{"id":8304,"date":"2015-04-17T20:18:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T19:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/?p=8304"},"modified":"2021-01-13T10:42:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T10:42:12","slug":"tom-and-barbara-are-my-good-life-guide-not-camerons-marie-antoinette-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/04\/17\/tom-and-barbara-are-my-good-life-guide-not-camerons-marie-antoinette-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom and Barbara are my good life guide, not Cameron\u2019s Marie Antoinette version"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><i>Another point of view\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2015\/apr\/17\/david-cameron-good-life-marie-antoinette-tom-barbara-chickens\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=140%2C45\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Tom and Barbara are my good life guide, not Cameron\u2019s Marie Antoinette version&#8221; was written by Damian Barr, for The Guardian on Friday 17th April 2015 17.02 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You never forget your first egg. Ours was laid by Margo, named for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/tvandradioblog\/2009\/dec\/22\/christmas-good-life\" title=\"\">Margo Leadbetter from The Good Life<\/a>, because of her fancy fluffy feet and her long beak, which she tended to look down. It was all the more precious because she popped it out in bleakest midwinter when hens decide, quite rightly, that it\u2019s too cold for all that. Sitting in a strawy manger, it seemed like a miracle \u2013 daintier than dino-sized shop offerings and very slightly pink. We couldn\u2019t bring ourselves to crack it, never mind eat it, so we blew it out \u2013 and now it sits perfectly preserved on a tiny silk cushion in a glass box. Like Lenin, only lovely.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">  <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2015\/apr\/14\/cameron-manifesto-promise-good-life-ever-decreasing-circles\">PM&#8217;s promise of The Good Life invites taunts about Ever Decreasing Circles<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Over the five years she ruled regally over our urban flock in Brighton, Margot (now roosting in peace) laid countless dozens of eggs. It\u2019s a city garden, so we only keep <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bantam_%28poultry%29\" title=\"\">bantams<\/a>. Right now we\u2019ve got three fancy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2012\/jul\/05\/angry-birds-keeping-chickens\" title=\"\">pekins<\/a>: Blanche (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/tvandradioblog\/2014\/feb\/28\/my-favourite-tv-show-the-golden-girls\" title=\"\">The Golden Girls<\/a>), Blithe (Spirit) and Dolly (Parton). They live in a hand-built wooden coop called Cluckingham Palace and often have porridge for breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>In 2005, we were poultry pioneers and our constituency, Brighton Pavilion, was Labour. Our neighbours made jokes about Tom and Barbara Good wondering, a bit worriedly, if we were getting goats. We threatened them with a pig called Trotski. Back then there was no chicken aisle in the pet shop, because chickens weren\u2019t petsand you had to buy specialist products on dodgy websites. Now there\u2019s a flourishing mini-industry and you can flick through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yourchickens.co.uk\/home\" title=\"\">Your Chickens magazine<\/a>. Thanks to newly invented chicken harnesses our streets will soon be full of hipsters taking their girls for a walk. Meantime, Brighton Pavilion has elected the UK\u2019s only Green MP.<\/p>\n<p>There are two other feather families on our road, and both have neon \u201cRe-elect Caroline Lucas\u201d posters in the window. Our girls often cluck over the wall to them. We\u2019re considering playdates but worry about red mite \u2013 far harder to eradicate than head lice. We prize every egg, especially wonky offerings which look like an effort to squeeze out.In summer our egg tray overflows, and&nbsp;after boiling, scrambling and poaching we whisk mayonnaise and lemon curd. A nice Italian neighbour taught us zabalgione. And there is no smugger dinner party gift than a bowl of ultra-local beyond-organic bantam eggs complete with artful smears of crap and just the one feather.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s very tempting to think that this is the \u201cgood life\u201d \u2013 mentioned more than a dozen times by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2015\/apr\/14\/cameron-manifesto-promise-good-life-ever-decreasing-circles\" title=\"\">David Cameron when he launched the Conservative manifesto<\/a> this week. \u201cWe can be the country that not only lives within its means and pays its way, but that offers a good life to those who work hard and do the right thing,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/video\/2015\/apr\/14\/david-cameron-good-life-conservative-manifesto-video\" title=\"\">he said<\/a>, flanked by Samantha in a suitably nettle-green dress. He declined to say whether they were more Tom and Barbara than Jerry and Margo, but we know. We all know.<\/p>\n<p>One of the inspirations for The Good Life was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/theobserver\/2001\/aug\/05\/life1.lifemagazine1\" title=\"\">The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour<\/a>. Published in 1976 when doubts about a world entirely dependent on fossil fuels coalesced around the oil crisis and the miners\u2019 strike, it showed how to grow your own vegetables and make your own cheese. It sold more than a million copies in 20 languages. Now oil prices are plummeting along with inflation, and there are no miners.<\/p>\n<p>We are cravenly local, seasonal and organic, and farmer\u2019s markets are sexy. Michelle Obama has written a book about the White House vegetable patch.