The rise of the geeks...

Irregular service resumes...

I was driving around Hull last night and I found myself stopping at a set of traffic lights close to the River Hull-side Clarence Mills of Joseph Rank Ltd fame. I looked up. I love it. It's part of Hull and always should be. But...this magnificent building is earmarked for demolition as part of Hull City Council's efforts to finish of the Luftwaffe's Blitzkrieg project, although it appears to have a temporary stay of execution due to the credit crunch and the inability of developers to come up with a worthwile replacement to fill the site. I'd spent the earlier part of the day wandering around Wincolmlee, Hull's old industrial heart. Lots of defunct buildings. From the time when we used to make stuff. Before the people that you'd have beaten up at school took over and sent our industry spiralling to its terminal decline. Many of these same inept, dull, boring geeks - people who wouldn't be capable of a physical day's work if their sad, jargon-filled lives depended on it - now work as management and/or consultants in the public sector. Or work in banks. No doubt they will take an apartment in whatever contemporary living space is deemed worthy enough to plug the gap left by the destruction of Clarence Mills. Then lease out their purchase to someone who doesn't object to being ripped off. Hey ho. Everything is broken.