The Deathly Hallows (spoiler free)

I finally finished reading the Potter chronicles yesterday. Tycho of Penny Arcade describes the experience thus:

I finished the last Harry Potter yesterday, but I couldn't actually tell you what happened in it. It's been like that for several books now, starting with The Order of the Phoenix, where I grip the book with hunger and aggression and consume it without ever tasting the meal. I have a sense of being satisfied, but it is murky, and distant, the way an anaconda must feel one week after eating a jaguar. What is most important is that the wait, that long famine, has come to a close.

I had steered clear of reviews until now, but I think that's probably the most accurate one I'm likely to read. It's been like that for me since Goblet of Fire. I still couldn't tell you what happened at the end of that book. One of the things that most impresses me in Rowling's stories is the way things all tie to together. Unlike other people (George Lucas) who claim to have planned a saga, but clearly made it up as they went along, she appears to have actually been telling the truth. I feel I would get so much more from it if I could actually remember what happened in Half-Blood Prince.

Last night, all remained clear in my head, but it's fading fast. I guess at some point I'll just have to reread the whole lot…

Confirmed: DESO to close

Last Wednesday the Prime Minister's office formally announced plans to close the Defence Export Services Organisation. SPEAK have a press release, and also an example letter to send to Gordon Brown. Note that the Prime Ministerial statement says that the functions of DESO are to be reallocated to other departments, not ceased completely. It's important, therefore, to write and ask that this not just be a continuation of the status quo by another name. If not removed altogether, funding for arms promotion should, as a minimum step, be limited to an amount proportional to the share of UK exports they represent.

What shall we abolish next?

One week ago The Guardian reported that the Treasury plans to shut the Defence Export Services Organisation. This has been a long running SPEAK campaign, and I might have got a little over excited in my immediate response:

Dear Marsha Singh,

I am writing to express my unbridled joy at the news, as reported in this morning's Guardian, that the Treasury is planning to disband the Defence Export Services Organisation. This obviously corrupt and unnecessary government department has long been a blot on Labour's record of reforms and I know I represent many when I say I will be pleased to see it go.

I expect that this news will have come as a nasty shock to many involved in pushing so called "British" arms, and that an intense period of lobbying will now ensue. I would ask that you now write to Chief Secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham and request he show the strongest resolve in following through on these plans. The fact that the arms industry continues to receive DESO's subsidies is clearly contrary to every principle of free trade; to say nothing of the obvious ethical questions, and the fact that no British civil industry is supported in such a way. I therefore ask that you also express to the Chief Secretary how important it is that closure should mean closure, and that the function of DESO not be passed elsewhere within government.

Obviously you don't all need to be quite that gushing, but I would urge you to write to your MP with similar requests, and also to sign the petition on the Downing Street web site.