Coventry Canal

I ran along the Coventry Canal towpath. It's been redeveloped and it leads through the industrial corridor of the city and it's quite pretty in places. I stopped my run this morning when I got here:





This is the factory where I first worked when I left school. It's mostly closed now but it used to be a big chemical factory and we'd unload tons and tons of chemicals and spare yarn for reprocessing. It was hard and dirty work and a great impetus to get out of Coventry and not end up like the old men who were working there with rotted lungs and who would argue about their brooms. No disrespect to factory workers - I come from a long line of coal miners - but it made it clear to me that I didn't want to get stuck doing that forever. There's a fence up there now, but back when I worked there you could, if you had a boat, sidle up and walk directly into the factory. Considering the amount of volatile chemicals in there (I still have burns on my arms from some of them) I always thought it would make a vulnerable target. But I guess back then the IRA preferred pubs and post offices, both of which were bombed in Coventry.




This is the junction of two canals (Coventry and Bedworth Canal and the Oxford Canal). Back during the industrial revolution these were the freeways of the time, which is a quaint idea now. They were built with 7 inches difference in water lever, hence the lock that connects them. Even back then no one could agree on formats, not even for water.

Enough of the History of the Midlands - I'll be getting into WWII Military Insignia or model aircraft next. (For the record, the Germans had the best uniforms, hands down...)


There was still a lot of institutionalized drinking in England. Many of the people I saw along the canal were just drinking to kill time. It was sad to see - all of these people would have had a purpose 50 years ago, even if it was a shitty job making car parts. What's going to happen when all the disenfranchised people get bored of being broke and hopeless? When their children grow up seeing everything but getting nothing? Here's a man taking four cans of lager in a bag for a walk. It was about 10:30AM...





I noticed in England there were plenty of Cross of St. George flags flown over pubs and houses and gardens. I gather that there's been a debate there of late about the nature or English nationalism and if it's possible to be proud of England without becoming a racist fuckwit. It's a shame pride in one's history and culture has been hijacked ever since I can remember by the BNP and their ilk and while I might feel proud of some parts of English culture I feel stymied by what the fascists do with that kind of spirit. And make no mistake, they're on the rise again with the BNP getting elected to local councils and a soft-peddled message of "Immigrants are taking over...". The sad thing is I can't see anyone really taking to the streets in opposition like they did against Oswald Mosley and his cronies back in 1936 on Cable St. Not nowadays. The country's been fleeced first by Thatcher (who should be tried as a traitor) and then it seems by Blair too of late - the disenfranchised will want to blame someone and there's no working class any more. Might as well pick on the Poles, the Somalians, the Muslims....thirty years ago it was that Pakistanis and the Indians, fifty years ago the Jamaicans, before that the Irish and the Jews.... in hindsight, maybe I jumped the gun wanting to celebrate being English. Monty Python, The Beatles and The Office don't really make up for all that, do they?




And this flag was flying over a pub in a traditionally Indian / Pakistani part of the City. My dear old mum reckoned it was because of St. Georges day. Me? I think there's not too many people who have a GIANT cross of St. George flag under the stairs for one day of the year - not unless they're trying to make a fucking big point to all the people in the neighbourhood.

And as you'll agree, you can see how some people would want to protect their racial purity, and natural superiority....I mean, look at us, on the march. I'm filling up...



But what do i know? I'm still against selling-off British Telecom and I find it hard to say Tory without adding the word Scum.