – credits rolling on the screen behind them.

We showed our appreciation. As Blackdown himself says, it worked.

Dates in Brighton, Manchester and elsewhere follow. My man Grievous Angel is doing a set at the Manc show. Check this out if you have an open mind and want something a little way different…

EDIT: History Is Made At Night review now up also.

2005 Ugandan Dancehall Video of the week #2

So the second installment from the Uganda stash is “Bell” by DJ Micheal.

This is pretty great on a number of levels. Firstly it features a gaggle of Ugandans hanging out in some top garms. Can you spot the guy in the Burberry cap? How about those dance moves?

Secondly I really love the track, especially the unnamed female vocalist who is blatantly ripping off Lumidee.

But finally, you have to dig DJ Micheal’s entrepreneurial spirit. Dancehall is often about self promotion, but here he grabs the mic and gives airtime to Bell Lager, presumably to help fund the filming.

Once again details are bit sketchy, but I think we can safely say that the man’s work speaks for itself here.

DJ Micheal is unsurprisingly also known as DJ Michael, and there are a few more vids from him on Youtube. Many of these were a bit poppy for my tastes (and the “bling” imagery is even more grating in a Ugandan context than a US/UK one) but Muko Muko is worth checking…

the first 23 gigs I can remember going to: FULL LIST

A handy reference guide for obsessives, johnny come latelys and future biographers.

0. Introduction

1. Howard Jones. Wembley Arena, 17th April 1985

2. Midge Ure. Wembley Arena, 23rd December 1985

3. Marillion. Milton Keynes Bowl, 28th June 1986

4. Ultravox. Wembley Arena 5th, November 1986

5. New Model Army. Town & Country Club, 23rd December 1986

6. Marillion. Aylesbury Civic Centre, 28th December 1986

7. Test Dept. Hackney Empire, 23rd January 1987

9. The Mission. Brixton Academy, 28th March 1987

10. Psychic TV with With Tiny Lights, Zoskia Meets Sugardog, English Boy On The Love Ranch, Webcore. Hackney Empire, July 3 1987

11. Big Black, Head of David, A.C. Temple. Friday 24th July 1987, Hammersmith Clarendon.

12. Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Fall, Wire, Psychic TV, Gaye Bykers On Acid. Saturday 25th July 1987, Finsbury Park Supertent.

13. Butthole Surfers, Shamen, AR Kane. Clarendon, 6th August 1987.

14. Alien Sex Fiend, Psychic TV, Steven Wells. Hackney Empire, 30 September 1987.

15. SWANS, Dave Howard Singers, The Sugarcubes. Town & Country Club, 14th October 1987.

16. Suicide, Spacemen 3, Into A Circle, 999. Town & Country Club, 13th December 1987.

17. Glenn Branca: Symphony no. 6 (Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven). Queen Elizabeth Hall, 30th January 1988.

18. Butthole Surfers, Loop, The Shrubs. University of London Union, 26th February 1988.

19. Spacemen 3. Dingwalls, 28th March 1988.

20. Psychic TV, Spacemen 3, Hiding Place. Astoria, Sat Apr 30 1988.

21. Skinny Puppy plus comedian. Fulham Greyhound, 21st May 1988.

22. Throbbing Gristle Ltd. Astoria, 3rd June 1988.

23. Foetus Interruptus, Tackhead Soundsystem. Town and Country Club, 20th September 1988.

interview with The Hackney Citizen

On Saturday a young man was shot in London Fields, caught in the cross-fire of what can safely be assumed to be a gang related confrontation. The shooting took place during a community festival.

In an uncanny echo of the “Day Today” “Dead Pigeon” sketch, Jules Pipe (the elected New Labour Mayor of Hackney) pointed out: “Despite this very worrying incident, hundreds of people were able to enjoy the event in London Fields safely.”

Sensing the opportunity to seize the crown for crass comments relating to this tragedy, Hackney Citizen has leapt into the breach with an absolutely toe-curling piece by Morag McKeown .

Like many middle class people, McKeown seems particularly vexed by gentrification and middle class people’s role in it. She is also concerned with the plight of poor people, from a bizarrely tabloid anthropological angle:

Hackney is home to some of the worst housing in the country. Slums. Families squashed into tiny houses, damp riddled, stacked up like criminals in estates full of drugs, intimidation and fear. The women try to keep clean, the fathers try to stay clean and the kids run around like toy soldiers marking their small bits of territory with drugs, guns and violence. They put the edge in Hackney.

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time on the estates around London Fields, I find this “ghetto-glamourising” particularly annoying.

