Happy Birthday Daily (Maybe)

Four years of blogging with an average of over four hundred posts a year it was on this very day that I started blogging. My aim was to blog for one month, but I wasn't so sure I'd be able to keep it up - hence the maybe in the title.

I've changed a fair bit as a blogger since I started out. I learned not to care about site stats and, although it probably doesn't look like it, I'm more relaxed if I haven't posted for a couple of days. I just let it come. I've also come to realise that this blog doesn't have to be 'for' anything - it's just something I do.

Now, I was going to book St Paul's Cathedral for the celebration party, but it turns out they don't allow pyrotechnics or foam machines so I had to scratch that idea. So Plan B is that over the next few days I'll lay on what passes for a treat, at this blog anyway.

That means I'll be hosting some guest posts from a hand picked elite of people I know, I'll also be going back into the archives and recovering some long forgotten gems and giving them a dust off. Add to this a couple of interviews and the regular mix of World Cup round up and huffing and puffing about the Tory Coalition and we're talking about a real blogging blitz.

Hope you don't find it too much to take. I've also started work on a mini-series of posts on the direction of the Green Party in very changed circumstances, I might leave that until the celebrations are over though, as they're reasonably serious.

Readers Requests: My Desert Island Discs

Neil asks what my Desert Island Disc choices would be. For those unfamiliar DID is a very long running radio programme where guests are asked to imagine they have been marooned on a desert island and can rescue eight music tracks of their choice, one book and a luxury from their ship before it sinks.

This is damn hard you know! I'd find it much easier to choose eight books - but not much. I'll just bite the bullet and ignore all those great tunes I'm just going to have to miss out, although Natalie Portman rapping or the funky gibbon didn't make the short list..

As it Morrissey's birthday I think we should start with one of his later works which contains the immortal and brilliant line; "You have never been in love before you've seen the dawn rise behind the home for the blind". It contains that Bragg/Pogues romanticism of the urban environment mixed with the miserablism of the Cure. Splendid.



There was always something about Germ Free Adolescent that captured my attention. Constrained and restrained I think the way the sentiment of the music works with the lyrics is slightly hypnotic.



When I first heard Bill Haley singing Rocket 88 on John Peel sometime in the eighties it absolutely blew me away. It hadn't even occurred to me that it might be 'Rock and Roll' which would have instantly consigned it to the dustbin. Once again my stupidity gave me the edge and allowed me to enjoy this glorious song about his lovely car.



Well, we can't have all this jollity so let's switch to Pulp's 97 Lovers, from before they sold out by selling actual records and being able to pay the rent and that. This song is the eighties for me.



Joan Baez was someone I only came to in later life and it was her Diamonds and Rust that first sent shivers up my spine. It still does.



And if we're speaking of spines shivering then we have to include Lennon's working class hero. There are few greater songs that have been made in the last one hundred years than this.



Where would any selection of music be without Kate Bush. I've selected Breathing out of a number of possible tracks simply because it seems to epitomise the ferociously tangental approach that Bush always brought to music.



Lastly I'll go with Tracy Chapman's I'm Ready partly because it's the tune I'd like played at my funeral and partly because it's such an entrancing song.



Feel free to play along at home.

Oh, but before I forget I get to take a book and a luxury too. Well, the luxury has got to be a freezer full of bacon. I could be out there a long time you know!

The book? I think I'll go for the Three Musketeers simply because it's so full of life and fire. It would be a good way to remind myself of the pleasure that other people can bring as I sit in the delicious peace of the lapping waves and bright stars of my little island.

How you can help me get elected

I try to maintain a bit of a distance between my day to day political activity and this blog for all kinds of reasons. Partly because if I told you every time I went out campaigning or reported on every meeting or event I attend then they'd be no time for anything else. This is not my diary, and I intend to keep it that way because that would be pretty boring.

I guess I tend to see this place as a space to discuss political, philosophical, or personal ideas and I've always tried to blog for enjoyment, not for rankings or for stats. Not that I have a policy of never talking about the stuff going on in my life, it's just that's not what The Daily (Maybe) is for.

