Then The Second Wheel Blew Out

Hot on the heels, to use a tabloid phrase, of Anderson's departure from the Culture Board, the head of events for 2008, Lee Forde handed in his notice (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6749217.stm ).

Almost a week after Forde's resignation both he & the Culture Company remain tight-lipped about it. Well, almost tight-lipped. According to the BBC report, "The Culture Company has issued a statement confirming his resignation, saying it would like to thank him and wish him well for the future."

That's the sort of thing which would have fitted in to a Politbureau missive when the Berlin Wall still stood. Nowadays it's the default bollockese which emanates from many a boardroom when the PR machine hasn't got going.

The financial cost of 2008 is only now coming under the spotlight. Joe Anderson referred to it as he bade the Culture Company a less than fond farewell. The sobering reality, in stark contrast to that intoxicating morning in 2003, is that there is a £22m shortfall in Liverpool City Council's fund for 2008. One contentious option for the council, first discussed at a council meeting last Wednesday, is that the city raise the £22m by borrowing the sum over five years. However, this option will not be available if the government doesn't agree to a change in rules to allow this funding plan.

Both Joe Anderson & present council leader, Warren Bradley hope to meet Gordon Brown & pitch their case. From what I've heard, however, Brown is in no hurry to approve the plan, even though it involves no new treasury cash. His thinking is that since the Lib-Dems have been held power in Liverpool for the last decade or so, they should take the hit in any political fall-out over the 2008 shambles.

Once Upon A Time, It All Seemed So Simple

Remember this moment, folks? That morning in the bar area of Liverpool's Empire Theatre in 2003 when the assorted local civic worthies & their business pals glugged back the champers at a ridiculously early hour to celebrate the Capital of Culture Award?
Even then, there were conflicting spins being put on the accolade. The Liverpool Echo, & to a lesser degree, BBC Radio Merseyside, not so much inferred as trumpeted the award as the catalyst for the economic & social transformation of the entire Merseyside region. The local Chamber of Commerce, intoxicated by the champers & heady rhetoric that day, augmented this guff.
There were, however, more sober voices. Those whose input was considered key to the cultural projects (local artists, musicians, theatre staff, etc.) questioned whether what was, after all, a series of cultural projects over twelve months in the city was tantamount to an entire region's renaissance.
The councillors, however, were bullish & hyperbolic in their booze-fuelled euphoria. Mike Storey, the then leader of Liverpool City Council, declared, "It's like the Beatles reforming, Liverpool winning the European Cup & Everton winning the Premiership all on the same day!"
At that point someone should have instructed Cllr Storey to go & lie down in a darkened room.
Well, with just six months remaining before 2008 arrives, the wheels are beginning to fall of the Capital of Culture juggernaut.
The first wheel came spinning away last week with the resignation of Joe Anderson, the city's Labour leader, from the Capital of Culture board (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=labour-leader-quits-08- ).
According to the article, Anderson's criticisms are pretty damning:
"In a hard-hitting attack he said the Culture Board and the Culture Company were:
FAILING to engage communities and real people.
FAILING to provide a 2008 events programme that excited people.
FAILING to provide a worthwhile legacy for the city and missing the chance to kick-start creative industries."
Anderson particularly hit home with his comment, "People are constantly complaining about over emphasis on city-centre investment and when you visit parts of Speke and see the dereliction there it really hits home."
I have been critical of local politicos such as Anderson, seeing them as willing accomplices in the hype & bluster from the Culture Company (http://liverpool08.com/ ). However, Anderson, to his credit, blew away some myths about 2008. On the major developments in the city centre he said, "The renaissance is real but it was begun byEuropean Objective One funding and maintained by government grants."
The Liverpool Echo piece noted that Anderson "believed the culture board was guilty of building up unreasonable expectations about the festival from the word go."

