Seeing pictures of young Socialist Party supporters celebrating their Presidential Election victory in Paris at the Bastille, reminded me of the few occasions I visited the Bastille myself. Paul Beuscher la librairie musicale de Paris When I lived in Paris the only time I ever came out of the Metro at Bastille would have been to go to the big music shop, Paul Beuscher. It’s still there today, not covering quite so many shop fronts, and specialising more in pianos than guitars, but still there. The first time I went on the advice of somebody who had told me it was the best place to buy replacement guitar strings, because you could buy singles instead of having to buy a new set every time one broke. Breaking strings was an occupational hazard, we didn’t have portable amplifiers in those days, played purely acoustically, so there was a tendency in noisy corridors or streets to get maximum volume by hitting the strings hard. You know that if you go just a little bit too far a string will break, but every so often you get carried away and it happens. I was asked very recently why I don’t cut off the ends of the strings like most guitar players do when restringing, and it’s for that very reason. If a string breaks near the bridge, which is the most likely place, you can sometimes put the same string back on again, by retrieving the little nipple end that’s fallen inside the hollow guitar body, threading the end of the string through the ring, tying a knot in it and then tightening the string back up to playing tension again. But you can only do that if there is enough leftover string beyond the machine head to pull back through a couple of inches at least. If it works, then that’s great – you can carry on playing the same pitch without having to go away and find a replacement. Of course you could always carry a set of spares around all the time, but that would have required a certain organised resourceful lifestyle which just wasn’t possible in the 1970s! I had more than most, though, which meant that other guitarists often asked me if I could lend them a spare D string or more likely a top E in passing. I couldn’t afford to do that very often at all of course, otherwise it would have just been me all the time having to make the trek to Paul Beuscher’s music shop at Bastille to replenish everybody else’s supplies. The Mazet Paris One occasion was a more sever emergency than just a string break. I had a guitar stolen from underneath the pinball machine in the cafe Mazet. Having the means of earning a living suddenly disappear is quite a scary position to be in. As luck would have it, the music shop had a big sale on which included a bin full of broken guitars at next to nothing prices. After rummaging around I was able to find an Epiphone six string guitar that was only damaged by a large split on the side of the body. So it was perfectly playable and the sound quality seemed oddly unaffected by the broken wood too. A snip at 150 French francs, equivalent to about £15 then and maybe about £150 in today’s money. Musical instruments and most other thing were generally more expensive in France than in England, particularly so in Paris. Still are. Mid range guitars are probably quite a bit cheaper now than they were then, you could probably buy a playable guitar brand new and undamaged for the same amount, it wouldn’t be as good as my old Japanese built Epiphone though. A few years later Epiphone moved production of their guitars from Japan to Korea and the build quality suffered. Now they make cheap guitars in China, nothing to do with the original Epiphone. I kept and played that old broken Japanese Epiphone for many years afterwards, until the fixed bridge broke and I didn’t get around to having it fixed, what with the broken side as well. Then somebody persuaded me to sell it to them, which I should never have agreed to. Nearly all the guitars I’ve ever sold, I wish I still had. That’s life. Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAt The Bastille In Paris for Guitar Strings
-
I posted to distributedresearch.net
At The Bastille In Paris for Guitar Strings
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2012/05/08/bastille-paris-guitar-strings
- Tags:
- Music
- guitar
- guitarist
- france
- paris
- socialist party
- Metro
- amplifiers
- bastille
- guitar players
- guitar strings
- music shop
- pitch
- presidential election
May 8 2012, 7:00am | Comments »
-
I posted to distributedresearch.net
Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections
Results seen as protest vote against Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s handling of the Spanish economy since 2008This article titled “Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 17.28 UTCThe socialist party of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People’s party (PP) in municipal and regional elections.In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain’s economy, his party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country’s powerful regional governments.The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected socialist administrations.“We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention,” party spokesman José Blanco said.The socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister’s Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt.The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities. A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the 2008 crash.The socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared to the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%.Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain.His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year saw him bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms.Markets reacted nervously to the poll result on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices.The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. “Zapatero and the whole socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this,” said the party’s general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal.The one socialist leader to have survived Sunday’s debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government Guillermo Fernández, also suggested that an early general election might be considered.The socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into those elections, with deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and defence minister Carme Chacón as favourites.Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday.With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that socialist prime minister José Sócrates will struggle to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogZapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional electionsRelated posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour PartyCatalan independence boost after Barcelona voteZapatero says Spain safe from bailout
- Tags:
- UK
- spain
- politics
- General
- Europe
- election
- The Guardian
- News
- Article
- Main section
- Protest
- World news
- Giles Tremlett
- International
- socialist
- socialist party
- Global recession
- Recession
- austerity measures
- Portugal
- Portuguese
- Barcelona
- Madrid
- debt crisis
- Euro
- unemployment
- josé luis rodríguez zapatero
- José Luis Zapatero
- socialist prime minister
- puerta del sol
- regional government
- Aragon
- balearic islands
- Camping
- central Castilla
- municipal elections
- northern Europe
- pensions
- protest vote
- regional elections
- regional governments
- Seville
- spanish economy
- spanish prime minister
May 23 2011, 12:35pm | Comments »
-
I posted to distributedresearch.net
MEP calls for Nuclear Free Europe
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/09/paulmurphymep-calls-for-nuclear-free-europe
Paul Murphy, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin speaks at a plenary session of the European Parliament in favour of a nuclear-free future for Europe in light of the catastrophe in Fukushima and calls for the nationalisation of the energy industry and real investment in renewable energy technologies.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogMEP calls for Nuclear Free Europe
Related posts:Fukushima disaster causes fallout for nuclear industry worldwide Fukushima nuclear power plant second nuclear reactor explosion – Video Portugal’s PM calls on EU for bailout
- Tags:
- video
- politics
- Europe
- Energy
- Energy industry
- Dublin
- socialist party
- parliament
- Fukushima
- Nuclear
- european parliament
- Renewable energy
- catastrophe
- European
- free europe
- investment
- MEP
- Murphy
- nationalisation
- Paul Murphy
- plenary session
- Renewable
- renewable energy technologies
April 8 2011, 11:53pm | Comments »
-
I posted to distributedresearch.net
Zapatero says Spain safe from bailout
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/02/zapatero-says-spain-safe-from-bailout
‘Socialist‘ prime minister Zapatero of Spain defends the deficit reduction programme as unemployment rate remains at 20%
This article titled “Zapatero says Spain safe from bailout” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Friday 1st April 2011 20.00 UTC Spain’s beleaguered economy is out of the woods and will not need a Greek or Irish-style bailout despite the risk of contagion from troubled neighbour Portugal, according to its Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In an exclusive interview with the partner publications from the Guardian’s New Europe project, the continent’s most powerful leftwing prime minister insisted that reforms and an austerity programme designed to reverse a runaway deficit were bearing fruit. He refused to be drawn on his own plans, amid rumours that he will announce tomorrow that he will not stand for a third term at elections due early next year. His Socialist party currently trails the opposition conservative People’s party by 16 points in opinion polls. The comments, from a prime minister whom Spaniards describe as “anthropologically optimistic”, came as market pressure on the country’s sovereign debt showed signs of relaxing, despite growing problems in both Portugal and Ireland. “We now have economic growth. The debt risk has stabilised and is out of danger. And now we are close to creating jobs,” Zapatero said. Zapatero sees no conflict between being a deficit warrior and a socialist, but points to key differences between his cuts package and that of Britain’s coalition government. “There is a deep, deep difference between what our government has done on education during the crisis and what Cameron’s government has done,” he said, pointing to education spending that has risen to 15% of Spain’s GDP for the first time. “The fundamental difference between right and left is the capacity to redistribute spending and remove obstacles to equal opportunities,” he insisted. “We haven’t reduced spending on health. We’ve increased spending on unemployment. We’ve maintained spending on social care of the dependent. Why do we do it? To maintain social cohesion.” Instead Spain’s government had brought down its deficit by, among other things, cutting civil service pay and freezing pensions. Zapatero said that, having met last year’s deficit reduction target, Spain would also hit this