However, I have probably gone a bit too far when it comes to the fact I've not really mentioned that I'm standing in the upcoming council elections in a very winnable seat.

Some of you may know I'm standing in Crofton Park, Lewisham, for the Green Party but for many of you this will be the first time you've heard of it - even though I was selected way back last year.

The campaign is going well and, apart from the stinking cold I've managed to catch last night, things are cracking on nicely. However, some of you might be so enthusiastic about the idea of Cllr Daily (Maybe) that you may be moved to give me a bit of support, feel free not to, obviously. Here's a few ideas on how you can help in the next seven weeks;

This Saturday:

We have our action weekend this Saturday, which is a fun way of getting the word out accompanied by dozens of other activists as we blitz our target seats. To take part come to our campaign shop from 10 am onwards at 252 Brockley Road, which is mid-way between Brockley station and Crofton Park station.

There's also a fund raising party afterwards to celebrate delivering our millionth leaflet (think of all the trees we've saved by sourcing the paper and inks ethically). It'll be fun!

Any other time:

Any time you want to rock up and deliver leaflets our campaign shop is open from 10am to 7pm every day. There's plenty to do and we've made it as easy as possible to get involved. You might even want to phone canvass for us from the luxury of your own boudoir, in which case let me know and I'll brief you on the drill.

Polling Day, Thursday May 6th:

I've been sorting out my polling day team this week and if you think coming to Lewisham and helping me get elected is the most useful thing you could do that day then all help will be much appreciated. The tasks aren't particularly difficult but we need to be in lots of places at once - so if you can get the whole day off that would be even better.

If you can only do one thing, this would be the one I'd really like from you because we're mounting the biggest polling day operation we've ever attempted and we're going to be stretched.

Donating:

If you want to fund the campaign, then you know what? You can!

Use this button if you're fully armed with hyper-modernist techno-knowledge.

Alternatively you can send cheques (before they ban them) to the Lewisham Green Party Treasurer, 202 Malpas Road, London SE4 1DH. Please include your name, address and phone number, in case of any queries. Make them out to 'Lewisham Green Party' to ensure I don't siphon off the money to fund my outrageous gambling habit.

Anyway, I wont mention it again. Well, I wont bang on about it anyway. Thanks for your support.

Disorganised Rage!

I was reading the news that Lewisham is one of the angriest places in London whilst at the same time listening to a debate on the radio about MPs expenses where half the callers didn't even seem to know what they were angry about. They knew *who* they were angry at but when they tried to articulate that anger it all fell apart.

So thinking about anger I do think there is a strong dose of peer pressure involved sometimes. If you take traffic wardens, who are basically a group of people who do a socially useful job and have to deal with often angry members of the public, you'd have thought that society would give them a little bit of status - but no - they are universally vilified as if anti-social parking that can inconvenience large numbers of people was some sort of human right.

However, it's somehow acceptable to see traffic wardens as less than human and that actually makes their job more dangerous because some people take that as the green light to become abusive or worse when they're caught blocking everyone else's way and being a pain.

It got me thinking about the things that make me angry that *aren't* common currency. It didn't take me long to remember that there is one big one.

BAGS.

I have to say that those bloody bags that people trail along behind themselves are becoming more and more annoying as they become more and more common. On the tube sometimes it is nothing less than an obstacle course of these blooming trailers.

They're an obstacle at best and sometimes a positive hazard. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen someone go up the escalator with one of these things and then stop at the top causing the next person to trip over them. Particularly when you get a few people together with these things it becomes a real problem, especially in crowds.

Obviously they are useful if you want to transport lots of things across the capital/world and it's difficult to raise the rage you feel about these objects in polite society because more and more of us are becoming offenders.

So what's your unacceptable hate object/behaviour? I'm sure there are lots of things that make us angry that we all share (racism, injustice, etc) but it's those things that fall between the cracks, that it's hard to come clean about that I'm really interested in.

An aside

Last night I was listening to someone talking about healthy eating and how important it was. They mentioned pies three times as an example of things that are bad for you.

Ever since I've not been able to concentrate for thinking about those naughty pies. Just a few minutes ago I finished a deliciously greasy steak and kidney pie, something I've not eaten for months.

