Dicky Moore

The Alternative Vote – Myths from a party who should know better

Dicky Moore — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:09:36 +0000

The Conservative party recently launched their own “No to AV” campaign, and displayed their arguments against the alternative vote on their website. I’m very interested in voting reform, so was keen to see what they had to say. I was very disappointed so discover that their arguments against AV do not make sense. Rather than presenting some of the disadvantages of AV (no system is perfect) or even an honest reason why the Conservatives are against it (“We think we will win less seats”) they give us what I describe as half-truths, scaremongering, selective observation, and (dare I say it) ourtight lies.

Myth #1: “AV is Unfair”

What they say: “With First Past the Post, everybody gets one vote. But under AV, supporters of extreme parties like the BNP would get their vote counted many times, while people who vote for one of the mainstream candidates would only get their vote counted once.”

Status: Untrue

This really depends how you look at it, you could assert that each vote gets counted a number of times, or even that votes for major parties, like the Conservative party get counted more than minor parties.

For example:

Let’s look at a fictional election conducted under AV:

First round results.
The Grand Party: 1234
The Big Party: 901
The Third Party: 564
The Fringe Party: 230
The Extremist Party: 87

The votes are all separated into different piles. Then we put the votes for the Grand party into a box labeled “Grand party”, the votes for the Big party into a box labeled “Big party” and so on.

Then our wonderful election volunteers get counting. They count the votes in the box maked “Grand party”, then the votes in the box marked “Big party”, and so on. At the end of the 1st round each of the parties have had the votes in the boxes counted once. Or you could say, each voter has had their votes counted once.

As no party has won over 50% of the vote, we move to a second round. The party with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and the votes for that party are reassigned based on the second preferences. So, the volunteers empty out the box marked “Extremist party” and then put those votes into the boxes marked “Grand party”, “Big party”, “Third party”, “Fringe party”. Once those votes have been all put into boxes, they start counting again.

They count the votes in the box maked “Grand party”, then the votes in the box marked “Big party”, and so on. At the end of the 2nd round each of the parties have had the votes in the boxes counted twice. Or you could say, each voter has had their votes counted twice.

I could go on here, but I hope you get the point. With each round, every single vote is counted again. It’s simply untrue to say that votes for extremist parties are counted more than once. If you want to get hung up about how often votes are counted, you could even argue that AV discriminates against extremist parties. After the first round, the box marked “Extremist party” is thrown in the bin. That box only has its contents counted once. The boxes for the major parties get counted three or four times.

Myth #2: AV doesn’t work

What they say: “Rather than the candidate who receives the most votes winning the election, the person who finishes second or even third could be declared the winner.“

Status: Untrue

Can you really imagine a voting system that declared the person who finished second or third the winner actually being seriously considered? This is such a ridiculous claim that if I was a Conservative party supporter I would feel insulted by this. This doesn’t just insult the intelligence of the audience but also those Conservative MP’s who offered a referendum on AV as part of the coalition negotiations. Do we really think that they would offer such a system? Remember that they ruled out STV during these negotiations. Surely they would rule out such a ridiculous system as the one they describe here.

So why make such a claim?

They either don’t understand how AV works, or they think that the word “finished” doesn’t mean what the dictionary tells us it means. Under elections conducted with AV, the counting is finished once one party has won over 50% of the vote, or all of the other preferences have been exhausted. Look at this example, from my blog post about a fictional election in Lilliput:

Year 1905	1^st Round	2^nd Round	3^rd Round	4^th Round	5^th Round	^6th Round
Cooked Boiled Eggers	21	21	24	26	X	X
Cooked Fried Eggers	21	22	27	47	73	Winner
Cooked Scrambled Eggers	21	21	22	X	X	X
Vegan Party & F.R.E.E.D. Alliance	11	11	X	X	X	X
Raw Eggers	22	26	27	27	27	X
RAW EGGS OR DIE	4	X	X	X	X	X

So after the first round, the eventual winners, Cooked Fried Eggers, are in joint 2nd place! They’re not in front. Under FPTP, the electoral system that the Conservative party are defending, Raw Eggers would be declared winners and the party in 2nd place would lose. But this is not FPTP. The race isn’t over yet! This is AV, and there are more laps to be made. You cannot say that the party that has finished in 2nd place has been declared the winner because the election isn’t over yet. It hasn’t finished.