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-pullquote\">\n<blockquote><p> Cameron confuses selfishness with self-sufficiency and hopes we will too<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>This is all very lovely, and who doesn\u2019t want to crystallise their own fennel pollen, but it fails to link personal responsibility and collective action. Sustainability has been commodified. The contemporary \u201cgood life\u201d evoked by Cameron has more in common with Marie Antoinette\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.chateauversailles.fr\/discover-the-estate\/le-domaine-de-marie-antoinette\/the-queen-hamlet\/the-queens-hamlet\" title=\"\">Hameau de la Reine<\/a> than Tom and Barbara\u2019s muddy plot in Surbiton. While the Goods ploughed and dyed their way to self-sufficiency, the French queen dressed as a shepherdess milking perfumed cows into buckets made of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/toah\/hd\/sevr\/hd_sevr.htm\" title=\"\">S\u00e8vres porcelain<\/a>. I often think of her as I spend the morning digging up the choicest worms for my girls. Cameron is banking that we\u2019ll all be so blissed out on our own fetishised good lives that we won\u2019t consider voting for anyone who might be having a bad life.<\/p>\n<p>Chickens, and my girls, certainly aren\u2019t to blame. Proof that we can look beyond our own lives lies in <a href=\"https:\/\/henpowerblog.wordpress.com\/about\/\" title=\"\">HenPower<\/a>, an amazing charity that helps set up coops in care homes \u2013 bringing joy, and eggs, to all. It turns flocks into communities.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron\u2019s good life is entirely privatised: look after your backyard; build our own bucolic dream; and don\u2019t worry about what might be happening over the wall or over the road or over the border. Spoil your hens with organic treats and give them cutesy names, but don\u2019t tell them how most chickens live (and die): in vast, filthy factories of death, unable to spread their wings, unnamed. Cameron confuses selfishness with self-sufficiency and hopes we will too. He&nbsp;shouldn\u2019t count his chickens.<\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Cameron is banking that we\u2019ll all be so blissed out on our own good lives we won\u2019t vote to help anyone with a bad life. He shouldn\u2019t count his chickens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,218,48,50,54,222,97,221,313,163,69,51,220,281,45,53,46],"class_list":["post-8304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-article","tag-chicken","tag-comment","tag-comment-debate","tag-conservatives","tag-damian-barr","tag-david-cameron","tag-eggs","tag-food","tag-general-election-2015","tag-life-and-style","tag-main-section","tag-meat","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-the-guardian","tag-uk-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NRDR-29W","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7283,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/03\/31\/camerons-workers-v-shirkers-scam-has-at-last-exposed-the-tory-law-of-benefit-cuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":0},"title":"Cameron\u2019s workers v shirkers scam has at last exposed the Tory law of benefit cuts","author":"diana Stone","date":"March 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With the fictional divide beween deserving and undeserving poor collapsing, the Conservatives\u2019 ugly logic is turning into the one story they truly fear","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9419,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/05\/05\/meet-the-invisibles-the-wealthy-and-powerful-at-the-heart-of-the-tory-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":1},"title":"Meet the invisibles \u2013 the wealthy and powerful at the heart of the Tory party","author":"diana Stone","date":"May 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In the City I came face to face with the reclusive influencers within Cameron\u2019s world. The experience showed me how profoundly divided our nation has become","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21579,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/10\/08\/this-is-as-good-as-its-going-to-get-for-cameron-and-he-knows-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":2},"title":"This is as good as it&#8217;s going to get for Cameron \u2013 and he knows it","author":"diana Stone","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018The NHS safe because of us\u2019 was just one boast unwinding as he spoke. Secretly he must wish he could quit right now","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7452,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/04\/03\/christianity-for-hard-working-people-the-gospel-according-to-dave\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":3},"title":"Christianity for hard working people, the Gospel according to Dave","author":"diana Stone","date":"April 3, 2015","format":"quote","excerpt":"You couldn't make it up or could you? \"The Christian assertion that God loves everyone, the malformed, the poor, the disabled and even the foreigner ... is an idea that Mr Cameron\u2019s government has defined itself against.\"Posted by The Guardian on Friday, 3 April 2015","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7061,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/03\/26\/election-2015-i-couldnt-live-on-a-zero-hours-contract-cameron-tells-paxman-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":4},"title":"Cameron has edge over Miliband in TV battle, Guardian\/ICM poll shows &#8211; live","author":"diana Stone","date":"March 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"PM gets rough ride from Jeremy Paxman, who pressed him on the minimum wage, foreign policy and his 2010 pledges on VAT. Follow the audience Q&A nowNigel Farage gatecrashes the Sky studios \u2013 and heads to the barAll you need to know about tonight\u2019s Channel 4\/Sky News format","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6067,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2015\/03\/02\/dont-blame-the-intelligence-agencies-for-jihadism\/","url_meta":{"origin":8304,"position":5},"title":"Don\u2019t blame the intelligence agencies for jihadism","author":"diana Stone","date":"March 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Radicalisation is so unpredictable that we should worry less about the state\u2019s power than its weakness","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}