Friday 20 February 2009

An eerie vision of the future?

At the second attempt I have finally got round to finishing P. D. James' 'The Children of Men'. I first tried to read it about 18 months ago. It's not a 'hard' book, it's just something that happens to me sometimes. I read in 'waves'. Last year was particularly productive. I must have read about 20 books and they were all quite a reasonable length too. I hit a literary 'wall' though a couple of months ago when reading 'The Audacity of Hope'. Christmas should have freed up time for reading but I was probably too busy eating and drinking. Nevermind, with February on the horizon I polished off Barack's sanitized vision for America (see previous post) and ploughed into dystopia.

I am quite a big fan of the genre. I enjoyed Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange. Next on the list is A Handmaid's Tale. Anyway, back to the point...The Children of Men is set in 2021, 25 years after the last human baby has been born. Civilisation is slowly dying out because of man's failure to successfully deal with it's own destruction of the environment. As a result most people are apathetic and parliamentary democracy has been brushed aside, along with most vestiges of liberty in favour of the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt - brother of the novel's protagonist Theo Faron. Faron is an Oxford Don who is contacted by a group of freedom fighters called the 'Five Fishes'. Initially pessimistic, he is soon won over when it is revealed that one of the fishes (Julian - a woman who was christened incorrectly!) is pregnant - the first in 25 years. The rest is basically a 'road-book' (is there such a phrase? I'm looking for the literary equivalent of 'road movie') where the main characters attempt to escape the clutches of the State Security Police (SSP) and find a suitable place for Julian to give birth. Along the way, the other fishes are killed under various circumstances, Theo eventually faces Xan, shoots him and the novel ends with the baby healthy and Faron about to become the new 'Warden of England'. All in all, a great novel - it's strongest quality is the overall premise of a dying world simply because of all the questions this throws up. What do previously religious people now think of God? Are we still duty bound to obey the law? At what point do we cross the 'boundary' and return to a Hobbesian/Lockean state of nature? To what extent should liberty be sacrificed under these circumstances? Exciting stuff!

I am now reading 'Birds without Wings' by Louis de Bernieres - a recommendation by James both because of its subject matter (WW1) and the fact that it is set in Turkey - a country that I will be visiting in August.

I perhaps ought to briefly mention the bands and films that I have seen recently. Let's start with Bloc Party..I managed to get standing tickets for myself and Dougie, Head of Geography, back in January. So we rolled up - Wednesday night, and had a thoroughly cracking time. The band were note perfect, the drummer sublime and overall they're well worthy of their position as one of Britain's foremost indie bands. What I couldn't understand was why people would pay to go to a gig only to throw glow sticks at them? The crowd was a bit 'impotent' to say the least - maybe because it was mid-week. Nevertheless, the two encores were well received. On the second occasion we were outside when we heard the first few bars of 'Flux' and had to race back in. It really was a great song to finish off with and sounds so much better live, partly I suspect because they have less technology to rely on.

Just over a week later me and James went to see the NME Shockwaves tour. I wanted to go so I could see a band that I have really 'discovered' this past few months. White Lies are from West London and play Joy Division/Interpol/Editors inspired post punk. The singer, like his forbears, sports a baritone voice and their own tunes are a bit poppier than previous incarnations - think The Killers. Nevertheless, I thought they were fantastic even though the keyboard packed up half way through the set.

Florence and the Machine were also on the bill. I'd never heard of them and it's always a pleasant surprise to see a band live for the first time and to actually like them. Florence has a cracking voice and I will look forward to the album. She came back on stage during the White Lies set to duet with the lead singer and it was absolutely fantastic.

The least said about Friendly Fires the better. James was really up for seeing Glasvegas. I can't say that I'm a fan. It sounds horrible I know but the strong Scottish accents really grate on me. Although to be honest it's probably the triumphalist and over the top nature of their melodies that doesn't really appeal either.

Last Thursday we went to see Secret Machines. This was a completely different experience altogther. The gig was at the intimate 'Ruby Lounge' near the Arndale and it was pretty impressive to see this 3-piece here given that they've supported Interpol and played the Academy. Anyway, they place a Pink Floyd-prog rock inspired blend of rock, punk and metal. Anyway you say it, it's pretty 'deep'. Average song length is about 10 minutes - they probably only played about 7 songs in over an hour. All in all they were pretty impressive. All prior assumptions regarding the volume levels that three guys could produce were brushed aside. This band was loud!!

I'm getting a wee bit tired of typing now - I'll finish by saying that two films I have seen recently have really impressed me. It goes without saying that Slumdog Millionaire is good, excellent in fact. I was also impressed by Frost/Nixon by its ability to turn an interview, albeit a high profile one, into an intruiging political thriller. It has ignited my interest in the Watergate scandal and the Nixon presidency in particular. This bodes well considering that it appears that I'll be teaching this at A2 Level next year. Yipes! :-)

Saturday 14 February 2009

Geert Wilders

I was shocked to hear that the controversial Dutch MP was turned away from Britain at Heathrow airport. The government has again tangled itself in knots over free speech and political correctness, inadvertantly giving the man who compared Islam with Nazism a lot of free publicity.

