Labour Again

Yes, I know. But there’s nothing sensible to say about the Tories, except that they’re imploding and will do anything to survive. Labour, on the other hand, are embarking on serious campaigning, so they’re ditching the stuff which doesn’t count. So out of the shadow cabinet go people with a responsibility for mental health, and for peace and disarmament. Presumably that sort of stuff doesn’t really count, if you’re listening to Tony Blair.

And then there’s Windrush. Windrush was a huge, complex crime, to which the Williams Report offered a detailed corrective; different approaches from different angles, designed to ensure that it couldn’t happen again. Priti Patel, no liberal, signed up to it all. Suella Braverman is made of different stuff. From the beginning she’s insisted that the Williams report isn’t “set in stone” (the ink’s barely dry!), and recently she’s intervened to control diversity training, and disband the department set up to reform the Home Office.

I’d guess there are shadow cabinet member appalled by this, but none of them have said a word. There must be tight instructions from the top that Labour is not to be identified as anti-racist, because that might lose some of the votes they want. Condemning anti-semitism is fine, because that marks them out as not-Corbyn. Black lives still matter, of course, but not so much.

Bound

This is the first film made by the (then) Wachowski Brothers, in 1996. I’d never heard of it, but offered the chance to see it by the magnificent mubi.com, I thought I’d give it a go. It’s brilliant. Stylish, tough, fast-moving, a crime caper oozing with the threat of imminent violence, but somehow you know that these two smart women will end up outwitting the thugs on the other side. It’s part of the fun that at times hat seems in doubt; a baddy has a pair of clippers in his hand, and is about to dismember a finger - when the phone rings. It’s sort of corny but sort of affectionate at the same time, and light years away from the self-important solemnity of The Matrix, which would seriously make their reputation three years later.

And it has a glorious ending. The two women, of very contrasting styles, have brought off their triumph and are about to drive off into the sunset. The tough, streetwise one says to the other - “You know the difference between us?” “No” she says. “Me neither.”

The cautious hawks of Labour

Yes, I know. the previous post was also about the Labour Party, but right now that’s where the real interest lies. The Tories flounder in incompetence, with Gillian Keegan a typical example, obsessed with her own importance rather than acknowledging the lazy, short-term thinking which exposes the country’s children to serious threat from collapsing rooves.

So Starmer has a reshuffle. The simple view is more Blairite, more experienced. But if you bring in Liz Kendall and kick out Lisa Nandy it’s a lot more serious than that. Nandy’s book “All In” marks her as a serious, original thinker, a Labour leader with the courage to lok beyond the Labour membership. Like Neal Lawson, she sees hope in Labour working with others, in recognising common humanity between members of the same community, and in that process finding answers to problems rather than having them controlled from a tight group in Westminster.

So she’s out. Starmer is tightening his control, choosing who’s in and who’s out with a narrowing vision, while moving rapidly between a range of policies with no consistency. Anything can be ditched, so long as he remains in charge, and there are no limits to the money that can be spent in pursuing his feud with the parts of the Labour Party with which he disagrees. There’s not too much coverage of he lingering legal fight over Corbyn supporters and the anti-Semitism morass, but the legal fees being spent on that could fund a whole lot of campaigning.

Telling it like it is

A breath of fresh air from Jess Phillips, arguing that Tory attacks on lefty lawyers were simply aimed at distracting from the mess they’ve made of immigration. But they’re also potentially dangerous for those targetted, like Jacqueline McKenzie. Second, Phillips attacked the chaos over the Bibby Stockholm, which was jus a headline. “There are no fewer people in hotels in Birmingham than there were before the Bibby Stockholm.”

And finally, she dared to suggest that limited financial resources don’t mean that there’s nothing you can do. “While I won’t have the moon on a stick, will and knowledge go a very long way.”

That is worth saying, and it’s not something I’ve heard from the Labour front bench. Not much about Bibby Stockholm, with Stephen Kinnock saying well, of course they’d have to keep it for the moment, because money is short…You can see Keir Starmer counting up the votes in being mean to migrants, and not wanting to give the Tories ammunition. But for God’s sake, what is stopping him from speaking out about attacks on lawyers? Does he think there are votes in that too, which he can’t afford to sacrifice? Does he actually believe in anything, except being Tony Blair Mk II, and the dream of growth?