After we have counted the 2nd, 3rd and 4th preference votes, and we can say that the race is finished, the winners can be declared as Cooked Fried Eggers, cecause it is they who are in first place.

It’s a misrepresentation of how AV works. The people behind this are not stupid. They have enough intellect to understand how AV works, and that’s why I’m so disappointed that they are pretending that they have misunderstood AV like this.

Myth #3: AV is expensive

What they say: “Calculating the results is a long, complicated process, which would cost the taxpayer millions. It can take days to figure out exactly who has won.“

Status: untrue

Elections cost the taxpayer millions. It’s a price worth paying for democracy. But to say that AV is more expensive is not true. The next general election will cost £120m whether or not it is conducted using the Alternative Vote. You may have seen in the news that a leaked letter from the treasury has counted the claim that AV is more expensive.

Whether or not it takes longer to count, I couldn’t say. I would be surprised if it took days. It will probably take a few hours longer. At the last general election, the polls closed at 10:00pm on the 6th of May, and (ignoring the delayed vote on the 27th) the final result was declared at 17:00 the next day, 19 hours later. Will a few extra hours really make that much difference? The exit poll at 10pm on 6th May gave us a good picture of the outcome, and we knew the result of the election long before the final count was called. In my personal opinion, even if the vote did take a few days to count it would still be a price worth paying for a better democracy and more accountable MPs. It’ll be hard for enthusiasts like me to sit on our hands while we’re waiting for the result, but hey, almost half of us don’t give a shit about voting at all. Is a child-like impatience something we should sacrifice better democracy for?

Myth #4: AV is discredited

What they say: “Whereas First Past the Post is the most widely used system in the world, only 3 countries actually use AV – Fiji, Australia and Papua New Guinea. In Fiji they want to get rid of it, and in Australia six out of ten people want to scrap it.“

Status: untrue

AV is widely used. It’s used all over the world. It’s already used widely, even here in the UK. It’s used in: Australia, Canada, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, United Kingdom, United States. In the UK it’s used for: Scottish & Northern Irish, elections within the House of Lords, and AV (or similar systems) is used to elect mayors across the UK, including the London mayor, and every major political party leader. The Labour party and the Liberal Democrat party both use AV to elect their leaders, and yes, the Conservative party, who are against AV, use a form of run-off voting to elect their own leader. How hypocritical is that? Run-off voting is good enough for them but not for us? Hmmm.

Do Australians want to get rid of the Alternative Vote? No. They want to scrap compulsory voting (which we won’t be using even if we adopt AV). If they were were offered a straight choice between the Alternative Vote and First Past the Post (the system we are currently using), two-thirds would choose the Alternative Vote.

Myth #5: No-one wants it

What they say: “Even the ‘Yes’ campaigners don’t actually want AV – they see it as a convenient stepping stone to even more reforms. Many of the Yes campaigners have previously criticised AV.”

Status: Untrue

Can’t you want something you’ve previously criticised? Didn’t David Cameron previously call his deputy Prime Minister “a joke” before the love-in in Downing Street’s rose garden? Anyway, we’re being offered a straight choice in the referendum. FPTP or AV. Pick your favourite. Cheese or chocolate. Oh, you wanted a cake? Well you can’t have chocolate then. No, no, no. You said you wanted cake. No, I’ll keep this chocolate because you want cake. Nom nom nom.

Anyway, I want AV. Claim disproven.

Claim #6: AV is not a proportional system

They say: “The independent commission chaired by the senior Liberal Democrat Roy Jenkins in 1998 concluded that AV was ‘even less proportional’ than our existing system, and warned that it was ‘disturbingly unpredictable”

Status:TRUE!

By jove, they’ve got one! Yes, it may be less proportional than our current system. Well, well, well. So, proportionality is a good thing yes? The Conservative party would prefer us to use a proportional system? WRONG.

In the negotiations that led to the coalition government, the Liberal Democrats wanted (with a successful referendum) our general election voting system to be changed to STV, a system based on proportional representation. The Conservative party ruled it out. They themselves rejected the possibility that we would move to a fully proportional system. Instead, they offered AV. They offered AV. The liberal democrats wanted a proportional system but the Conservatives refused. They offered a less proportional system, and are now critisising that system for being less proportional. That’s what’s so ridiculous about the one true argument that the Conservative party uses – it’s the Conservative party themselves who are standing in the way of a proportional system. It is they who have decided that our only option for electoral reform is the Alternative Vote.