On The Banks Of The Merseysippi

I saw Allen Toussaint & the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on Tuesday evening. As well as being a stirring musical event, it was also rich in political symbolism. Both Toussaint, elegantly dapper as he carressed the piano, & the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, a joyous, riotous eruption of musical virtuosity, represent the music (& by extension spirit) of New Orleans. They acknowledged the heavy toll taken by Katrina, but declared that the music was leading the city's cultural re-emergence. One member of the Jazz Band commented that the reception they received on this side of the Atlantic was warmer than the one accorded them by Washington's power player &, in particular, their Commander-In-Chief. He seemed taken aback by the sustained applause this remark merited.
Allen Toussaint can be heard here in an interview with the WNYC Public Radio programme "Soundcheck", barely a month after Katrina struck:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2005/09/07 .
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band have done a video in which they lovingly apply the Big Easy treatment to the old Kinks' song, "Complicated Life":
http://www.preservationhall.com/video/index.htm .

Pithy, But Precise

Trust Steve Bell to come up with the perfect take on Blair's self-pitying whine on Tuesday:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,2101767,00.html .

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (never thought I'd quote Elton John)

There were a few nuggets of self-pity & poor-little-me mumblings from Tony Blair yesterday (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2101076.00.html ):
"Speaking at a meeting for journalists at Reuters in London, [Blair] added, 'The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever, hunts in a pack.
'In these modes, it is like a feral beast just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out.'"
Blair said he was not complaining unduly: "It is not a whinge about how unfair it all is".
Oh, yeah?
New Labour has been devastatingly effective at "spin", so was amusing to find Blair commenting, "Comment is a perfectly respectable part of journalism. But it is supposed to be separate."
The report went on, "Acknowledging his part in courting right wing media barons in the early days of his leadership, Mr Blair added, 'In the early days Murdoch was incredibly hostile to Labour and it was important to take that away.'"
At what cost, Tony?
Oh yes, nearly forgot: Iraq? Nope, no second thoughts.

More Junkmail In The Post

Accompanying my trade union journal in the post the other day was a plain white envelope addressed to me. I opened it & was shocked to find a ballot form for Labour's deputy leadership election. Seems that because my union pays the political levy I have a voice. Ha! Who would've thought back in 92, when I left the party as a full member before the bastards could kick me out, I would one day be asked to vote for the most boring & depressing political election since Enver Hoxha was in his prime in Albania.
The Candidate booklet, hilariously subtitled, "the future for Britain" contains a couple of gems. An introduction from my union's General Secretary concludes, "As you vote in this important election for a new Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, why not join the Labour Party, and help us to secure a fourth term Labour government."
Thanks, but I think I'll pass on that one.
There's a message from Gordon Brown, Washington's next bag-carrier, sorry, ally in the War On Terror (copyright, Dubya). Brown rhapsodises, "As a teenager I chose this party because of its values--values that I grew up with--and I am honoured that this party has chosen me."
Hmm, values, eh, Gordon? Those would be values behind PFI, faith schools, donations from corrupt businessmen & sychophancy to Rupert Murdoch. I've checked the dozen or so paragraphs of purple prose, nay, Olympian oratory from Gordon a few times now. So it must have been an error at the printers that there is no mention of Iraq. Bloody workers!
As for the candidates for the political equivalent of fluffers on a porn set, Hilary Benn declares that he wants "a country that acts on its concern about poverty and injustice, whether at home or in Africa". Just the UK & Africa, Hilary? What would your dad say about that? Comically, he says he also wants "a world that puts justice at the heart of our foreign policy". Evidently, that line went to the printers before the latest BAE/Saudi arms bribery scandal. Any mention of Iraq, by the way? Erm, nope.
Hazel Blears, nicely dubbed Mrs Pepperpot by Kevin Maguire in his New Statesman column, predictably comes up with cliches. Blears trills, "Yes, I'm a loyalist--to Labour and our members."
Not, presumably, those members who have left in disgust over the last decade, meaning that party membership has more than halved since 1997; the figure for that year were at 407,000, & the figure for last month stood at 177,000 (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,2101211,00.html ).
Jon Cruddas, dismissed by many as the no-hoper, does, at least, nod towards reality. He states, "While proudly proclaiming what we have got right, we must have the honesty to accept what has gone wrong and learn the lessons."
Aha, yes, he does mention Iraq, albeit fleetingly.
It is only when checking those MPs who back his nomination that I get a nasty jolt. My own MP, Joe Benton, has put his name to Cruddas' candidacy. Benton, one of the easy lump of lobby fodder to slavishly follow the New Labour line. His speeches in the Commons have tended to stress his Christian faith, the implication being that there is no real effective secular version of ethical awareness. As an atheist I find that deeply offensive. His views & voting record on abortion & gay rights also belong to the Victorian era.
The remaining candidates, Peter Hain, Harriet Harman & Alan Johnson, don't scare the horses with their addresses. Hain does state that he believes in "a progressive internationalist foreign policy", something which may evoke hollow laughter from Brown's entourage as they prepare to deliver their credentials to Washington.