Let this be a warning to others who wish to make me eat a balanced diet - you may do more harm than good!

Blogging Resolutions for 2010

Sometimes I post a set of blogging resolutions which I'm usually pretty good at keeping to, although last year I posted up some predictions for this year just gone by instead, which seem to be about 90% right. Back to the resolutions this year I think as I dread to think what the coming year may hold.

Twitter: I'll try to figure out how to use the thing a bit more intelligently. I do like twitter and, despite the fact some people seem to despise the very name with a passion, I think it's rather fun.

What I don't do is pay any attention to gathering new followers or being consistently useful/funny/lovely in my 'tweets'. I'll try and improve this year.

Follow my progress here.

Non-partisan blogging: I don't make a secret of being a Green Party member but I do hope that this blog doesn't read like it's issued by central office. I'm an independent minded chap when all is said and done and I've made no secret of disagreeing with the party sometimes or admiring others in rival organisations when the mood suits me.

Being a general election year there's going to be a certain amount of self applied pressure to be a more down the line party loyalist, which I don't think would be good for the blog or good for me more generally. There will be the added complication that more of my time will be spent doing very specifically electoral work so it's likely that's what will be on my mind.

So for my next resolution, I'll try to get the balance right.

Blog local: I've been doing a touch of blogging at Green Crofton Park, where I've been selected to stand in this year's local elections. I've got a lot to learn about good local blogging that connects to the community so this is going to be a steep learning curve for me.

One of the things I want to do this year is really crack the art of the useful, informative and fun local blog. Lewisham is the place to do it too as there is a veritable hive of strong local blogs in the area to learn from.

New group blogging projects: There's some potential group blogging projects that may emerge in the next few weeks for me. Group blogging is certainly one of the strongest form of blogging and although I'd never give up my own space I am feeling it's time to take group work more seriously.

Now the new year is about to beginning revitalising the Carnival of Socialism with new admins should help to get it back on track but there will be at least two more magazine style projects (one ongoing that I'll be joining and one new that I'll be helping to launch) that will be a refreshing departure for me and I'm really looking forward to.

More interviews: I do enjoy the interviews and guest posts that I host here but they can be hard work for the subject and so they don't appear as often as I'd like. I think I'm going to have a renewed push to getting more guest posts, more interviews and ensuring they come from a good spectrum of people.

I'm going to be running a series of interviews with Green PPCs up to the election so I really do need to ensure that this is balanced out (see above) with other good sorts who hail from other traditions or perspectives. All suggestions more than welcome.

My family at war

My Mum's been showing me a whole number of family photos stretching way back when. Just because I'm interested in this stuff I thought I'd share a few of the family pictures from my lot at war.

First up we have Arthur by the sea. I don't know what sea. I do know that he's in full uniform, with his shoes and socks off, trousers rolled up for paddling, whilst smoking a pipe. This confirms that my family have been fashion trend setters for decades.


Next we have what we think is my Grandad on my Mum's side in the uniform he started the war out in. He soon exchanged this for the togs of a Desert Rat.


Next up we have Daisy who was a lance corporal in the Women's Land Army. Looking very cheerful.

The next one is my Dad's Dad with my Aunty Hazel. He's in his RAF uniform and she's looking very pleased at being photographed.

Lastly with have the 'Dead Man's Penny' for John Player Genower who was killed in a German prisoner of war camp in pretty grisly circumstances.

Cold enough for ya?

A week is a long time out of politics

I'm about to have two weeks enforced leave from being a political activist. I've been told it's not the done thing to canvas someone on Christmas Day so I will be at a loose end. It's been so long I've forgotten what normal people do in order to 'have a life'.

Is the cinema still going? I used to quite like going to the pictures... anything good on at the moment?

I'm pretty much sorted for the day itself but what about the other thirteen days? There's only so many times I can watch We Need Answers on i-player.

I was considering having at least a week off the internet, but unless I can fill my life with other meaningless froth I'm not sure it's feasible.

Grammar: affect and effect

My spelling is, to say the least, below par. My grammar is too, probably, although I'm less worried about that, after all language is about communication and if the textbook rules contradict the fluidity of my speech so much the worse for the rules I say.