I left a comment on the site, and harangued the Citizen on twitter:

Why have you published this nonsense?

Hi John we hoped the piece would stimulate debate, please post your criticisms of it on the site. many thanks, keith [direct message to johnedenuk]

Would you a publish piece saying all the middle class blokes in new flats nr London Fields were coke heads who beat their wives? For debate? [direct message to HackneyCitizen]

Hi John no we wouldn’t, but the piece doesn’t make inferences about all individuals in a given situatiion. best, keith [direct message to johnedenuk]

It makes that inference about people who live in “slums” in the 3rd para. [direct message to HackneyCitizen]

Hi John we’d be happy to consider publishing a counter argument to the piece. best, keith [direct message to johnedenuk]

As someone who lives on an estate, I have no desire to be associated with you if you publish stuff like that. Putting it politely. [direct message to HackneyCitizen]

Perhaps unsurprisingly no further response was received. I daresay Keith feels very threatened having unwittingly communicated with someone who lives on an estate, who is no doubt typing with one hand and brandishing a crack pipe and firearm in the other.

An estate, near London Fields, earlier today.

Direct messages on Twitter are private. I wouldn’t usually publish direct messages publicly like this. But I figured I might as well in this case, not least because Hackney Citizen was recently in bother itself for reproducing an allegedly private phone call between Hackney Tory Mayoral candidate Andrew Boff and a Hackney Council call centre.

At the time of writing, Jules Pipe had just issued a revised statement. The victim of the shooting is described as being in a “serious but stable condition”.

Meanwhile I am sure that Hackney Citizen is very pleased with the “debate” that McKeown’s piece has generated – 32 outraged and knee jerk comments… and counting.

the twenty third gig I can remember going to

Click here for a complete list of entries in the series  “the first 23 gigs I can remember going to”.

I got a “D” in my Psychology ‘A’ Level, and an “E” in Maths. I also completely fucked up Chemistry, again. My parents were both at work whilst I stared at the slip of paper which announced my doom. I helped myself to a stiff drink before calling them.

I was quite upset, I needed better grades to get to where I wanted to be (can’t remember what was in the running, but Leeds and Warwick were up there I think).

So I had to chance my arm with the “clearing” system – where you throw your hat in the ring and see if any college will take you. This seemed to take ages and was quite humiliating, but I just stayed focused and got on with it…

I eventually managed to secure myself a place at the Polytechnic of Central London to do a BSc in Psychology. But I still needed to find somewhere to live. PCL had a reputation for being radical, and my flat hunting confirmed that the students union was a haven for freaks, goths and layabouts. My search for a place to rest my head was exciting but ultimately fruitless.

I might have been desperate to move out of my parental home, but the rooms on offer at the students union only managed to cough up some real dives – places where you couldn’t even get the door open because they were so small. Or a room I’d have to share with a bloke who was monomaniacal with the excitement of being “out” in London.

Luckily one of the grebo freaks in the students union took me under his wing and I was offered a decent sized room in a house in Haringey. Everything else was detail. My awkwardness and fear dissolved into excitement. I’m sure my parents went through a similar process. There was time for one last gig before I hit the Big City on a full-time basis…

foetus-88

23 Foetus Interruptus, Tackhead Soundsystem. Town and Country Club, 20th September 1988.

I’d been waiting for two years for this gig and couldn’t quite believe it was happening. Peter Rehberg had done my mate Wal a C90 with “Hole” by Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel on one side and a bunch of 12″ with all sorts of mad names (You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath, Foetus Art Terrorism, etc) on the other. Wal had duly copied it for me. We absolutely destroyed those tapes and I remember some really intense conversations in the school playground about what the fuck was going on with it all. Jim Thirlwell’s productions still sound amazing, he is definitely up there in my pantheon of sonic sorcerers. Legend has it that he was so driven he once barricaded himself in a studio when his time was up, emerging pallid and scurvied when the job had been done.

Foetus aka Clint Ruin aka Jim Thirlwell made Totalitarian Pop Music. “Hole” and its follow up “Nail” were precision-tooled pop records made by a psychopath. They distilled The Cramps‘ rockabilly, big band music from cartoons, James Brown funk, film noir soundtracks and jack-hammer industrial dance. Tracks like “Calamity Crush” sounded like a marching band of drum machines being conducted by some Hammer Horror mad scientist.

The lyrics jumbled up pop culture with a completely nihilist hodge podge of mass murder, sexual deviance and military atrocities. But they weren’t shocking, they were oddly catchy, darkly funny and manic.