White House & Whitewash

First of all, I must mention Connie Lawn, a senior White House correspondent who I first noticed on a BBC Newsnight interview a couple of years ago. Her comments made a refreshing change from the usual roster of neo-cons the programme was beginning to rely on. I emailed Connie, congratulating her for breaching what had become a neo-con stronghold. Since then I've emailed Connie a few stories from this side of the pond which might be of relevance to her brief. Connie files reports for various media outlets, but has asked me to spread the word, so to speak, on her despatches. Consider it done, Connie, the word has gone out.
Connie is also a keen skier & I was delighted to come across this piece from Christmas 2003:
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=255&mode=headlines .
Connie didn't quite succeed in her attempts to get Dubya on a ski slope. What a pity; there could have been a great big tree to greet him on the way down.

The ramifications of the Athens affair continue. Liverpool FC's chief executive, Rick Parry, returned to the fray yesterday (http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2095001,00.html ).
Parry noted, "The shortcomings in the management of the situation in Athens were apparent to anyone who was there...These latest comments from Uefa should not deflect attention from that reality."
He went on to say, "We produced a report for Uefa a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong. They knew and we knew that thousands of fans would travel without tickets and we stressed the need for a proper check at the outer cordon."
Earlier in the Guardian article, William Gaillard, Uefa's director of communications (a job title which is becoming more of a misnomer by the day), was quoted thus, "What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?...We know who caused most of the trouble in Athens."
Whilst condemning those "fans" who stole tickets, got in with forgeries or simply forced their way in, I suspect that Gaillard's emotive point about children will turn out to be every bit as apocryphal as Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
It didn't take long for one of the threads on the Guardian's sportsblog to run with the latest exchanges:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/06/04liverpool_v_uefa_whos_to_blame.html .
One of the club's new owners, Bill Hicks, threw his lot into the ring this morning, calling Gaillard a "clown". I'm not sure that such a jibe, coming from a guy who by his own admission is still new to "soccer", helps Liverpool's cause. Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn met the Uefa President, Michel Platini today & all the usual diplomatic phrases were trotted out in the press release. What was actually said &, more importantly, decided, is still to be made clear.

Athens Fall Out (cont.)

At least one of the local blogs has begun to give the lie to the more self-justifying & brazen defence of what happened outside the stadium in Athens last week.
The Liverpool Times (http://www.liverpooltimes.net/ ) is trenchant in its verdict on events. It asserts, "Despite the talk about 'thieving Scousers' being one which most of us hate, some fans (or people who bought a Liverpool shirt) are out there handing headlines to the gutter press. The thieves were seen openly snatching tickets off their own fans. The lads going over to rob these days are not your 'likeable scally' [sic]. Many are prepared to use mob violence here in the streets of Liverpool & they will export this violence & general lack of manners abroad if given half a chance."
Meanwhile, it's worth repeating Rick Parry's now embarrasing words:
"We have told Uefa there will be 40,000 Liverpool fans in the ground by hook or by crook [my italics]. So wouldn't it be better to give us the tickets & let us distribute them fairly without fans having to go to extreme methods? Our pleas fell on deaf ears."
Viewed in retrospect, Parry's words come across less as a plea for reason & more as the sort of thing Tony Soprano might muster when trying to be subtle.