What you can get away with grammatically you sadly cannot in the field of spelling. If you can't spell (like me) people will not just think worse of you, they'll feel they have the right to tell you too!

I do actually quite like people correcting my spelling as it helps me raise my game - although politeness is always appreciated, naturally.

Of course, spellcheck is a blessing and a danger. A blessing because it picks up my most obvious mistakes (and regular typos, for the life of me I can't type the word 'particular' without getting the L in the wrong place - and I do know where it goes!), but a danger because it has no sense of the appropriate word, only misspellings.

Take effect and affect. Someone (very kindly) has just pointed out that I'd used the wrong version in a sentence but it's a rule that for the life of me I just cannot remember. So I've gone and looked it up;

To affect something is to change or influence it, To effect something is a rather formal way of saying `to make it happen'.

Confusingly, either may produce an 'effect' or result. ('An affect' is a technical term in psychology.)

So if it's a noun you use 'e' unless you're using it in a technical sense. If something affects someone it's an 'a' and if someone effects something - it's an 'e'. Sort of.

Do you know what - I don't think I'm going to remember this, but maybe writing it down will have helped.

More Star Letters

Another letter in the Morning Star in response to my wise, wise thoughts. This one is utterly brilliant!

I would like to congratulate you on the recent article by Jim Jepps (M Star November 2) describing the degradation of the relationship between science and the new Labour government.

However this article does not sit well with your news subs' policy of describing all scientists, from archeologists to zoologists, as "boffins." Come on Star, leave that patronising language to Murdoch.

Bill Atkins
Powys

You might also like to know that today's paper also had one of mine - this time on why men ought to be grateful for feminism. Do keep those letters coming! lettersed@peoples-press.com.

Vegetarianism

OK, I'm going to take the plunge. As a preliminary scouting mission from Friday I'm going to be vegetarian for a week. Wish me luck because I might have trouble remembering if I'm out and about. I'm leaving it to Friday as that allows me to use up various bits and bobs, thereby not wasting food. I hope that's acceptable.

I tend to eat too much meat anyway so I've been thinking about this for a while. I used to be vegetarian (for about two years) when I was a student but one drunken night I had fish and chips on the way home and the spell was broken.

Anyway there are lots of reasons not to eat meat. Health, climate change even ethics if you want to go all hippy on me but I do tend to be a bit useless at this lifestyle business (and I sympathise with everyone in a similar position so don't tend to be part of the finger wagging brigade). That's no reason not to try is it?

I will tweet regular updates for those particularly interested but never fear, I wont clog the blog up with stories about bland cheese sandwiches or a particularly succulent lettuce leaf, not even in digest form.

Isn't there a song about this?

I was out leafleting in Lewisham today and came across these chaps.


Not a partridge but three pigeons, and a sunflower rather than a pear tree but, well, you get the drift.

Meme: Firsts

AVPS has tagged me in a meme about political first times and to make up for a slow blogging weekend I thought why not.

First political experience I am pretty sure my first defining political experience was watching Michael Foot on TV. It was during the Falklands War and he seemed to be attacking Thatcher for not being patriotic enough. I remember thinking "Aren't you meant to be in CND and that? Shouldn't you be against the war?" Bizarrely the experience made me a committed Labour Party supporter, although I do see the contradictions in that now.

First vote I believe this was 1989 in the local and European elections where I voted - shock - Labour in both. The first of many, many times. I've run out of Labour goes now so my cross goes elsewhere these days.

First demo Seeing this made me remember an action day at my school where hundreds of kids congregated on the playing fields in solidarity with the teachers' strike. I was about twelve so, not being a little Lenin or anything, I basically attended rather than organising the thing. It was good fun though as the Deputy Head got angry with us when we wouldn't disperse and started chasing kids around - forgetting that he was an old man and we were Essex Yoof. Sucker!

Last vote I've no heresy to report I'm afraid. I voted for the Green Party in both local and European elections just a couple of months ago. Keeping up the tradition neither of the people I voted for got in.