Demon Copperhead

You can imagine a novelist working out what their next book will attempt. Tackle a current issue, say, like the systematic, evil campaign to promote the use of opioids. Or maybe you mount a defence of the area you come from, which - like the Black Country, say - has become the butt of lazy jokes and caricature. Or maybe you go back to the classics, and make your novel an updated version of a familiar book, but give it enough of your own character and voice for readers to feel they’re getting something original.

What you probably wouldn’t do is take on all three at once. But that’s what Barbara Kingsolver has attempted - and magnificently achieved - with “Demon Copperhead”. She follows the outline of “David Copperfield” closely; you can tick off the characters as they arrive, and note some changes of name and crucial detail, but it’s also a vivid, lively account of the Appalachian area where she grew up, and a totally gripping read. Shropshire Libraries knew this would be big, and have quite a few copies. I think it’s the best book I’ve read this year, and I’d advise you to get your request in early.

So near but yet so far...

…and that’s the end of the women’s World Cup. But it’s been a blast, and there’s been so much to celebrate over the last month. Lots of good, skilful football, some spectacular moments, and a general level of efficiency and intelligence in refereeing, commentary and analysis that we don’t usually get in the men’s game - as we were reminded by the convenient but totally irritating reappearance of Jonathan Pearce.

And then there’s been the rise of underdogs, often woefully undersupported by their federations back home, who’ve had the skill and nerve to upset established powers like Germany and Brazil. I’ll never forget Japan, showing the rest of the tournament how Spain could be beaten, by scoring four gals without reply on 23% of possession. Now that was class.

And there was England. Very convincing at first, lucky to squeeze past Nigeria and Colombia, but improving all the time, and ending up as the second best of the last four teams standing. But we couldn’t hang on to the ball, or think and act as quickly as Spain, so it’s right that they end up on top. But fabulous entertainment all the way through - we should be grateful.

Succession

Finally, the end of the road. I have finished watching Series 4 of Succession, and I’m not sure I could ever put myself through that again. But it’s certainly been an exciting ride, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

For those who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, Succession is a US TV series (but with signficant Brit involvement so far as the writing is concerned) about a rich,powerful family - not a million miles, it’s rumoured, from the Murdoch clan. So immediately it has those seductive, ludicrously expensive trappings - luxurious settings, planes, helicopters, endless fleets of limos. The cost must have been eye-watering.

but whle it has that exotic “what must that be like?” appeak, it also has the “oh yes, I know about that” buzz of family and maried life. Children bullied by their father, but weeping at his funeral, really not at all sur of who they are, but haunted by the feling that thy’re meant to be a powerful success - despite clear, repeated evidence that none of them could hold down an important job by being competent and reliable. All the tone and trappings of power are they; they just aren’t any good. Quite how they’ve managed to make this distasteful spectacle funny, moving and full of suspense I’m not sure, but that’s what they’ve done.

The Labour Files

These are three long films made by Al Jazeera, on the strength of a huge data dump of Labour Party material. It’s complicated, but their basic case is that the accusations of anti-semitism against Labour were exploited to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. If this were your only access to information about current politics, you might assume that he was a martyred idealist, and that anti-semitism was never a problem.

It isn’t, of course, that simple, but they do make a powerful case. “Corbyn didn’t care about anti-semitism” - but when he took direct control of the process, the number of referrals, investigations and suspensions went up. And who exactly is being suspended? Many of them are Jewish, and their crime seems to be not so much anti-semitism, as criticism of Israel, and support for the Palestinians. We have been here before and why is it, at this moment when the Israel government is more right-wing and extreme than it has ever been, provoking widespread dissent from its own citizens, that the Labour Party has nothing to say?

There had to be a response to the data dump, and the allegations which followed it, and there was. The Frode Report loked into it, and has virtually been ignored. It said that there was an effective hierarchy of racism within the Labour Party, where anti-semitism mattered and disrcimination aganst Blacks or Muslims was seen as less important. Remind me, what’s happened about the implementation of the Williams report, seeking to put Windrush right?

There’s two scandals here. 1. What’s happened. 2. The failure of the mainstream media to report it. There’s this dynamite from Al Jazeera (including impressive detailed interviews with Labour Party members who’ve been sacked) sitting on YouTube, being ignored. If this is news to you, have a look.

