Never admit to anything personal, codify & render general

[alexsarll]

Over the course of my life I have seen a few things which would shatter frailer minds. But I still never thought I'd see Sir Ian McKellen dressed as Britannia, still less that this would be deemed suitable entertainment for children. His other outfits were all fairly disturbing too, to be frank. If the Brotherhood or the Fellowship saw their boss looking like that, it would all have fallen apart. It's strange seeing a pantomime again once one has reached adulthood - I remember a vague awareness that certain jokes were Rude, and laughing because when you're a kid Rude = Funny, but now I understood them I realised they're actually filthy. I'm still not sure about Angela Carter's more extravagant theories of pantomime but it was great fun. Well, except for the songs, which were mostly bobbins. stephens described them as "sub Pop Idol" which was fair, and also gave us the idea for hot new talent show Sub Pop Idol.
I'd been sold on attending simply to see Serena as Widow Twankey, but we also got Maureen Lipman as Dim Sum ("37 years in the business and it's come to this"), the wee fresh-faced lad from The Crow Road as Aladdin, 'Allo 'Allo's Sam Kelly as the Emperor, and some bloke called Roger Allam of whom I've never heard as Abanazar. Whom, incidentally, I could barely bring myself to boo since his desire to take over the world seemed so sensible.
Also - panto when you're losing your voice? Bad idea, kids.


I know a mixed-race gay who wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party. This is a non-issue. Should anyone who wears a Viking costume apologise to Anglo-Saxons? Should anyone who wears a cat costume apologise to mice? Should William, who apparently went as a lion, apologise to survivors of lion attacks? It is a fancy dress party. If he'd worn it on a state occasion, then yes, that would have been inappropriate. Though still fairly funny.

Meanwhile, as Harry is pilloried for dressing up, the Burglar's Charter is renewed.

Irrelevantly to any of which, Oxford is to take a scientific approach to martyrdom. "Oxford University scientists will carry out experiments on hundreds of people in a bid to understand how the brain works during states of consciousness.
One aspect of the two-year study will involve followers of both religious and secular beliefs being burnt to see if they can handle more pain than others.
Some volunteers will be shown religious symbols such as crucifixes and images of the Virgin Mary during the tests."
Latimer & Ridley, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

Comments

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes. Why so? I particularly liked the ex-New Labour minister's thoughts on Howard.
"
And why don't we like Michael Howard? Partly because of his rightwing record when he was home secretary. But we're more rightwing than Michael Howard was: detail-for-detail, that was the case under Straw, and even more so with Blunkett. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1384389,00.html)"

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a great idea but as a piece of journalism it seemed shoddy at times and/or lazy.

Given the nature of the piece and its title it should have sought comment from someone in the Conservative party, for a start. I know that the sentiment was "what voting alternatives are there for trad. left wingers disillusioned with New Labour", but with Blair's move to the right and the Conservatives floundering with their identity, the whole left versus right paradigm has been so devalued over recent years it's been rendered increasingly meaningless (God knows how they try and teach the concept to those at school with no real memories pre 1997). This should have been better addressed in the article.

And, iirc, it didn't give enough voice to far-left parties or so-called independents, and I didn't like the way the attacks on the Lib Dems seemed so calculated as to be deliberate assassinations of character, not policy.

Also, re the criticism of NL's stance on tuition fees...had Blair evangelists like Harris done their homework, they would have known and pointed out that, even before the Dearing report recommendations, fees were always on the agenda to be brought in. But that never gets mentioned, does it?

The only conclusions seemd to be: "The Labour party have sold out a bit and I'm not sure who to vote for". No sh1t, Sherlock!

Maybe I'm being overly harsh though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, it's an edited extract from a book. He doesn't want to give the whole thing away in an article, I suppose.

That said, what I read of his Britpop/Blair book did seem to skate over a few key issues so maybe he's just not that bright.

I really should dig out that spiked left/right piece I wrote for Tank and post that on here. Then educators can use that.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

In the sixth form and university, occasionally when asked questions like "are you left or right wing?" popped up, I would often retort smugly: "My politics aren't based on left and right, they're based on up and down." I was trying to be pretentious and witty but, beyond the triteness, it did mean something to me and still has resonance today.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Do you know politicalcompass.org? I'm pretty much neutral on that for left/right, just way to the libertarian end.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Not familiar with it but I shall take a look.