The final image we’re left with is of a picture of Ed Milliband, under the banner “THE NEW LEADER OF THE LABOUR PARTY”, and the slogan “AV DOESN’T WORK”. One quick note on this. The fact of this election is that in a straight contest between David Milliband and Ed Milliband, Ed Milliband would have won. The truth is that Ed Milliband won 175,519 votes, compared to 147,220 for his brother, David. He has the biggest electoral mandate for leading his party than any of the three leaders. Nick Clegg won with 20,988 votes and David Cameron with 134,446. Oh, and it’s worth remembering that David Cameron LOST the first round of his election. He came second.

Update (13th March):

This blog post has created a bit of a stir with Conservative No2AV supporters, and I’ve even been called a liar for stating that David Cameron was elected under AV.

Forgive me if I haven’t articulated my point adequately, but nowhere in my blog post do I state that David Cameron was elected using AV.

I merely draw comparisons between the election of Cameron to leadership of the Tories and an AV election. There are many similarities. Conservative MPs use run-off voting to select the two candidates that the wider Conservative party membership can then vote on. This isn’t FPTP, as asserted by many No2AV campaigners – using run-off voting to narrow the candidates down to two is exactly what AV does. The main difference is that under AV, the run-offs are instant and all voting takes place in the same ballot. Another difference is that AV doesn’t lock out a set of voters for the first rounds.

Nevertheless, my point was to highlight the flawed logic employed by the Conservative party on this issue – that if you “Finish” the first round of voting in second place you shouldn’t be declared the winner. The first round of the Conservative leadership election saw David Davis “Finish” first, and David Cameron second. I am simply pointing out the hypocricy within their argument.

Bearcraft DJ Mix March 2011

Dicky Moore — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:59:34 +0000

Bearcraft DJ Mix – March 2011

Tracklisting:
Yelle – Safari Disco Club
Gorillaz – Empire Ants (Miami Horror Remix)
Crookers feat. Miike Snow – Remedy (Magik Johnson Vocal Mix)
French Horn Rebellion – This Moment
Duck Sauce – Barbra Steisand
Monarchy – The Phoenix Alive
Uffie – Difficult
Sleigh Bells – Run The Heart (Bassnectar Remix)

Lilliput and the Alternative Vote

Dicky Moore — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:45:06 +0000

In the constituency of Lilliput there have been well documented disagreements about how eggs should be eaten.

I’m going to investigate how the alternative vote could help the people of Lilliput

Up until recent decades only two political parties have campaigned in Lilliput – The raw eggers and the cooked eggers. The main difference between the two parties is that the raw eggers believe eggs should only be eaten raw, cooked eggers believe they should be cooked.

If we look at the election results over the last few decades we can see that the people of Lilliput prefer their eggs to be cooked:

Winners are marked in pink.

Year	Cooked Eggers	Raw Eggers
1840	62	38
1845	56	44
1850	63	37
1855	64	36
1860	60	40
1870	61	39

Average election result 1840-1870

A Split!

Then something happened in-between the 1870 & 1875 elections. The cooked eggers started arguing among themselves. Some of them thought that eggs should not only be cooked, but that they should specifically be boiled, whilst others agreed they should be cooked, but thought they should be fried. The party split in two and the elections following looked like this:

Year	Cooked Boiled Eggers	Cooked Fried Eggers	Raw Eggers
1875	31	31	36
1880	32	30	38
1885	31	32	37
1890	33	32	35

Raw Eggers are the biggest party (average vote 1875-1890):

But parties that prefer eggs to be cooked are the majority (average vote 1875-1890):

The poor people of Lilliput! In the years 1875-1895 they had to eat all of their eggs raw! Even though in 1890 more people voted for cooked-egg parties than ever before:

The poor constituents had to put up with salmonella poisoning and all kind of cookery problems. Then in 1895 it got even worse. The Cooked-Eggers split further to form a Scrambled Egg party, and a new fringe party emerged called F.R.E.E.D. (For the Resistance of Egg Eating Discrimination), who believed you should be free to determine how your own eggs are eaten (the weirdos).