Dear Comrades

Yet again, I’m singing the praises of a foreign film I would never have seen if it weren’t for the magic of mubi.com “Dear Comrades” is in black and white, a record of a real life Russian rebellion in 1962, which was brutally put down by the regime. No news there.

Except that what makes his different is that it’s seen through the eyes of a loyal party official, a tough believer in the russian stae who mournes th passing of Stalin and wants to believe in the old certainties. As the film unfolds, she grasps just how destructive the old certainties can be, especially when her daughter is missing after attending a demonstration. It’s a tough learning process, watching her being forced to question her previous beliefs.

But this isn’t just history. It’s about 1962, but it was made in 2022, so it’s hard to miss the unspoken parallels, the damage that’s currently being done by a tough regime whch is sure it has all the answers, and doesn’t want is people to have the freedom to question how things are run. How this got to be made in today’s Russia is a mystery, bu I’m really glad it did.

Don Paterson

When I was fitter and younger I’d always go to Ledbury Poetry Festival. I’d go through the programme, and try to find a day where it would be worth driving for 75 minutes, going to three or four events spaced out over the day, having a lunch in a pub garden, and driving back in he evening. Now that looks like hard work, and in any case I couldn’t find a day-full of evens. So I settled for the easy life, booking into a Don Paterson reading on zoom.

It was well worth it. He’s dry and entertaining, a thoughtful analyst of poems as well as a skilled and versatile practitioner, and by the time he’d finishd I knew I had to have his latest collection “The Arctic.” It’s a real mix, some music and impenetrable Scottish dialect, but also a powerful confrontation of contemporary themes - Brexit, Covid, climate change. Back in the day, I was often told that poetry shouldn’t try t deal with politics, but for some reason that isn’t the orthodoxy any more.

Even better, Paterson sometimes deals with the old currency - regular forms, short lines that rhyme, tight four-ling stanzas that build up steam. Jonathan Davidson, who was interviewing him at Ledbury, seemed to regard this as a lovable eccentricity, but to me it was a vindication of something I’ve always known. Of course, regular forms shouldn’t be compulsory, but you’d be crazy to ditch them altogether.

Time to Think

That’s what books are for. A month ago, I wrote some comments about a TV documentary called The clinic, about the GIDS unit at the Tavistock. It was serious and constructive, avoided a lot of the obvious traps, and represented a fair range of views. But in an hour, it couldn’t tell the full story. A Guardian review suggested that this had actually been achieved by the Newsnight reporter Hannah Barnes, in her book “Time to Think.”

They were right. As a person of leisure, I could order the book from the library, read most of it in a day, on two three-hour train journeys to London and back, and I’m now considerably wiser. First, there’s the issue of management. Polly Carmichael didn’t appear in the TV documentary, and refused to co-operate with the writing of the book, but over the course of Barnes’ extensive enquiries her role becomes clear - she’s a pleasant, concerned professional who wants to look after her team, and listens to what they have to say. She just doesn’t do anything about it.

Another issue, not sexy, not conducive to good television, is record-keeping. What happens to these kids after GIDS stops seeing them? How many of them who transition to another gender regret it, or actually seek to have that process reversed? Nobody knows. Sure, it’s difficult work and they’re under pressure and the demand is growing all the time, but keeping track of the effects of your treatment surely has to be part of the job.

There’s a lot more, but no space for it here. But if you’re interested in what happened at GIDS, you have to read his book.

The Sixth Commandment

I didn’t want to watch “Best Interests” because it was about parents of a seriously ill child; so many opportunities for sentimental indulgence, empty rage. But then I read the reviews, and realised this was four hours of superb drama I’d be crazy to miss.

The same applied to “The Sixth Commandment.” Serial killer who gets close to vulnerable elderly peple, and then tries to kill them? No, not my scene, thanks. But then I read the reviews.(How lucky we are to have catch-up). Of course. It’s not about what it’s about, it’s about how it’s done.

And this is done by Sara Phelps, who achieved the impossible by getting me to show an interest in something by Agatha Christie. She’s very thoughtful, very clever, and her dramas have the distinguishing mark of dramatic quality - they take each of the characters seriously, show hat’s happening and how they’re thinking and feeling, rather than focussing on the only one that counts. If you don’t believe me, fine. that’s what catch-up is for. Check it out for yourself.

