Gary Monro’s blog

Pink Floyd’s album sales went through the roof after Live 8. Sales increased by a jaw-dropping 1,343 per cent at HMV alone.

According to Channel 4 News guitarist David Gilmour said he would not profit from the show.

“Though the main objective has been to raise consciousness and put pressure on the G8 leaders, I will not profit from the concert,” he said.

Can’t argue with that. Whether one thinks the Live 8 approach was right or wrong there’s at least one performer who’s done the decent thing. Then he throws down the gauntlet:

“If other artists feel like donating their extra royalties to charity, perhaps then the record companies could be persuaded to make a similar gesture and that would be a bonus.

I bet that’s really upset a few people. All those who had hoped they could make a few bob on the backs of a cause they knew little - and, I suspect, cared even less - about must be cursing Gilmore’s name.

BBC News quotes HMV’s estimation of the album boosts of the top ten performers:

1 Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd - 1343%
2 The Who - Then and Now - 863%
3 Annie Lennox - Eurythmics Greatest Hits - 500%
4 Dido - Life For Rent - 412%
5 Razorlight - Up All Night - 335%
6 Robbie Williams - Greatest Hits - 320%
7 Joss Stone - Mind, Body and Soul - 309%
8 Sting - The Very Best of Sting & The Police - 300%
9 Travis - Singles - 268%
10 Madonna - Immaculate Collection - 200%

If anybody reading this gets any information about which stars donated to charity the extra wonga they made from this deal then please add a comment to this post.

Thanks to Jarndyce at Fair Vote Watch for the tip-off…

Only speak English? That won’t get you anywhere these days. Here are some definitions before we start:

Chav (see picture, top right)= refers to a subculture negatively stereotyped as being uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behaviour. The label is typically (although not exclusively) applied to teenagers and young adults of white working class or lower-middle class origin.

Bling (see gnashers, below chav)= refers to expensive jewellery and other flashy accoutrements

Anyway. Forget chavs now that you’ve finally found out what one is. The reaction against ‘bling’ (ditto) is the PRAV. Remember: you read it here first. (Unless you saw The Scotsman today. In which case you read it here second.)

Now personally I couldn’t give a hoot about fashion trends because I am just not that kind of a chap but I found this interesting because it seems to be a little like a counter-culture. The Scotsman newspaper describes the PRAV:

The “PRAVs”, or “Proud Realisers of Added Value”, are a burgeoning group who no longer believe that expensive is better. Snubbing designer labels in favour of cheaper items, they not only want value for money but enjoy gloating about how little they spend.

But get the distinction here: Pravs aren’t buying whatever’s cheap. They’re buying what they want - but cheaply. In a way, they’re bargain hunters. Which means my nan’s a Prav too. Blimey - she will be pleased.

Now you might think that the pursuit of the bargain in favour of designer labels and big name/big price-tag styles means the end of snobbery then. Oh no. Not at all:

So not only is it [bargain hunting] becoming our new favourite pastime, it’s also getting competitive. Around 20 per cent of PRAVs admitted they would tell a friend if they bought the same item as them but at a better price; and 12 per cent said they would feel triumphant.

Crikey. So is poor the new rich? Will I now have to fight my way through eye-gouging Pravs at my local charity shop as I make my way to the second-hand books at the back?

Actually, part of this new trend could be due to other factors also. The small matter of a trillion quid of personal debt coupled with rising interest rates may very well be putting the brakes on spending.

Equally serious, companies like Burberry - whose clothing is synonymous with the chav culture - could well suffer by their association with the lower orders. People are deliberately avoiding their products simply because of the low-class associations they attach to them. Worse, they’re avoiding stores that sell stuff like that and are, instead, favouring the likes of TK Max and Tesco’s own brands.

Ah. Old clothes, second-hand fashions, stores’ own brands… I knew I would become fashionable again if I waited long enough!

A profile in today’s Independent of leading Conservative party leader candidate David Davis (’Go Davis!’) relates a tale of how Mr Davis stood up to a gang at school who were attacking another kid, allegedly for being gay.