Year	Cooked Boiled Eggers	Cooked Fried Eggers	Cooked Scrambled Eggers	F.R.E.E.D.	Raw Eggers
1895	28	26	15	2	29

So the Raw Eggers are still in charge despite their share of the vote being the lowest ever. And a whopping 71% voted for parties which don’t want the enforcement of raw egg eating. In 1900, despite the Raw Eggers vote being split by a new extremist “RAW EGGS OR DIE” party, they still won power despite getting only a quarter of the vote.

Year	Cooked Boiled Eggers	Cooked Fried Eggers	Cooked Scrambled Eggers	Vegan Party	Raw Eggers	RAW EGGS OR DIE
1900	23	24	21	3	26	3

At last, a change!

Change was in the air with the turning of a new century, and the people of Lilliput decided to try a new system to try and ensure that more
of them were represented. They gave AV a try, and here were the results:

Year 1905	1^st Round	2^nd Round	3^rd Round	4^th Round	5^th Round	^6th Round
Cooked Boiled Eggers	21	21	24	26	X	X
Cooked Fried Eggers	21	22	27	47	73	Winner
Cooked Scrambled Eggers	21	21	22	X	X	X
Vegan Party & F.R.E.E.D. Alliance	11	11	X	X	X	X
Raw Eggers	22	26	27	27	27	X
RAW EGGS OR DIE	4	X	X	X	X	X

In 1905, under AV, the Cooked Fried Eggers won with almost three-quarters of the final vote. The majority of the citizens in Lilliput breathed a huge sigh of relief – the no longer had to eat raw eggs. Only a fifth of them go their first choice – fried eggs, but the majority was happy that they could eat cooked eggs again. They might prefer scrambled or boiled eggs, but at least they don’t have to eat them raw any more. If push comes to shove, they don’t mind how they eat their eggs, as long as they’re cooked.

So what happened‌

After the first preference votes were counted, the Raw Eggers were slightly in the lead. Under FPTP, the election would have been over and the Raw Eggers were in power, but because the system is AV, and no-one had won over 50% of the vote, we went to a second round.

In the second round, the party with the smallest number of votes was eliminated. Essentially, those voters were being told “the party you voted for will not win – do you want to give your votes to a party with a better chance of winning‌” In this case, the RAW EGGS OR DIE party gave their second preference votes to the Raw eggers party, so the votes for the Raw Eggers party are recounted, including the votes from the RAW EGGS OR DIE party, and they are put further into the lead with 26 votes.

This process was repeated in the third round, and the Vegan Party & F.R.E.E.D. Alliance was eliminated.
Their voter’s votes were redistributed:

…And then in the 4^thround the Scrambled Eggers gave their votes to other cooked egg parties, and so on until we had a party reach over 50% of the vote, as with did with the cooked Fried Egg party.

If this Lillputian Election was conducted under first past the post, only around a fifth of the voting population would have their first choice party in power. This was the same when the election was conducted using AV, although under AV three quarters of the population are happier with the result. They may not have their first choice,
but they feel more in common with the winner than if the election was conducted using FPTP.

The moral of this story

FPTP is a good system for choosing between two candidates, but is awful when more than two candidates stand. As our political beliefs become more sophisticated, so should our elections, and the way we choose our representation.

Setlist from the Cirque Du Soleil gig at the Albert Hall

Dicky Moore — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:02:01 +0000

Last night’s DJing gig was excellent fun. Against the backdrop of a fantastic Cirque Du Soleil performance for Oxfam in the stunning Royal Albert Hall, I played a bit of a chill-out set. It’s not my usual stuff so I was pleased to have a good reception. I had a few people asking me for the setlist, and although sadly the Torq Xponent software failed to save what I actually played, here’s a list of the tracks I drew from over the course of the night.