Last political activity What's political activity? I just folded about a hundred letters to local supporters and stuffed them into envelopes. Does that count? It was literally a few minutes ago so there was nothing more recent than that.

If you'd like to tag yourself - please feel free - the more the merrier!

Politeness in politics

On a personal level manners are something I value pretty highly and it's doubly useful in politics to be able to work with others without generating needless feuds over some sideshow about so and so being rude to such and such. It's difficult to avoid entirely but bullies, bores and braggarts are rarely successful politically.

Trotsky went so far as to argue that politeness wasn't just about keeping an organisation ticking over smoothly without problems, it was actually a political virtue in itself when he said; "Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people."

I'm inclined to agree, although we're all human - naturally - so I wouldn't want to suggest I insist on the highest standards, I just prefer them.

Manners come into their own when you're talking to the general public about politics because whilst they are bound by no particular code the activist has to remain true to their task and put aside their desire to huff and puff if they feel offended.

I was collecting money for the firefighters during one of the Essex FBU disputes once when an older couple came up to me. The guy wanted to have a go at me and strikes in general and we had a little discussion in which he described striking firefighters as cowards. I replied that they weren't cowards "They're fucking heroes."

His eyes popped and then in horror he boomed "Don't you swear in front of my wife!" and they were gone. I don't take back the sentiment, obviously, but by swearing I lost any chance of persuading that guy that the strike was worth supporting. A little slip lost me my chance with him, oh well.

When knocking on doors today I had two contrasting experiences that made me wonder on the significance of manners in politics, if any.

The first was an older gentleman who told me flat out that he'd have nothing to do with the Greens. We got into a conversation where he told me what's the point of fighting in Afghanistan when we can't win and we're just killing "them poor buggers", and then there's the immigrants (pause while I waited for whatever was on his mind, which never came) and then those thieving bastards... those bloody MPs.

You could say it was a wide ranging conversation which was all very pleasant, included not a little laughter and ended with a hand shake and fond fair well. No political joy, but personally very pleasant.

The story round the corner was quite different, a woman came to the door already cross before she'd even seen me. Pre-cross if you like, her inner hive of wasps had already been poked with the sharp stick of life and I was the first passer-by.

She opened the door with a cheery "What the bloody hell!" and I prepared to have my buttocks handed to me with speed and force as I explained who I was and that I was canvassing the area. "I've got no time now," she barked and I prepared my retreat "but you can put me down as a definite, oh, and how do I join the party?"

She was obviously having a busy day and I don't begrudge her the fact she was having a strop but she was the rudest person I've encountered door knocking for a while by miles even though by my canvassing sheet she was a bit of a success. The general culture, at least in the places I go, is that you're polite to canvassers even when you despise their party - something I like to encourage out of self interest.

It was a good reminder, for me anyway, that whilst I respect manners more than possibly any other virtue in a person they don't necessarily go hand in hand with any sort of political affinity. Of course I knew this already, there's plenty of lefties I don't like and Tories that I do, but it's nice to be reminded of it now and then.

Soup by request

I've been asked to post on soup and I almost always do what I'm told. Not that I have any lovely recipes to share or recommendations on which spoon to use in a fancy restaurant. I have two soup anecdotes and I shall share one of them which perhaps reveals a little of myself, although neither of my soup stories are what you might class World Beaters.

When I was a kid my family would go down to Swanage every year and stay with my Dad's Dad. It was reasonably pleasant, if you discount the time the gear box broke and we tried to drive all the way home in fourth gear. We'd have made it too if it wasn't for the damned Dartford Tunnel.

The advantage of Swanage (apart from the fact that board and lodging was presumably free) was that it has lovely beaches (where I almost drowned) and Corfe Castle (which for a child is a very exciting place to visit). I have fond memories of hot summers and splashing about in the sea although we stopped going when I was about eleven I guess.

Anyway, Granddad asked me whether I liked tomato soup and I must have seemed keen as come tea time out it came from the kitchen. Much to my horror there were tomatoes in it! People, this was not Heinz at all, but *home made*.

To this day I remember tasting it and feeling sick with horror because there were *bits in it* and it had an overwhelming taste of, well, garden grown tomatoes. I regret to inform you dear reader that I may not have seemed as grateful as I might have been.

