Keen as mustard?

I'm back safely on British soil again, courtesy of British Airways, who always get you there in the end... I'm worried about National Express though. They seem to be incapable of joined-up-thinking. They got me from Gatwick to Heathrow OK, but then I sat waiting for an eternity at Heathrow central bus station for the 500 service to Plymouth. It was delayed by over two hours due to 'traffic congestion' in London. (So much for Ken Livingston's congestion charge, which makes craploads of money for the council, and no improvement in traffic flow). The bus behind it actually arrived first and there was pandemonium as both sets of passengers tried to board simultaneously. The driver had to fight them off with his clipboard, and he might even have used a rude word, but I can't be certain as someone's elbow was in my ear.

Eventually, my bus set off amidst squally showers and very un-July weather. Such a constrast from the 37 degrees I left behind in Heraklion. What a summer - British weather is not good for the soul. We stopped for a 15 minute break at the Gordano service station just outside Bristol. Would you believe it... inside they were playing Cliff Richard singing 'O Little Town of Bethlehem!' No, I am not making it up - but I thought, how very appropriate, given the wintry torrents of rain outside.

I am in the middle of reading Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur - in which he pours mustard all over Web 2.0, and suggests that it's a conspiracy to destroy our culture and assault our economy. Well I never... Keen seems more concerned about making sure that shareholders don't lose their money than he is about democracy, where everyone has equal access to the Internet as readers and writers. Keen is of course a share holder himself and a prominent capitalist. He's a few index points short of a dividend too if you ask me. He admits to trying to cash in on the Internet boom of the 90s, so how very appropriate for him to talk about bloggers behaving like monkeys with typewriters. It's the same as playing Christmas carols in the middle of summer... but not half as amusing. Check out Andrew Keen's own blog (well fancy that) and you'll see what I mean.