Chilled Selection

All I Need	Air – Beth Hirsch
Metal Bark (Remix)	Alucidnation
Textures	The Amalgamation Of Soundz
Cutting Branches (Coldcut Mix)	Another Fine Day
Talvin Singh Traveller Once Upon a T	Antonina Holmes
Appa	Badmarsh & Shri
Sleep Alone (Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid Remix)	Bat For Lashes
Daniel (Mt Eden Dubstep)	Bat For Lashes
Cannon Hill	Biosphere & Higher Intelligence Agency
Home Videos	Blu Mar Ten
The Shark	Bonobo
El Toro	Bonobo
Familiar Ground	The Cinematic Orchestra
Time and Space	The Cinematic Orchestra
Balearic Incarnation	Dolle Jolle
Solid Water	Extended Spirit
When I Grow Up (D.Lissvik of Studio Remix)	Fever Ray
Post Suite – Floating Points Ensemble	Floating Points Ensemble
Angel Echoes	Four Tet
Love Cry	Four Tet
Plane Temp	Glasser
Last Tango In Paris	Gotan Project
Diferente	Gotan Project
The Jonah	Grantby
Blink In The Night – Grasscut	Grasscut
Exotica	Harmonic 33
Big Deal	Jeni Saint
Tomorrow (Edit) – Jono Mccleery	Jono Mccleery
Electro Funk (Original Mix) – Koul Funk	Koul Funk
Up With People (Zero 7 Reprise Mix)	Lambchop
Full Circle	Laura B
Tumbledown	Leggo Beast
De Cara a la Pared	Lhasa De Sela
Baby Piano	Lol Hammond
Brandon	Manitoba
Paradise Circus	Massive Attack
Half Tested (Bent remix)	Mescalito
Crimson	Morcheeba
Even Though	Morcheeba
Green Green Grass Of Tunnel	Múm
Nadia	Nitin Sawhney
Fog	Nosaj Thing
Single Ladies	Pomplamoose
Balance (Chill Lounge Mix) – Side-Step	Side-Step
Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)	Small Black
Correlated Together (Buddha Beach Bar Mix) – Soleil Loungers	Soleil Loungers
New Day	Sounds From The Ground
TUMBLEDOWN (FEATURING BJ COLE)	Sounds From The Ground
POEMS	Sounds From The Ground
Breathe	Telepopmusik
Smile	Telepopmusik
Don’t Look Back	Telepopmusik – Angela McCluskey
02 Lebanese Blonde	Thievery Corporation
09 If You Stayed Over	Thievery Corporation
Minors	Toro Y Moi
Miss You (Trentemøller Remix)	Trentemøller
Little Things ( DJ Mu remix )	Trinity Roots
You and I	Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek
Toxic	Yael Naim
Dudley Rhumba	Yam Yam
Fairy Of The Lake	Yonderboi
Spinning	Zero 7
Look Up	Zero 7
Speed Dial No. 2	Zero 7

Upbeat Selection
Far Away Places	Gerd
Parks	Four Tet
Vague Electricity	Alloy
The 5th Exotic	Quantic
Ready	Charles Webster Feat. Terra Deva
Fine Day (Pirates Mix)	Kirsty Hawkshaw
Stella	Andreas Vollenweider
Venice Beach	The Egg
Daystar	Blue States
Nobody’s Home	Ulrich Schnauss
Cafe De Flore	Doctor Rockit
Kiara	Bonobo
Kong	Bonobo
El Toro	Bonobo
Never Mess With Sunday – Yppah	Yppah
I Hear The Drummer (Tunng Edit) – Quincy	Quincy
Man In A Garage (King Jammy Vocal) – Coldcut	Coldcut
Volcano (Four Tet Remix) – Anti-Pop Consortium	Anti-Pop Consortium
MOVE ON (FEATURING TAZ)	Sounds From The Ground
London Fields	Sounds From The Ground
11 Recurring	Thievery Corporation
02 Lebanese Blonde	Thievery Corporation
Minors	Toro Y Moi
So Light Is Her Footfall (Breakbot Remix)	Air
Single Ladies	Pomplamoose
When We Were Young (Breakbot Remix)	Sneaky Sound System
Run The Heart (Bassnectar Remix)	Sleigh Bells
Violent Love (The Twelves Remix)	Munk
#1 (RAC remix)	Madison
Cosmic Love (Short Club Remix)	Florence and The Machine
Swoon (Lindstrom and Prins Thomas Remix)	Chemical Brothers
Time of the Assassins (XXX Change Remix)	Charlotte Gainsbourg
Do The Astral Plane	Flying Lotus
Nadia	Nitin Sawhney
Feel It All Around	Washed Out
If I Can’t Hold You	Desire
When I Grow Up (D.Lissvik of Studio Remix)	Fever Ray
Triangle Walks – Tora Vinter Remix	Fever Ray
Underwear	FM Belfast

The Blacksmith

Dicky Moore — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 22:53:23 +0000

I absolutely love the English folk song The Blacksmith. So much so that I’m determined to cover it.