Another interesting local blog to note:
"Gossip Mongers" (http://subculturegossip.blogspot.com/ ). Its strap line declares with relish that it contains "All the stuff that is just not fit to print in the Echo".

Athens Aftermath

It wasn't until Thursday morning that solid details began to emerge about the chaotic scenes outside Athens' Olympic Stadium the previous evening. I'd been oblivious to it all as I nursed a sore head & a sense of disappointment at the result. However, late Thursday morning changed all that & the initial reports gave a flavour of what had transpired:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200607/story/0,,2087123,00.html .

By Friday the Liverpool Echo was eagerly running with the story. Its take on events was predictably partisan:

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=your-final-warning% .

However, the piece did quote Dr Rogan Taylor, a leading light in the Football Supporters Association after Hillsborough, & now a director of the football industry group at Liverpool University. Taylor was commendably even-handed in his analysis:

"Clubs have pressed too hard to squeeze the maximum amount of money from the sponsors. They have to instruct Uefa to do sponsorship deals which bring in less money & reduce the number of tickets to corporate businesses.

Fans must also recognise that if you get in without a ticket by being smart, it maybe deprives a dad & a daughter with tickets of their own."

Friday also saw the serious press sinking their teeth into an irresistible story. The Guardian sports weblog carried a piece by Gregg Roughley, a Liverpool fan who witnessed the scenes outside the stadium:

http://blogs.football.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/25/uefa_needs_to_buck_its_ideas_u.html .

Roughley was eager to dissociate himself from the antics of those idiots who had tried to gain access, in Rick Parry's now unfortunate phrase, by hook or by crook.

Roughley asserted: "The behaviour of some Liverpool fans was certainly not beyond reproach, but they were given the opportunity by the inept Greek authorities & woefully ill-equipped stadium facilities deemed suitable by Uefa."

He pointed out that the so-called fanzone showed "no sign of fan-themed events taking place: no music, no drink (alcoholic or soft) & nothing remotely fun."

"In the ground, about 300 seats behind the goal where Liverpool supporters were housed remained empty for the entire match. Of those fans who did show up to take their seats in the second half, many were suffering sickness after being sprayed with tear gas, while others sat discosolately with their heads in their hands after being beaten by Greek police officers."

Roughley also noted: "Many ticketless Liverpool fans travelled to Cardiff for last year's FA Cup final after tickets had been stolen prior to the match, but the high standard of planning & organisation by police & stewards ensured that the day passed over without any major problems."

The Sun "newspaper" jumped on the issue with this opportunistic piece:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007240105,00.html .

Yes, the rag that gave us "The Truth" pathetically tried to boost its pygmy circulation figures on Merseyside. [Before Hillsborough Murdoch's rag was selling 57,000 copies a day on Merseyside. After its infamous edition which accused Liverpool supporters of looting dead bodies & urinating on first aid staff, that figure slumped to 12,000. It has not risen significantly since.]

However, blame is clearly apportioned by Paul Wilson in today's Observer:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2089019.00.html .

Wilson's piece begins: "Call me hard-hearted, if you like, but I found my initial sympathy for all the ticket-holding Liverpool fans tear-gassed & clobbered by Athens police evaporating at the airport the following day, on encountering scally after scally bragging about getting into the European Cup final for nothing."

Quite why Wilson should lump in the genuine ticket-holding fans with the feckless scum isn't explained in the piece.