year’s 6% goal. “Our priority measure is the strict meeting of the deficit target,” he said. Although he claimed jobs would be created soon, the timid growth that some critics blame precisely on spending cuts has had no impact on a startling 20% unemployment rate. “My main anguish is about those people who lose benefit payments but have trouble finding work,” he said. Reforms in the pipeline should bring more flexible collective bargaining, improved competitiveness and a law to limit deficit spending, he said. “It’s true that some reforms mean cuts, but others are simply changes,” he said. “No project can call itself leftwing unless it commits to a competitive economy … we are going to renew Spain’s economic structure.” He warned Portugal that if it wanted to escape a bailout it had no option but to adopt the austerity package that its parliament rejected last week, bringing down José Sócrates’ Socialist government and triggering a June election. “Carrying out the Sócrates austerity plan presented to parliament is fundamental,” Zapatero said. His comments came even before Portugal admitted that its 2010 deficit was €3bn (£2.6bn) higher than originally estimated. Zapatero, speaking before Ireland revealed that it needed a further €24bn to deal with its banks, said he favoured more aid to Greece and Ireland. “We should be ready to increase the aid if they need it,” he said. Like most Spanish politicians, he is an avowed pro-European and saw greater economic integration within the EU as an unexpected but welcome side-effect of the crisis. “Economic integration is being speeded up. That much is clear,” he said. “Integration in politics and security is going more slowly, but it will come. It may take five or 10 years, but the process is inevitable.” He admits that, like everyone else, he would have liked Europe to react faster to the economic crisis. “But it is obvious that, amongst democratic countries, there is something called a decision-making process,” he said. “The Spanish government is lucky because parliament is always very pro-European … but there are other parliaments in Europe that debate every last cent.” Even the Libya crisis was an example of Europe in action, he said. “Who brought a historic resolution to the [UN] security council to intervene in Libya? Two European countries: France and Britain,” he said. “It is Europe that has taken the lead.” The man who pulled Spain’s troops out of Iraq when first elected in 2004 said the UN resolution was a historic step for human rights. “It is the first time we have had a resolution based on a responsibility to protect people,” he said. “A huge amount of care and restraint is being exercised,” he said of the campaign. “We have not had that thing that is so heartrending – and which discredits these operations – which is civilian victims.” But Zapatero, who has sent aircraft and warships to join the Libya campaign, insisted that military means should not be used to oust Gadaffi. “The use of arms is for protecting the population,” he said. “For regime change we have our political and economic strength.” Europe’s task did not end, there, he insisted. “The north of Africa and the Mediterranean as a whole are going to look towards the north. They will look to Europe, and Europe must not look away.” Wind power became Spain’s biggest energy source for the first time in March, but events in Japan have not changed Zapatero’s policy of using nuclear energy, while refusing to build extra capacity. “When nuclear power stations come to the end of their lifespan they will be closed,” he said. “We don’t propose building new power stations and must guarantee the production of alternative sources to cover the closure of every nuclear power station.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogZapatero says Spain safe from bailout
Related posts:Portugal teeters on brink of bailout Ireland forced into new £21bn bailout by debt crisis Budget Deficit
- Tags:
- economics
- greece
- spain
- politics
- economic crisis
- france
- Europe
- business
- Conservative
- The Guardian
- Energy
- News
- Article
- Main section
- World news
- Giles Tremlett
- International
- deficit
- austerity
- Britain
- Cameron
- Ireland
- socialist party
- European Union
- New Europe
- Civil service
- Portugal
- sovereign debt
- bailout
- Madrid
- deficit reduction
- Economic
- economy
- Euro
- unemployment
- Opinion polls
- New Europe: Spain
- spanish government
- Wind power
- coalition government
- debt risk
- equal opportunities
- European monetary union
- fundamental difference
- Irish-style
- josé luis rodríguez zapatero
- José Luis Zapatero
- leftwing
- Luis RodrÃguez
- Reforms
- socialist prime minister
- unemployment rate
April 2 2011, 11:31am | Comments »
-
I posted to distributedresearch.net
Fianna Fáil trounced as Fine Gael and Labour set to form coalition
Socialist Party candidates win seats in both Dublin North and Dublin West. Joe Higgins and Clare Daly (Socialist Party, CWI Ireland) elected to the Dail (Irish Parliament) along with up to 3 other candidates from the United Left Alliance. Ireland’s new government is headed for confrontation with Brussels after the country’s ruling party was wiped out on Saturday by voters in a huge popular backlash against a European-IMF austerity programme. Fianna Fail have paid the political price for the EU/IMF bail-out, the first of many ruling governments world wide during this crisis. Joe Higgins said: “We will now set our minds to that with our colleagues in the United Left Alliance and others about launching a new movement. We will be putting up the real opposition and the real alternative, not just inside the Dáil, but outside as well. I anticipate movements of people power, movements of workers, movements in communities in opposition to new attacks that will come – perhaps water charges, perhaps a home tax – that these new parties are committed to, which are all simply more burdens on working class people.” Joe Higgins