It’s a traditional song, a really sad tale about some badass blacksmith who says he’ll marry a poor lass just to bed her, and then buggers off abroad to marry someone else and it breaks her heart. I find it really touching and quite devastating.

The lyrics are really moving and I’ve only just discovered their power, despite loving the Steeleye /Span version for around ten years now. However some of the rhyming jarred with me a bit, such as the lack of it in the final lines and the rhyming of “roses” with “primroses”. So I have tried to rewrite some of it. It feel slightly like I’m betraying the author by altering it, but in the soul of a traditional song are hundreds of authors who have rewritten the track for performance in their time, so I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. I’ve included the first recorded lyrics, transcribed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909 for comparison.

As transcribed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, sung by Mrs Powell in 1909

A blacksmith courted me, nine months and better
He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand, he looked so clever
And if I was with my love I would live forever.

But where is my love gone, with his cheeks like roses
He’s gone across the sea gathering primroses
Will burn and scorch I fear the shining sun his beauty
And if I was with my love, I would do my duty.

Strange news is come to town, strange news is carried
Strange news flies up and down, that my love is married.
I wish them both much joy, tThough they can’t hear me
And may God reward him well, for the slighting of me.

What did you promise me when you lay beside me
And you said you’d marry me, and not deny me.
If I said I’d marry you, it was only for to try you
So bring your witness love, and I’ll not deny you.

No, witness have I none, save God Almighty
And may he reward you well, for the slighting of me.
Her lips grew pale and wan, it made a poor heart tremble
To think she loved a one, and he proved deceitful.

Dicky’s version, 2010

A blacksmith courted me, nine months or better
He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter
With his hammer in his hand, he looked so clever
And if I were with my love, I would live forever

Oh, where has my love gone with his cheeks like roses
He’s gone across the sea, soon as he proposes
I fear the shining sun will burn and scorch his beauty
And if I were with my love, I would do my duty

Sad news has come to town, strange news is carried
Bad news has dumped me down, that my love is married
Oh I wish them both much joy, but they can’t hear me
And if I were with my love, I would keep him near me

Do you remember what you said when you lay beside me
You told me we’d be wed and you’d not deny me
If I said I’d marry you, ’twas only to try you
So bring your witness, love, and I’ll not deny you

Oh, witness I have none, except God Almighty
And he might reward you well for the slighting of me
Oh my lips are pale and weary; my heart is never peaceful
to think I had one love, and he proved deceitful

Yestreen is out tomorrow

Dicky Moore — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:05:34 +0000

Yestreen

I’m very excited because tomorrow is a very special day for me, the release date for my first album, Yestreen.

It’s been a long time since it’s conception. I first decided to make an album at the end of 2006, but then spent 2007 & 2008 experimenting with musical forms and working out how I wanted the album to sound. It was at the beginning of 2009 that I formed Bearcraft, within 6 months I had my album planned; two singles, eight album tracks, and a satellite, (the Longest Frontier). I’m so lucky to have the wonderful and lovely Jessica Akerman giving each release it’s own visual identity based on Yestreen’s themes.

The Werewolf

I sent the final mixdown of the album to Hottwerk records at the beginning of 2010, and the last eight months have been all about the waiting.

It’s amazing how long these things take. I thought the album would be out in summer 2007, if you want to make something great, sometimes that means taking your time. I’m really proud of the album, and I am cheered on by the good reviews it has received, such as this and this.The two wilderness years have already been spent, so I’m expecting the follow-up will spend shorter in the womb. The title track of the next release is already recorded, and those who have heard it love it.

: Dark Night

If, for whatever reason, I don’t release any other music, I won’t mind. I’m really excited to have Yestreen out there, and although there is so more I want to say, so much more music to be made, Yestreen is a little gem I’ll always be satisfied to have made.

Yestreen

Oh, and you can buy it from here or get free tracks from here, here and here.

Whitstable, with Cave People

Dicky Moore — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:46:19 +0000

So last weekend I visited Whitstable to check out the eagerly anticipated installation by Cave People during the Whitstable Biennale. The work is called “Songs of Salt” is an incredibly immersive piece of art which to me felt a lot like I was gate crashing a sailors dream. Lying on a bed in a quiet and dark (I mean really dark) beach hut, the sounds of a sailors life at sea came drifting in from underneath the pillow. As the sea crashed and lapped against the side of the boat the sound of a lone sea shanty singer came in. This, along with the swinging lantern, suspended from the centre of the room, projected a kind of nostalgia for the sailor’s life, a memory that I didn’t have, of being a sailor on the ocean. Over time the memory became more focussed, my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and saw that the lantern was projecting an image of sailors working side by side, and I could clearly hear a sailor singing “Spanish Ladies”, a sea shanty.