Later in the article Wilson asserts: "Liverpool followers need no history lessons on why all-seater stadiums came about in the first place, & now they are here it does not take a genius to work out that the seats occupied by people without tickets must be at the expense of people who paid for them."

Augmenting this trend of thought is Patrick Barclay in today's Sunday Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/05/27/sfnpb127.xml .

Barclay draws attention to an interview with "a pair of middle-aged drunken nitwits" on Greek TV. Asked why they had turned up in Athens without tickets, one of them replied:"'We're going to wait until the game's about to start, & then we're going to storm the stadium.'"

Barclay continues: "My stomach turned, as would that of anyone who experienced (even from a merciful distance) the horrific events of the crush at Hillsborough 18 years ago. But this turned out to be more than just a bad joke. In grotesque retrospect, indeed, it can be seen as a statement of intent."

Post pending

I've been collating observations & eye-witness accounts of the events outside the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Wednesday evening. More to come.

With Hope In Their Hearts

Text messages have been exchanged with those in Athens. None of the texts contain what might be called information. Rather, they're replete with truisms & cliches. They're simply delighted to be there, ticket or no ticket.

However, the allocation issue is to the fore with the mainstream media:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200607/story/0,,2086078,00.html .

So far, there's been only one reported instance of matters descending into stupidity:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2086260,00.html .

This final isn't just a local football isue, it's become a civic issue. As with all the previous European finals, those who profess no interest in football (a rather select group, it must be said) & (some) of those who support Everton will be watching on TV.

Thumbing Through The Dictionary

I found myself at work today (a swap with a colleague on the other shift so I can view Wednesday's final in the pub) & saw the word "pusillanimous" on the board. I asked why it had been written & was told it was just one of those "look up a word for the week" exercises. Immediately, however, I had the word association & mental image fixed.

Hellenic Happenings

Travel arrangements for Greece have been organised by those fortunate enough to go. As for the rest of us, TV will have to suffice. Time was when the big question was, "Have you got a ticket to spare?"

This time around, it's taken for granted that at least three-quarters of those going will be ticketless. If they can't get tickets when they arrive in Greece, they'll be happy to watch the match on the huge TV screens that have been erected in the centre of Athens. Some friends of mine have managed to get tickets, & they'll also be using the trip as an excuse for a week's holiday some 200 miles from the Greek capital. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

A lot has been written & said about the ticket allocation. Yes, it is unfair, insufficient & arbitrary (one of my friends got his ticket from a contact who works for one of UEFA's sponsors), but it has always been the case with major football finals. I know from personal experience when I was part of the great scramble for the treasured items during the 70s & 80s.

It's something of a cliche to mock judges as remote, aloof & out-of-touch figures, but they don't do themselves any favours with their occasional questions. One judge in the 1960s was quoted as asking in all ignorance, "Who are the Beatles?". Here's the latest in the long line of memorable questions:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1805663.ece .

The Schadenfreude Continues

Sorry, just couldn't resist it.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Kopites have always been an eloquent lot.

A River Runs Through It

Liverpool's Pier Head landing stage has lain in the murky Mersey for some time now. Poor weather caused the entire structure to detach from its moorings in March of last year. Heavy rain & gale force conditions forced it into the water. That was unfortunate. What followed next was farcical. The Mersey Docks & Harbour Company, who are responsible for the Pier Head area as well as the wider waterfront, sat on their hands & left the landing stage in its watery state. Ferry crossings were affected with the boats using the same berth as that used by vessels bound for the Isle of Man. Last year the Liverpool Culture Company (http://www.liverpool08.com/ ) appealed to the MDHC to rescue & repair the structure in time for the annual Matthew Street Festival at the end of August. The blindingly obvious point was made not just by the LCC but anyone with half a brain & a civic consciousness that a submerged landing stage wouldn't look very good to the many tourists about to descend on the city for the annual Beatlefest. Given that there were to be two stages at the Pier Head itself, it seemed ludicrous to have such a well-known feature of the local waterfront under water. The MDHC displayed all their characteristic imagination & far-sightedness (remember their manufacture of the dockers' dispute in 1995) by saying, "Sorry, can't help".

