Photos and more

Here's a link to the latest five photo albums:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=zsnak7k.vp0xo6o&x=0&y=9p14n5

Today was a little strange. I got in the office only to have to find another pram shop, as one of the shops the crew were supposed to shoot in was closed because of a fuse problem. From there I took a train to Manchester, picked up two videotapes they needed and took the next train back to London. It was a shame I couldn't stay any longer. From what I could see, Manchester's city centre had a 'hip' vibe to it (if I'm allowed to use the word 'hip'). The first thing that amazed me was that there was a free bus service in the city centre. But I didn't really have much more time to be amazed by anything else in the city.

Looking at the English countryside reminded me a little bit of the Wisconsin countryside, with lots of rolling hills and green pastures. Oh yeah, and sheep. Lots of sheep. That's a little different. That and that every house is brick. I think it's so amazing how many people live in brick houses. I know there was a big thing with a fire in London in 1666 which made people leary of building with wood, but it seems a lot less cost-effective nowadays to have your home in brick, though I suppose a lot of those houses were built ages ago. It's a big contrast to America, where all the new houses have vinyl siding and are in a large variety of colors. Here, you're limited to various shades of brick. Or maybe stucco.

I think it hints at the individuality of Americans and the slightly more social aspect of Britons, although it seems that the UK is far less social or socialist than the rest of the continent. The UK seems to be turning a corner and looking more like America in terms of free-market economy, whereas in France and Germany people are still fighting to keep the old welfare system. There are good and bad aspects to both, but it's looking more and more like these governments can't handle the types of social protections they could guarantee to workers a generation ago, mainly because of economic competition with China and other developing countries with cheap labour. It really sucks for workers here: from my own time at the newspaper I could tell that probably everyone was underpaid, but there's not much they can do about it because their unions have very little power and they are at the mercy of the giant newspaper corporation that owns them. At the same time, the UK's economy is growing better than most other European countries, but it's hard to know to whom that growth is really beneficial. Is it mostly corporations?

I think people here are starting to lose faith in government as protector, or the 'nanny state' as they call it. The National Health Service is continually facing huge budget deficits and people are having to turn to private doctors or dentists in order to receive more urgent care, even if it costs a lot more. People here also grumble about the smoking ban and London's traffic congestion charge imposed by the government and the mayor, even if they do help the overall health of people. I think it's safe to say the welfare state of post-World War II is nearly dead, but there needs to be something to be put in its place to help people receive the health care and employment protections they deserve. They showed a few episodes of Morgan Spurlock's (of Supersize Me) '30 Days' a week ago, and one episode showed Morgan and his fiancee living off minimum wage for a month. It was very poignant in that despite inflation for the past 10 or so years, the minimum wage has not gone up in that time. The two also had to face huge hospital bills because they had no insurance, which probably made Brits feel a little bit better about their health care system, all flaws aside.

I did read that Massachusetts just passed a bill that nearly requires all residents have health care. It will be interesting to see if that works and maybe could be duplicated. It makes sense to me that the richest country in the world should guarantee basic health care to all its citizens.