The person who went in after me came out saying “I feel sea-sick”, which was understandable, despite the beach hut being firmly anchored to the sand. A lovely way to start the weekend.

I met up with my friend Pablo about 15 minutes before Argentina took on Germany in the World Cup. We were both keen to watch it, and Pablo, being from Argentina, was especially keen. But where? We looked down a beach and saw a wall with the word “BAR” written across it. Surely it won’t be showing it? That would be too easy.

I was taken aback when, after about 30 seconds walk, we found ourselves in a wonderful beach-side sports bar, with World Cup moving picture on every wall! You couldn’t avoid the match in there even if you wanted to (and at times I expected Pablo to want to avoid it). The match was very exciting, and I was pleased to see that it’s not only England that could be sliced open so clinically by that young German team.

After the match, and feeling a little merry we went back to the beach hut, and ate chips. Suddenly the cider barrels were opened and we were joined by “Dead Horse Morris” and “The Shipwright Shanty Crew”.

I enjoyed the cider for the first time since I was fourteen, and listened to the wonderful shanties, fourbitters and chorus songs. After a few I found myself singing along in the choruses, despite having never heard most of them before. It was wonderful. The sun was settings behind us, and a very Hackney crowd was sitting around enjoying the most wonderful folk music.

After the end, I had not had enough. We invited the Shanty singers to the pub with us, and sat among surprisingly un-bemused locals, singing shanties at the tops of our voices. Such wonderful stories are contained in these songs, and Marc, one of the shanty singers, apparently can recall over 300 of them. I hastily tested his memory with a few randomly selected folk titles I could muster, and sure enough he sang them note for note, as much as a traditional song can be sung note for note.

What a lovely day.

The Sunday was lovely too – I went for a lovely long walk along the beach, which was just so quiet. Knowing what Southend beach is like on a hot summer’s day, I was shocked to see just how secluded it was.

And then I enjoyed some of the other wonderful works of art around – including this wonderful knitted bicycle cover.

Lovely Whitstable Weekend

Dicky Moore — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:59:45 +0000

I had the most amazing weekend. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow as it’s surely time for bed, but for now here’s a taste:

Politicians want power

Dicky Moore — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:48:23 +0000

And it’s in our interest to give it to them. Though not too much.

Watching last night’s Question Time I was surprised at how many people were shocked that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were willing to enter a coalition. “He wants the power” they said of Cleggy. “He’s desperate to be PM” they said of Cammers.

This annoyed me. Of course Nick Clegg wants power. Of course David Cameron wants power. Without power our political parties are useless. Once in government, a party can employ the policies that you voted for! That’s a good thing! Duh!

I’m very excited about this new coalition, and about this consensus based politics. Of course I am wary of the power the Conservatives hold, and I don’t trust this new centrist sheen, but this coalition could do amazing things for Tories all over the country, and also for the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the average Tory-fearer. (I don’t hate those who vote for them, although I do find that habit irksome. See this Charlie Brooker article for an eloquent summary).

But perhaps the reason they’re so universally hated outside their ranks is because they have the habit of getting 100% of the power. Quite often it’s only 40% of us who have had reason to or have been duped into voting Conservative, but that has led to them being able to boss the remaining 60% of us around.

Imagine if we had a system where you couldn’t win 100% with less than 50% of the vote. Imagine if government was always formed by coalition. We might not hate them so much if we could temper them a bit, just like the Lib-Dems have been doing over the last week.

Imagine if we had Proportional Prepresentation under Thatcher.

“What’s that you say? Poll tax? We’d better not I think. Sounds unwise.”

“Transition to a service economy? Well ok, but gently does it there, we don’t want
to upset the miners now. Oh, you do? Lucky we’re here to appeal to your better judgement.”

The Tories could be tolerated and even loved by the rest of us, as I think they should be. We will see as they really are; the honest farmers; the eccentric aristocracy, the “wary-of foreigners” elderly, the addicted-to-outrage Daily Mail readers, the small business owners who just want an easier job balancing the books, and yes, the rich. We might not like all of their views, but that doesn’t matter because it’s only the sensible views will influence laws.