Progress of a sort has now been made with a new base for the ferries (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6605711.stm ).

Well done, guys! What took you so long?

After all the shennanigans, posturings & cock-ups over 2008 it's nice to see more movement on developments at the Pier Head: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6609191.stm .

The waterfront museum has been five years in the making, according to the report. Granted, the size & scope of the project has meant that it couldn't be a rush job. However, it still seems a little on the tardy side. Still, I suppose it fits in with the more sober & hard-headed attitude that 2008 should be a starting point, not an end in itself.

Historian Tristram Hunt, on the other hand, still felt pangs of yearning for a little too much nostalgia on the waterfront & in the city generally with this "Comment is Free" thread last week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2062851,00.html .

These four young men appeard to be enjoying themselves at the Pier Head, despite being some decades early for the Matthew Street Festival.

Born: January, 2006. Died: April, 2007.

By far the most compelling TV drama since "Our Friends In The North". I'll miss this series.

April 15th, 1989

An image which needs no comment from me.

In Memoriam

John Alfred Anderson (62)
Thomas Howard (39)
Colin Mark Ashcroft (19)
Thomas Anthony Howard (14)
James Gary Aspinall (18)
Eric George Hughes (42)
Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16)
Alan Johnston (29)
Gerrard Bernard Patrick Barron (67)
Christine Anne Jones (27)
Simon Bell (17)
Gary Philip Jones (18)
Barry Sidney Bennett (26)
Richard Jones (25)
David John Benson (22)
Nicholas Peter Joynes (27)
David William Birtle (22)
Anthony Peter Kelly (29)
Tony Bland (22)
Michael David Kelly (38)
Paul David Brady (21)
Carl David Lewis (18)
Andrew Mark Brooks (26)
David William Mather (19)
Carl Brown (18)
Brian Christopher Matthews (38)
David Steven Brown (25)
Francis Joseph McAllister (27)
Henry Thomas Burke (47)
John McBrien (18)
Peter Andrew Burkett (24)
Marion Hazel McCabe (21)
Paul William Carlile (19)
Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21)
Raymond Thomas Chapman (50)
Peter McDonnell (21)
Gary Christopher Church (19)
Alan McGlone (28)
Joseph Clark (29)
Keith McGrath (17)
Paul Clark (18)
Paul Brian Murray (14)
Gary Collins (22)
Lee Nicol (14)
Stephen Paul Copoc (20)
Stephen Francis O'Neill (17)
Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23)
Jonathon Owens (18)
James Philip Delaney (19)
William Roy Pemberton (23)
Christopher Barry Devonside (18)
Carl William Rimmer (21)
Christopher Edwards (29)
David George Rimmer (38)
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34)
Graham John Roberts (24)
Thomas Steven Fox (21)
Steven Joseph Robinson (17)
Jon Paul Gilhooley (10)
Henry Charles Rogers (17)
Barry Glover (27)
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23)
Ian Thomas Glover (20)
Inger Shah (38)
Derrick George Godwin (24)
Paula Anne Smith (26)
Roy Harry Hamilton (34)
Adam Edward Spearitt (14)
Philip Hammond (14)
Philip John Steele (15)
Eric Hankin (33)
David Leonard Thomas (23)
Gary Harrison (27)
Patrik John Thompson (35)
Stephen Francis Harrison (31)
Peter Rueben Thompson (30)
Peter Andrew Harrison (15)
Stuart Paul William Thompson (17)
David Hawley (39)
Peter Francis Tootle (21)
James Robert Hennessy (29)
Christopher James Traynor (26)
Paul Anthony Hewitson (26)
Martin Kevin Traynor (16)
Carl Darren Hewitt (17)
Kevin Tyrrell (15)
Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16)
Colin Wafer (19)
Sarah Louise Hicks (19)
Ian David Whelan (19)
Victoria Jane Hicks (15)
Martin Kenneth Wild (29)
Gordon Rodney Horn (20)
Kevin Daniel Williams (15)
Arthur Horrocks (41)
Graham John Wright (17)

Acknowledgements to the Liverpoop Football Club website for the names of the 96 who died at Hillsborough on this date 18 years' ago.