Starmer and Putin

Earlier this week I saw someone comparing Keir Starmer with Putin. Five years ago that would have been ludicrous, but now it doesn’t seem so wild. No, he won’t be starting a war any time soon, but he is insisting on a degree of control that is unhealthy and ultimately unsustainable.

His USP is “I’m not Corbyn”, and it’s not surprising that he’s worked hard to throw out Corbyn, and some of his most vociferous supporters. But he hasn’t stopped there. He’s also blocked a popular local mayor and Neal Lawson, whose main crime seems to be that he recognises intelligent life outside the Labour Party, and thinks it should be possible to build alliances there. No. All the answers will come from Keir and his immediate team, and nobody else will contribute, have a share, get involved.

Some of these expulsions may be hasty or unjustified, but surely that will be picked up when they come to appeal. Or maybe not. The failure rate of appeals is 100%. That looks to me very like a Putin election result. It’s not only immoral, it’s self-defeating. Where is the incentive to go out and canvas for a cause? Where, for most people, is the incentive to vote? “We’re not going to change anything, or spend anything, but hey, give us a chance.”

Windrush Portraits

Precious little comfort in the news, so when an uplifting documentary comes along, it’s something to savour. For me “Windrush: portraits of a generation” came into that category. Not a new idea. You get a collections of people, you pair them up with an artist each, you record he development of those relationships, and then at the end you show them all milling about, admiring the results.

But this time there were two elements that made it special. The subjects of the portraits, hugely varied, were all Windrush veterans - who’d survived that turbulent history. Many of them had the wit,wisdom and vitality to demonstrate what a triumph that was.

The other distinctive feature was that the climax was at Buckingham Palace, because the patron of this whole project was King Charles III. I’m not a huge fan. For all sorts of good reasons he’s remote, a bit impersonal, often stuffy. But on this issue he does seem o have inherited his mother’s respect for the best part of the Commonwealth tradition, and he was insistent that the Uk should see the Windrush generation as a huge asset, to be celebrated as much as famous writers, generals or political leaders. Hence the portraits. And how far that attitude is from the blinkered hostility of our elected government.

Buying Books

As Keynes apparently said “Of course I’ve changed my mind. When circumstances change, you change your mind. What do you do?”

Which is a consolation when I occasionally feel guilty about the amount of money I spend on books. I’ve always bought books. I have thousands of them, and know for certain that most have virtually no resale value, so my kids will inherit a huge store of knowledge which will be more of a pain than a profit. Five years ago, I sort of decided I wouldn’t buy any more books, unless I really had to.

Then Covid came along. I went to a ton of zoom poetry events, often featuring poets at the other end of the country, totally new to me but writing stunning poems. And how could I best support them? Answer: by buying their books online.

The worst of Covid has gone, for now, but I continue to want to support poets, and the easiest way to do that is to order their work from the local independent bookshop, Pengwern in Shrewsbury. And when I get there there’s often something tasty which I haven’t heard of, but award myself as a freebie, for supporting the good cause. Which is how I came across “The Music of Time”, by John Burnside. It’s a stunning survey of European poetry over the last hundred years - an incredible display of knowledge and enthusiasm. I’d never heard of it, but feel privileged to have come across it, and share that buzz by lending it to friends

John Cassavetes

As a mild sort of film buff, I’d known the name for a long time, with a rather vague sense of rebel, improvised, black and white, sixties…Nothing very precise. But I’m now a lot wiser, having watched four of his films in a fortnight. This is - regular readers will not be surprised to hear - thanks to the glories of mubi.com, the website that encourages you to teach yourself about film.

Those aren’t the only films on offer, and I’m sure there are mubic subscribers who haven’t watched any of these, but by piecing strands together, and regularly feeding new films into the mix, the website encourages you to pursue your own interests and, in the best possible way, educate yourself.

Of course, there’ll be moments in a film from the sixties which date, longueurs that a modern editor might not tolerate, but I’ve been really grateful for the chance to explore this almost forgotten little alleyway - a strange mix of aggressive, male dominance and early feminism, recognising the ways in which these obnoxious blokes are getting it wrong. And I can’t hink of any other way in which I’d have got this chance. So, yet again, thanks, mubi.com.