This article titled “Fianna Fáil trounced as Fine Gael and Labour set to form coalition” was written by Henry McDonald, for The Observer on Saturday 26th February 2011 21.38 UTC Ireland’s next government will be a coalition between Fine Gael and Labour, it has emerged, as initial results from the general election indicated a crushing defeat for the main ruling party, Fianna Fáil, and the best electoral performance from centre-right opposition party Fine Gael since 1982. Richard Bruton, enterprise spokesman for Fine Gael who will be on the incoming government’s front bench, told the Observer that, despite its successes at the polls, the party was heading towards a power-sharing arrangement after Labour made impressive gains in the capital, Dublin. Asked about the prospect of coalition with Labour, Bruton said: “Yes, I think that is the likely outcome. I know that there was a brief flirtation with the idea of an overall majority. I certainly see that the public didn’t want that. If it ever was likely, it is not happening now.” In an election dominated by fear and anger over the financial implosion that led to an €80bn bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, Ireland’s once most successful political party Fianna Fáil suffered a historic and devastating defeat, with its support estimated at only 15%. Just months after agreeing to the bank bailout it was on course to be beaten into fourth place by a slew of independent candidates – its worst performance since Eamon De Valera founded it in the 1920s. The disaster engulfing the party, until last month led by the outgoing Taoiseach Brian Cowen, is far greater than the Tories sustained in the 1997 Blair landslide and marks a sea change in Irish politics. For seven decades Fianna Fáil has been the dominant force in Irish political life and had enjoyed 14 years of unbroken rule until this humiliating general election result. Meanwhile, support for Sinn Féin was projected to have reached a record 10% in an RTE exit poll, with Gerry Adams, the party president, on course to be elected in the border constituency of Louth. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is set to be prime minister and will be tasked with persuading his fellow European leaders that the interest rates charged on loans to Ireland should be lowered to prevent the Republic from defaulting. Bruton issued an appeal to fellow EU nations to “cut Ireland some slack” in a crucial summit next month at which Europe will discuss Ireland and other debt-ridden nations’ finances. “There is no interest in Europe jeopardising the very genuine efforts the Irish people are willing to make to correct our economic problems. If Europe just loads up the camel too much the camel will collapse,” he said. One of the first candidates to be elected was in the politically significant constituency of Dublin Central – the home stronghold of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. In the last general election four years ago Ahern topped the poll with a huge surplus and his transfers under proportional representation brought another Fianna Fáil colleague into the Dail alongside him. But this time around, and for the first time in 14 years, Fine Gael not only won a seat but topped the poll in Dublin Central. Speaking outside the Royal Dublin Society counting centre in Dublin, Fine Gael’s newly elected TD for the area, Paschal Donohoe, said: “It is a great honour and I am very humbled with the support the people have given me. Now it’s time to rebuild the country and restore the nation’s reputation.” Donohoe said he believed the resurrection of Fine Gael demonstrated the people of Dublin and the whole of Ireland “desired stability above all else”. The scale of the Fianna Fáil losses across the country were so great that for the first time in history an outgoing deputy prime minister, Mary Coughlan, was on the verge of losing her seat. Coughlan’s outgoing ministerial colleague Mary Hanafin was also facing the prospect being unseated in her Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency. The election also saw the end of one of the famous Irish political dynasties with the son of the late Taoiseach Charles J Haughey set to lose his Dail seat in Dublin North Central. According to an RTE exit poll published yesterday morning, Fine Gael took 36.1% of the vote, with Labour coming second with 20.5%. Independents and others got 15.5% of the vote – a high figure which was thought to have pushed Fianna Fail into fourth place. Where those independent votes are transferred could be crucial to the final outcome of counts across 43 constituencies. The last RTE exit poll in 2007 proved to be 99% accurate when compared to the actual number of votes cast.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogFianna Fáil trounced as Fine Gael and Labour set to form coalition
Related posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour Party If Not Diane Abbott, Who? Harriet Harman Next UK Leader
- Tags:
- politics
- World
- Europe
- deputy
- candidate
- Government
- International
- socialist
- austerity
- Brian Cowen
- Brussels
- Clare Daly
- Dublin
- Eamon De Valera
- Gerry Adams
- Henry McDonald
- Higgins
- Ireland
- Joe Higgins
- Mary Coughlan
- Mary Hanafin
- Richard Bruton
- socialist party
- United Left Alliance
February 26 2011, 5:54pm | Comments »
1