Enlightenment & Etiquette

Where to begin? Chronologically, I suppose.
Mulling over an anguished piece of intellectual handwringing last month (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2036618,00.html ), I was tempted to go along with the author's premise that each age should produce its own crop of writers & thinkers who not just articulate the tenor of the times, but outline a vision of the way forward for society.
Then I checked myself. Yes, there are writers & thinkers out there (Amis, McEwan, Dawkins, Self, etc.), but they're addressing issues which no longer relate to changing society itself; the most progressive of the current crop, Dawkins, seems intent on repeating his points about religion & Darwin without linking these points to a wider debate about the body politic.

The gap in posting doesn't mean that I've been inert on the web. Far from it, I've been earnestly blogging away on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" website. Still, it was alarming to see a piece which claimed that blogging is already declining: http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2043775,00.html .

Being on the CiF website is sometimes similar to engaging in a lager fuelled argument in the pub. It is no place for sensitive souls who view their carefully crafted prose as inviolate. Responses to posts, as well as the original articles, are often bracing. At their best, they can be scabrously witty & informative. At their worst, however, they sink to the level of juvenile name-calling. It therefore comes as no surprise that figures in cyberspace like Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, have felt moved to act: http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2053569,00.html .
Inevitably, responses have been swift &, well, to the point. Critics have accused Wales & others of trying to introduce censorship. There isn't a shred of evidence with which to back up this claim. In fact, to use terminology which these particular bloggers would recognise, it's bollocks with bells on.

Pete Best is the "forgotten Beatle". People are more aware of Stuart Sutcliffe because of his sudden death before fame & fortune beckoned. [Sutcliffe, moreover, couldn't play a note, & was in the group merely because of his close friendship with Lennon.]
It certainly wasn't easy for Best after he was kicked out of the group to make way for Ringo. By the time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper, Best was reported by the Liverpool Echo as working in a local bakery. He also attempted to commit suicide in the late 60s.
In the 70s he found work in the civil service (my mother worked with him for a few years). Unsurprisingly, he wouldn't be drawn on his role in the history of the world's most famous band.
Over the last decade Best has been a regular at the Matthew Street Festival, that tacky & increasingly Disneyfied distortion of the Beatles' legacy. With his own band, modestly named "Pete Best's Beatles", he's made a living playing the early rock 'n' roll numbers which the band played in the Cavern. He also reportedly made £1m from the success of the Beatles Anthology releases a decade ago.
Now, it seems, Best is willing to meet up with McCartney: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/article2432457.ece .
Quite what they'd have to talk about after a gap of 45 years is anyone's guess. However, if I were McCartney, I'd feel safer in the company of Mark Chapman & Heather Mills than in a room with Best.

The anniversary of Hillsborough will be marked on Sunday. It's never easy to deal with, particularly for those of us who were on the Leppings Lane terrace that day. Gerry Ormonde, the driving force behind the irrepressible Kopblog (http://www.kopblog.com/ ) recently posted a message/statement from Anne Williams, whose son Kevin was among those who lost their lives. It's a fairly lengthy piece & to select particular passages of it for quotation purposes would, I feel, dilute its impact.
To summarise, Anne Williams details the long campaign to achieve justice for Kevin & the other 95 victims. Go to Gerry's blog & read it (it's from his entry for 23/03/07).
The email addresses for the campaign are:
annewilliams96@btinternet.com & annajameson@tiscali.co.uk .