The Clinic

Earlier this week ITV showed a one-hour documentary called The Clinic. It’s abut the GIDS clinic at the Tavistock, which has been trying to deal with gender dysphoria. I saying “trying”, not because they’re incompetent, but because they’re having to provide answers to complex problems with limited resources, against the clock.

The programme did a really good job of providing detailed information without slipping into crude simplifications or current stereotypes. It also provided a fascinating gallery of different points of view - kids, parents, activists, doctors, lawyers - many of whom were passionately convinced that they were right. Their views, needless to say, did not coincide.

The one who stays with me is Sajid Javid. He was explaining why his decision to close down the GIDS clinic was justified by the evidence available. He strove to present himself as a careful, rational minister, acting in the national interest. What he didn’t do was suggest what happens next. Okay, so you close GIDS. It’s already dealing with thousands of people, many of them vulnerable kids. Where do they go? Who sees them? If what GIDS was doing is wrong, what is the approved government treatment? He hasn’t got a clue, and doesn’t seem to care.

No coup here - nothing to see

It’s been an eventful weekend, but it now seems that there won’t be a change in the Russian government. Maybe that’s as it should be. Maybe having the Wagner boss in charge of Russian policy is not the best news for Ukraine, or the rest of the world. But it’s still been fascinating to watch.

Putin is notorious for his control of the media, and of security forces. Given his determination to hang on the power, and neutralise or get rid of any opposition, it’s not astonishing that the country didn’t rise in protest. But many of them did welcome the Wagner troops to Rostov, and they seemed to make smooth progress on their way to Moscow, while that was part of the plan.

Meanwhile, Russia’s most successful general in Ukraine has publicly suggested that the whole operation has been a con, designed to promote the career of military leaders. All that stuff about Nazis was just camouflage. Putin has been on TV to insist that the rebels will be brutally punished - and has then agreed to let them all off, and allow their leader to retire peacefully to Belarus. None of this helps to support the notion of Putin as the canny genius who has everything under control. He may cling on to power, but right now he’s not in charge.

A Breath of Fresh Air

I’m a creature of habit. We eat our evening meal at 6.00 pm, and if I’m cooking I listen to pm on radio 4. Sometimes it’s interesting, sometimes it drives me mad, but it’s mostly an informative accompaniment, and occasionally an inspiration. This week what struck me was not a big, dramatic story, but a small snippet which some would regard as a filler.

As the Hallett inquiry moved into gear, they interviewed a Swedish politician about the approach they had taken - a shorter, quicker inquiry which meant that they are currently considering how to take action to prepare for the next pandemic that might strike.

I though it was riveting. A calm, intelligent professional, mapping out alternatives which could lead to intelligent action as a result of which people would be safer and less likely to die. And I thought, when’s the last time I heard a cabinet minister sounding like that? We get tons of posturing, grabbing headlines, provoking reactions, but hardly any evidence of serious government in actin - doing the business, making things work. Whether or not Labour will be able to provide more regular instances of this only time will tell, but in their current state of disarray we’re unlikely o see it from the Conservatives.

Bowing Out - Again

You hesitate to say that Boris Johnson resigning as an MP is the end of a career, because it’s happened so often, and it may well happen again. He’s like the kid in a school play, who can’t bear to leave the stage. “I’m off for now,” he smirks “but I could well be back again.”

His loyal fans, of course, are ready with their eulogies. “He got the big calls right”, they say, “on Brexit, the vaccine, and Ukraine.” So tempting, this simple little vignette, where the master flips three coins and calls it right every time. Got Brexit right, in the sense of making it happen - but not in terms of having any kind of plan what it involved. Got the vaccine right, by appointing the right person to co-ordinate it (cf Test and Trace, where he got it disastrously wrong) but everything that Kate Bingham has said since powerfully indicates that he has no grasp at all of what needs to happen to counteract further pandemics. And yes, he had hearty photo ops with Zelensky, but my guess is that they’d have been even warmer if he’d raised a finger to make London less welcoming to Russian oligarchs.

What infuriates is the total lack of logic. Boris fans moan about Sunak’s betrayal of Johnson, stabbing him in the back by resigning. So what do they think their hero’s curren stance amounts to, sabotaging any attempt of Sunak to look like a compeent Prime Minister, after years of serial incompetence? Abstract values, like loyalty or consistency, mean nothing. What matters is what he wants, today. And that’s why we’re glad to be rid of him.