It seems that, recently, both the gang and the gay kid have been found and the story turns out to be true. Except the gay kid is actually married now which just goes to show you just can’t trust people to be what you think they are. But in these politically correct times I’m sure Mr Davis’ act of selflessness in favour of one of Britain’s exalted minorities will earn him some credit with the ‘floating’ ‘voter’.

He’s had a bit of a rough and tumble of it too. No cosy upbringing for this laddie. The ex-Territorial Army SAS soldier - he joined so he could use the bounty money to pay for his university education - was born to a single mother and lived on a housing estate in Tooting. As The Independent relates:

Mr Davis was a “tough kid” at school with a reputation for “getting into scraps”, said an old schoolmate. He broke his nose five times - three times playing rugby for his school second XV, once in a swimming pool accident, and again in a fight on Clapham Common.

I generally like the things I hear David Davis say so I’m hopeful for him. And, although I actually prefer well-spoken, educated politicians - nothing wrong with a bit of class, you know - his working class roots will deaden the accusation that the Conservative Party is a party that only represents the upper classes.

And, hopefully, his common sense conservatism will encourage our detractors to start voting for us again.

NASA yesterday sent a probe crashing into Tempel 1, a 9 mile wide comet, in a bid to better understand the origins of our universe. NASA’s scientists were ecstatic at the successful collision which took place 83 million miles away from earth. The picture on the right here shows the impact of probe and comet.

The probe - Deep Impact - is about the size of a fridge although the flash it created in its collision with the icy comet was, apparently, visible from earth with the naked eye. Of course, you’d need to know where to look and when - and you could do without the thick cloud cover we’ve been ‘enjoying’ in London the last couple of weeks. But anyway. I guess it’s true we could have seen it - in theory.

According to The Scotsman though not everyone is happy with NASA’a successful operation:

A Russian astrologist, Marina Bai, is suing NASA for £170 million, claiming the Deep Impact mission has changed her horoscope.

“It is obvious that elements of the comet’s orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope,” she said.

So how come she didn’t see this coming?

Like some sun-baked third-world country hampered by international debt and home-grown corruption England limps into another water-shortage with the first phases of water restrictions - the traditional hosepipe ban - being widely discussed.

South East Water is the third company already to actually enforce a hose-pipe ban and will probably not be the last. Thames Water may be banning sprinklers.

From The Telegraph:

Despite the mixed weather of the past few weeks, there has been a hidden drought since November. Rainfall has been below average for eight months, making it the fourth driest period since records began in 1892.

The problem is worst in the densely populated South and East, where rivers are at half their normal height for the time of year.

Thames Valley, which supplies eight million people, said a ban by early August was “a distinct possibility”.

Well, now. Is it the ‘hidden drought’ or the increased numbers of people living in England’s south-east and south-west regions?

The 2001 census suggests this may be a contributing factor. Regarding population change the census reveals:

Compared to 1981, the biggest increases were found, not surprisingly, in South East England (+10.4%) and South-West England (12.5%) and East England (+11.0%), whilst the North East (-4.6%) and the North-West (-3.0%) have seen a decline in population.

A spokesman for WaterVoice, the consumer watchdog, hinted at the problems of population growth in these areas:

“But if this sort of thing [hosepipe and sprinkler] is happening now, what will happen when we have 1.1 million more households in the South East? It is an alarm bell for the water industry and regulator, who need to look at the long-term position.”

Hmm. Or government could realise that population needs a certain amount of managing and act to spread ours out a bit. It can be done: relocate some government departments, offer tax benefits to companies setting up in areas of lower population density and so on.

One theory as to why the government doesn’t tackle this issue is as follows: most of England’s Conservative Party voters are in the south-east. Better that the area soak up as many such voters as possible in as small an area as possible and leave the rest of the country open for Labour to win. Spreading some of the excess Conservative votes across England might tip the balance in a few key marginals. And Blair wouldn’t want that…