The amount of time, energy and care that had gone into growing and making this meal was wasted on me and certainly every part of me wished they'd opened a tin of proper soup so I had something I could actually eat. You'll be pleased to hear that this ungrateful wretched was slapped silly, although in my defense this was the first time I'd ever encountered home made soup.

Five word meme

Following on from Benjamin Solah given me five words that remind her of me. The point of this meme is to take the five words and “waffle” about what they mean to you. Ben gave me Environment, Elections, Linking, Britain and Party.

• Environment:

We're all interconnected. Whether we like it or not the things that we do as a civilisation has an unavoidable impact on our habitat and it, more controversially, has an extraordinary impact upon us. As we've moved towards urban living we tend to see that relationship less and less - our food comes from shops rather than the sea, and the land.

I don't pretend to be an expert on most environmental issues but it seems clear that if we don't radically change our behaviour climate change will change it for us - possibly irreversibly, although let's hope not. Every party from left to right now recognises the urgency of the task but few seem willing to take real action to address the level of pollutants the human race pumps into the atmosphere.

Often the environment, which of course is not just about climate change, is an addendum onto people's manifestos without any accompanying action to demonstrate a real understanding that our global society faces a real threat. There are honourable exceptions to this, not confined to any one political perspective, and I try to be one of them - occasionally successfully.

• Elections:

Elections are the perfect combination of my twin obsessions, stats and politics. For someone who thinks representative democracy is pretty thin gruel I do like to keep my eye on what's happening at the ballot box.

It was a massive step forward for my political development when I started to get involved in electoral politics because it was the first time I really took seriously what mass politics was about. One of the beauties of elections is that you deal in hard figures - you can tell yourself everyone agrees with your politics and you speak for the people but if you get 1% of the vote you have to look yourself in the mirror and say "Maybe I ain't as popular as I first thought".

It's demoralising to do badly in an election, but unless you set your bar high enough to try to win over the majority of people in an area you're just conducting an academic exercise, not fighting for political ideas. Lip service to grass roots organising isn't enough, the best organisers prove in practice that they can win people to their ideas at the ballot box as well as elsewhere.

• Linking:

The internet at its best is a mass of connections that lead you through a mazes into new and unexpected places. As a contribution to that I like to demonstrate a bit of link love to content I want to encourage. Part of the theory is that if I link to the stuff I like maybe there will be more of it tomorrow.

There's also a manners aspect to it. If I quote someone I try to remember to link to them out of courtesy, even if I didn't approve of what they were saying. As a reader I like to be able to check the context of any quote and it beefs up your argument if you can withstand your sources being scrutinised.

An internet without links would be like toast without marge - edible, but only just. I guess it encourages good habits too. It seems to me that the best blogging doesn't see itself in competition with others but places itself as part of a community of ideas that it is happy to share.

• Britain:

I've never really seen myself as British, or even English, but from Essex. Nationalism has never been tempting to me in the least because I find it hard to get my head round the whole concept of being part of that abstract entity with a flag, a theme tune and a toff's head on the stamps. It's not a pseudo-revolutionary posture - I just don't get it.

Certainly I'd like to see the political entity of Britain scrapped; I associate it with a poverty of aspirations and endemic inequalities although I suppose if I lived in France, Paraguay or Ghana I'd have similarly negative feelings. Maybe not though.

I'm definitely a cultural product of the UK and many of the national characteristics and habits are deeply embedded in me to be honest, but I've no interest in whether or not some silver spoon wins at Wimbledon just because they have the same colour passport as me.

• Party:

On a personal level the only political party I could find habitable would be decentralised, unwhipped and ideologically on the left but loose. A party has to be a coalition if it is to be anything more than a religious cult. There is a utility in the certainty of political dogma but it lacks flexibility and self awareness unless surrounded by allies who are different enough from you to be willing to take you to task.

In fact that's why parties need to be able to welcome criticism on occasion and use it as an opportunity to improve. If someone points out to you that you have a terrible policy on (taking an uncontroversial example) policing being able to say "Yes, you're right, we'll have a look at that" is so much healthier than going to the mattresses.