On the phone to the BBC whilst the drama unfolded at Heathrow, Mr. Wilders argued correctly that he was an elected parliamentarian - people may not agree with his views but they would be invited to challenge them in the forum of free speech. I've made this point over and over again - like Mill said, 'the truth' will only ever be revealed when those with objectionable views are allowed to speak their mind. If you keep them bottled up, ignorance reigns. Wilders was not going to be touring Rusholme or Tower Hamlets - in that case, Jacqui Smith's claim that his visit would have damaged race relations - would be accurate. Rather, he was going to be addresseing a group of peers in the House of Lords.

Under these circumstances, I'm sure that the very able and astute debaters of the 'Other Place' would have been able to tear his message of hatred to sheds - just as Nick Griffin was left smarting when he was invited to address the Oxford University debating society.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Segregation in Schools

Just caught this one on BBC news - the headteacher of a primary school in Sheffield has resigned after conflicting with the local education authority. The controversy surrounded the former head's plan to overturn a decision to have separate assemblies for Christian and Muslim children. Quite frankly I think that the headteacher, whoever she is, deserves a medal.

We already live in a divided Britain. White kids play with white kids, Muslim kids play with other Muslims and live in similar areas in our towns and cities. Now, whilst I don't have a great problem with this (other than the fact that it perpetuates intolerance and ignorance simply because the two groups do not actually 'spend time' with each other), I DO have a problem when this is continued within a school community. Although I know nothing about the school, the fact that it caters for white and Muslim children shows that it is non-denominational. Therefore, what is the problem with a provision for some form of secular worship? Arrangements could be made for religious observance where necessary - by physically splitting up the two ethnicities, we enter dangerous territory in which segregated 'groupings' are created - and in this situation each side recognises one as an 'other' from an early age. This will have untold consequences for both sides' impression of the 'other' by the time they reach adolescence.

In other news, I have now booked my summer holiday - as follows:

Sat 1 Aug 09: Luton-Bucharest (not Budapest as I had originally booked in error - thanks to the delightful people at 'Wizzair' this was soon rectified)

Sat 15 Aug 09: Istanbul-Gatwick

This gives me two weeks travelling around Transylvannia, Bulgaria, northern Turkey and, of course, Istanbul - the one city on earth that I most desperately want to visit!

Three days til half term!

Sunday 8 February 2009

Get to Bolton West - their organisation is crap!

I met John Prescott today. Me and James felt it our duty to attend the Young Labour 'Big' Weekend at the Town Hall - being heavily involved party members and all (!) Seriously though, we had intended to go to the Saturday session but plans dictated otherwise. James Purnell (Work and Pensions and future party leader???) was on the bill as well as Hazel 'I'm nuts about her' Blears (Local Government).

I've met Ms. Blears before - whilst researching for my dissertation at her Constituency Office in Salford. Having finished my days graft I went into a local post office for a Mars bar and there she was again, attending a photocall with the proprietor (my flatmate Christian says that at a recent Law event he overheard her saying that she only wanted to be photographed with ethinc minorities - hence his distaste for her). Anyway, said photocall was blocking my entry to the Post Office and Hazel said to the owner "Look at me, I'm stopping all of your customers". Now, if I'd had a bit more nous I would have retorted "well if you're referring to the government's Post Office privatisation program then you're jolly right!"

The future of the Post Office came up during the Q&A section at the end of John Prescott's speech. Leaving that aside, James and I scored a journalistic 'coup' by finally getting to the bottom of how the former DPM managed to get the nickname 'two-jags'. As he was shaking hands with the 50 or so Young Labour delegates (I will never wash my hand again), James brought up the fact that they both had a mutual friend (I forget his name but he works in regeneration). It turns out that it was this chap who provided Prescott with his jags in the 1990s when Michael Heseltine had said that the perk was for the benefit of the Prime Minister only.

The press girl sitting opposite won't have picked up on this little nugget from James' brief but life affirming conversation with the former DPM. However, she DID pick up on Prescott's admission that party organisation in the constituency of Bolton West was 'crap' and that's why we needed to board the 'battle bus' immediately (James and I forewent such pleasures in order to have Sunday lunch in Katsouris)-Nevertheless I must say that I found Prescott to be an entertaining speaker, despite being one who often gets mixed up in his own words. Not many politicians will use words such as 'bloody' and 'bugger' in a speech to the party faithfull - these are qualities which will make Prescott a memorable politician when he finally steps down as an MP at the next election. I don't know what the young female journalist was noting down, however what I would say is that Prescott is the type of politician the likes of which we seldom see in this country. He is a man who can truly connect with the electorate. For a man of nearly 70 he is proving this once again by his grasp of the potential for technology and internet social networking to reinvigorate party organisation and electioneering. Overall, he is an 'everyman' - a bridge between 'The People' and the 'Establishment', the likes of which the younger generation is yet to produce.