When I finally saw the artwork for the records, I was blown away by Thirlwell’s graphics. Really bold, pop-art styles combined with Maoist propaganda – all riddled through with that sickness.

Foetus was a solo effort, and he never played live. Well, not really. Rumours abounded of live shows he’d done as part of The Immaculate Consumptives alongside Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave and Marc Almond. Supergroup or what? I think they played in London and New York – one-off gigs when I was still working up the courage to go and see Howard Jones.

I slowly amassed a Foetus collection, originally acquiring both “Hole” and “Nail” as official cassette releases that stayed glued to my Walkman. Then onto the vinyl, largely courtesy of the Rough Trade Shop in Ladbroke Grove. I think Wal did the same, so that C90 Peter dubbed us lead to about 30 royalty payments for Clint Ruin Incorporated, and good luck to him.

Foetus was a relentless collaborator, cropping up on records by Coil, Marc and The Mambas, The The, even Nurse With Wound. I grabbed a bunch of these (notably the latter’s incredible “Brained By Falling Masonry” 12″) and filled my life with Foetus. Most of these collaborations were fleeting, the odd track on an album or one-off twelve inch. One of the more enduring projects was Wiseblood – Foetus + Roli Mosimann from SWANS = bludgeoning percussion and even more twisted visions. I’d got into trouble playing their “Someone Drowned In My Pool” 12″ in the 6th form common room one breaktime. To me, it sounded entirely acceptable, a little light ballad about murder. Apparently this feeling was far from universal.

Just when I’d fully embraced the idea of never seeing this stuff live, Foetus Interruptus embarked on a European Tour. They were doing two nights at the Town and Country Club and I was sorely tempted to go to both. But I only managed one, and considered it to be something of a celebration of my successful escape plan.

The support was the Tackhead Soundsystem, i.e. Gary Clail on the mic and tapes whilst Adrian Sherwood made the floor vibrate. I seem to remember that they did this all from the mixing desk, there was nothing to see on the stage. There’s a lot more to be written about that, but I’ll have to leave On-U Sound for another time.

Foetus Interruptus was essentially Clint Ruin backed by most of SWANS. They rocked their way through a load of Foetus and Wiseblood material and it was great, but not amazing. I think my main disappointment was the  impossibility of reproducing that studio wizardry on stage. And even the “I like the way you fill out your clothes” vocal sample introducing “Clothes Hoist” was squealed by Mr Foetus instead. None of this stopped me having the time of my life, however.

A couple of days later I moved down to London with the bare essentials. I’d already sorted out my first evening’s entertainment:

buttholeacademy88

Aside from an unsuccessful attempt at suburban living in Leighton Buzzard in the mid nineties, I have pretty much lived in Haringey and Hackney ever since.

As I said at the outset of this story, these years saw me transform myself “from being a polite boy who toed the line, into a polite teenager with a head full of weird ideas. Who wasn’t quite so sure about that line he’d been toeing…”.

There are probably a million things I’d do differently if I had that time again, but looking back on it now I can see how all the fuck ups and the worrying in my bedroom and of course the obsessing over music has made me the well-rounded, sensitive and attractive man I have undoubtedly become.

It was intense, which is why I can remember it so well.

2005 Ugandan Dancehall Video of the week #1

Consider this the beginning of a really weird crossfade into the “23 gigs” series.

My partner, daughter and I spent 3 weeks in Uganda in 2005. I blogged about that before:

Intro

Charity meets Capitalism in uptown Kampala

Tourism and Corruption

Idi Amin and politics

In retrospect I should have written more at the time and made at least a half-hearted attempt to pitch an article on my experience to a newspaper. But then again, doesn’t every “gap year” kid with more self-confidence than me do exactly that?

Pre-parentage, me and the good woman who puts up with me had traveled to South America to avoid the millennium. I’d been fascinated by tantalising stories of baile-funk in local newspapers that we’d picked up, and bursts of sound from passing cars. We even saw a spray painted banner for a baile funk event one time, but had been warned off going. It would take a brave or stupid person to be the only gringo at a hyper violent funk ball in the favellas.

A decade later, baile funk has become another string in the bow of the global ghetto tech scene. I guess if I’d been more ruthless I could have got in on the ground floor of something big. But as usual I was more concerned with having a good time, exploring random stuff and being a reasonably considerate boyfriend in an alien environment.

But I still find global ghetto music tourism very seductive. Not least because I’d like to think I’d do a better job of it than your average music journalist.