If I want to have that breadth that allows me to be myself it also means that I have to respect in turn that others aren't always going to see things my way. That has occasionally been difficult but in general I'm fairly relaxed about political differences as long as we can all discuss them civilly and take a proper vote where necessary.

For me significant political parties represent a melange of social movements and tendencies - but in a clumsy and specific fashion. They are useful only in so far as they allow the individual to promote their political ideas more effectively and are dangerous when they entrench bad habits and self interest over their philosophical raison detre.

If anyone wants to be tagged let me know in the comments box and I'll be happy to oblige you with five words of my choosing!

Can a cola be "nutty"?

I thought it was my duty to try something "ethical". I know, I know it's a slippery slope. One moment you're drinking an ethical cola the next you've dedicated your life to helping one legged orphans, lost in a miasma of "do gooding".

However, my quest to explore every corner of the Cola world has brought me here - to Whole Earth's "Sparkling, delicious Cola".

It didn't begin well. Firstly it only comes in a can. In my book that's a shame. Secondly it proudly proclaims it's organic. An organic cola... Surely an oxymoron? In fact here is a list of the ingredients;

Carbonated Water, Organic Apple Juice from concentrate (18%), Organic Sugar, Organic Lemon Juice from concentrate (2%), Barley Malt Extract, Natural Flavourings, Cola Nut Extract

So, as you might imagine, it was with great trepidation I raised the tin to my lips, bracing myself for the self proclaimed "nutty" flavour. Completely unexpectedly it tasted like actual cola rather than bark or worms or twigs or something.

Then I realised something even more shocking. It was delicious!

I couldn't believe it, it was nutty, but in a good way. I know - crazy! In fact, I'd say this was the best Cola I've ever tasted. How extra-ordinary, it doesn't even have e-numbers in it.

Well, I say there are no e-numbers, but there must be - otherwise how come it's so nice? I expect they just aren't owning up to them. That must be it.

Other cola reviews:
Fentiman's Curiosity Cola, Marks and Sparks own brand.

Refreshing Cola News

In a new and stunning Cola development I've now sampled a rather fine bottle of "Fentimans Curiosity Cola" which is so posh it has no need of punctuation. This was very kindly given to me by fellow blogger John Anglis - appalled as he was to see that I'd subjected myself to an M & S own brand.

Now, Fentimans is clearly an upmarket tipple replete with ye olde labels, the proud proclamation that it has been "botanically brewed" and the requirement to shake the bottle before drinking (tip: do not do this with other brands of Cola unless you are in need of an impromptu soaking).

I was also intrigued by the insistence that it would have no more than 0.5% proof. I should think not. I'm an abstemious sort when it comes to Colas so I like to know that I wont be belching up anything alcohólico.

This Cola was certainly an improvement on the M & S version. You can certainly taste the E numbers doing their tasty work. E150, E338 plus "Cola flavour 9594". Allow me to reassure you this is the very finest "Cola flavour 9594" available on the market today.

It still tasted of vegetables, which is a shame, though in a slightly more tangy way. You can really detect that fermented ginger root extract the moment you put your lips to the bottle.

I'm not sure it actually lived up to the label's claim that it is a drink that is "curiously envigorating" [sic] but you do know you're drinking something special whilst chugging it down. Something to be sipped rather than guzzled I suspect. All in all 8.7 out of 10 I think.

Are they trying to poison me

So I was drinking this "Cola" I'd bought at the railway station - M&S Cola no less. That's right - classy.

Anyway, as I was drinking it I kept thinking "This tastes of vegetables... and not in a good way. Not that there is a good way to taste of vegetables of course."

In fact the taste got so strong and I was so bugged out by it I actually checked the ingredients. What do you know, M&S Cola has among its ingredients;

• Black carrot and,
  
• Hibiscus
  

The horror.

I mean once a carrot has gone black you throw it away don't you? And as for Hibiscus - surely it's confined to the hippy tea ghetto for a reason... to keep it away from decent clean living folk like me.

Do you know what? There wasn't even a single E number in it to take the taste away. Shudder...