We could no longer see them as a threat. No longer a minority who wield untold misery on the rest of us, but just people who need a bit if policy every now and then, which of course will be passed, if it’s not too evil.

If we build these coalitions based on shared values we could have such a great, civilised democracy. Surely this is the future.

Our neighbours in Europe are able to conduct their politics in a more grown up fashion. Their systems of proportional representation, while not perfect, lead to a politics built on mutual respect. And they come across much more civilised.

I imagine that’s why so many MEPs were aghast at watching Nigel Farrage throwing an undignified tantrum at that Belgian fellow. Nigel thought he’d give him a bit of the Punch and Judy politics we see at Prime-Minister’s questions. To the Europeans he just looked like a crazed thug.

Cameron keeps espousing that our antiquated first-past-the-post system is more likely to give us a strong government, and this is what is needed. But a strong government is not good for the country. It was a strong government that took us into the disastrous and illegal war in Iraq, while the rest of us saw it as a sham. It was a strong government that Thatcher presided over.

There’s nothing wrong with a strong government in itself. But it is dangerous and immoral when it only represents a minority of us. What we have now is a coalition that represents 59.1% of us. And strong enough to face the severe economic challenges ahead. But the majority of us are going to be represented when the axes start falling.

And that’s why electoral reform is as important as the current economic crisis. We should worry less about the markets and more about our democracy. Our problems must be solved through building consensus. We, the electorate, know better than the market fundamentalists about how to achieve the society we want. It was the markets that got us into this mess. And it’s a mess we will solve by working together. Two ideologically different parties coming together to work it through.

I’m not going to guess whether this coalition will work or not. I didn’t expect a Lib-Con coalition when I saw the results roll in. But now we’ve got one I feel quite good about it. No more shall we allow a minority to dictate policies to the rest of us. This has to be the future.

The Werewolf E.P. Launch Party

Dicky Moore — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:23:40 +0000

On Friday night I officially launched the Bearcraft debut single at a wonderful party hosted by N+K. It was a great event and N+K worked wonders to bring the woods into the venue. We were surrounded by buddleia, creeping up over our heads and into our drinks. Jessica’s nocturnal woodland creatures sneaked around behind us, flickering gently in the candlelight as projections of Bearcraft beauties loomed.

: Bearcrafters

More Bearcrafters

We showed the Werewolf video in full which had a rapturous reception, to the relief of me and director Chris King, who sheltered behind the buddleia during the showing.

: Watching The Werewolf

And this was followed by a drunken and passionate Bearcraft performance, joined onstage by some publicity seeking spiders, imported from the buddleia and lowering themselves into the limelight on their wickedly woven webs.

Bearcraft live - Photo by Nick Davies

Adding to the performance was the encroaching buddleia, which joined in on a keyboard solo, smothered me during the Werewolf.

: Bearcraft in the Enchanted Forest – Photo by Nick Davies

It was great fun though, and really spooky, like really trying to play a gig in an enchanted forest, with all the trees and creepies coming to life to join in the music.

The night was mired/enhanced (delete as appropriate) by some well timed rocknroll violence at the end of the evening. The organisers of the party, N+K were in a backstage room when I carried my equipment in, away from the maelstrom of the party above. They were arguing about something or other (I won’t tell you what, but it’s hilariously brilliant) and then suddenly it got a bit out of hand and punches were thrown. I felt the need to intervene. I tried to get them to make up but the apologies extracted were said through gritted teeth, and my continued reconciliation attempts only suceeded in causing another explosion of rage. Storming out of the room, shouting “Don’t give me this hippy shit”, K slammed the door so violently that it stopped being a door. The party-goers upstairs felt the shockwave apparently.

It was a few minutes before we tried to leave the room and found that the door mechanism had broken. After a while a crowd gathered outside and pushed, while I pulled, to no avail. Eventually N had enough and escaped through the window. I found myself alone in the room, arguing through the door with those the other side trying to help. Eventually someone suggested I took the hinges off, and called me a muppet, and I snapped too. (If you read this, I was rude and I’m sorry)

The door stayed shut and I relucantly climbed out of the window too. It would take power-tools and sobriety to open it the following day. After the tears had dried and the alcohol worn off we all hugged and said sorry, shook, made up and reflected on how alive those wicked werewolves are.

Bear Craft