Still haunted by baile funk, I was intrigued by reggae rearing its head in Uganda. But again, I was still more concerned with my personal safety and pleasure – and even more so that of my family.

Music floated through the air, never quite close enough to investigate fully.

IMG_1545

Towards the end of the trip we had a wander around the market district of Kampala. It was hot and intense. Lots of hustle and bustle and energy and the usual weird combination of the old and modern cheek by jowl. Fruit stalls stood alongside blaggers who hooked up fourway sockets to the city’s electricity supply so they could take money off people to charge up their mobile phones.

We got hassled by a few blokes, but usually in a good-natured way. One guy stood out. He introduced himself as Rasta Moses (the only dread we met in Uganda). I guess he may have been pulled in by my Channel One “Well Charge” t-shirt courtesy of Dancecrasher.

My better half asked Rasta Moses about reggae in Kampala and he told us about some long gone Monday night sessions which sounded wicked. When we pressed him about getting hold of some Ugandan music he beckoned us down a labyrinth of alleys.

We were off the beaten track, 4 year old kid in tow, with a complete stranger. Hmmph. Our reggae quest concluded at a shop which basically processed wedding photos. It was cramped and chaotic, but sure enough they had a knackered old PC out the back which apparently had what we needed on it.

Rasta Moses gabbled ten to the dozen to the guys in the shop. Basically trying to get his commission. And fair enough, we would never have found the place without him. They showed me some promo videos of Ugandan dancehall. Which looked good. I asked about just getting just the music – mp3s? But it was video or nothing.

We haggled over the price. They showed me stuff and then burned the bits I liked on CD. I was very aware that this was probably my only chance, but it took a long time for the CD burner to grind round. They wanted to keep me there to burn 3 CDs or more but partner and daughter were looking pretty dejected so I settled up after the first disc was done. We thanked Rasta Moses and went off in search of some cool drinks.

Trouble was, when I got home I just couldn’t get the CD to work. Ha!

But now I have, five years later, with a large amount of help from the good people over at Dissensus.

So here is the first installment. Please show your appreciation for the man like Master Parrot and his supporting cast of gyrating Uganda Ragga Gals:

If purchasing Ugandan reggae was difficult, finding out about the artists is nigh on impossible. If Master Parrot has Myspace then it’s eluded my middle aged mouse hand. All I’ve turned up, once again, has been video – in the shape of this interview.

There’s more to follow, but don’t expect anything like a serious academic study. Unless there are any rich benefactors out there, I will have to leave the analysis and glory to others once again.

Enjoy the music…

election selection correction dejection

I’m grateful to my old mucker Merrick for dropping by with his thoughts on the election. We’ve argued the toss about politics for well over 15 years now and I’m pleased that it looks like continuing until we are shouty old men.

I’m sure that Merrick is correct that, nationally. people avoided the Greens and Independents in many areas because they were voting tactically against the Conservatives.

But as Matt Sellwood (Green candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington) has pointed out, this doesn’t apply in Labour safe seats. Indeed it looks like large numbers of the electorate here were either not persuaded by the Greens, or irrationally voted for Labour because they wanted to send a strong message to the Tories (who stand ZERO chance of being elected here).

Whilst we can all take some comfort about the British National Party’s absence from Barking and Dagenham Council, I’m not at all convinced that this means they will now run off with their tails between their legs. My friend Glyn Rhys has dug into the numbers a little and come up with some rather more troubling conclusions.

Perhaps the most obvious of these is that the BNP now have 563,000 people prepared to vote for them. And that this support is despite an unprecedented campaign pointing out how horrible and “Nazi” the BNP is. Either these voters are fine with voting for alleged Nazis or they simply don’t believe it.

Merrick is correct to compare the current state of play with the National Front’s vote in the 1979 election. He is also right to say that there is probably a “ceiling” which far right (and far left, but that’s another sorry story) groups can reach in UK elections. Indeed, the main threat that far right parties pose is not seizing power and implementing their policies, but by acting as pressure groups on mainstream political parties.

The BNP now have double the votes the NF achieved and seem to be able to successfully spread out into new areas, which the NF failed to do. With electoral reform right at the top of the political agenda for the first time I can remember, those 563,00 votes may count for a great deal more next time around.

Parliament’s main priority in its next term will be to address the massive debt incurred whilst bailing out the banks. This means savage cuts, job losses and even harsher times for those at the sharp end. There are going to be a lot of pissed off people around looking for alternatives to whatever combination of Lib/Con/Lab ends up in charge. Call me cynical but I’m not sure that they’re all going to flock to the Green Party or the remnants of the left…