Layer 288 . . . Bravo Cleggo, Leadership Debates, Mos Eisley Spaceport, Spin Alley, Satire, Universities, Geriatric Judo and Aerial

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Nick Clegg was on Andrew Marr's programme this morning, and was very good indeed. He was confident, convincing and didn't stumble in any way. He's making the case extremely well for a sizeable vote for his party as an instant demonstration that Britain is sick of the old two-party monopoly and needs a proper proportional voting system in order to have a more mature and credible democracy. As it happens his party's priorities are right in line with what Britain also needs. He's managed, with the help of his colleagues, to position the Lib Dems perfectly as the more radical and progressive party. If there's any justice in the world the electorate will do the right thing and ensure that neither the Tories nor New Labour get anything like an outright majority. S'exciting!

It's true that prior to the financial crisis Clegg was on the right wing (the 'Orange Book') side of his party, and supported the Chicago School / Friedmanite vision of neo-liberal economics, but that was then and this is now. It's reasonable to suppose he's learnt lessons, as have millions of others during the financial catastrophe that's gripped the world.

http://www.liberator.org.uk/media/lib-0904.pdf

And in any case, as has been said elsewhere, this is now, chiefly, a one-issue election - proportional representation.

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The Leadership Debates - Part Two

Last week's debate (on Sky News!) threw up no surprises, and most reactions suggested there's a pretty even split in public perception over who was the 'winner'. Oxzen, however, took issue with the Guardian editorial about the event -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/22/leaders-debates-nickclegg?

"all three leaders agreed on the fundamentals of every question. If voters want to see real difference between the three main parties they will have to look elsewhere."

Really? The one thing that stood out in this debate was Clegg's brave and principled insistence that it's foolish to renew or replace Trident with a similar weapons system, that fresh thinking is needed about the place of nuclear weapons, and that we should take a significant step towards ridding the world of nuclear weapons by not rushing into the purchase of a new generation of such weapons when there's no actual need to.

Brown certainly seized on this difference during the debate. How come the author of this piece didn't even notice it? Whether or not you agree with Clegg you must give him credit for remaining consistent on this fundamental difference, which Brown and Cameron are too afraid or too lacking in vision to grapple with themselves.

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Marina Hyde wrote a brilliant piece about the insane happenings in the interview area - 'Spin Alley' - immediately after the debate:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/22/sky-leaders-debate-spin-room-abortion-democracy

Sky leaders' debate spin room: the live abortion of democracy

"Mos Eisley spaceport," sighs Ben Kenobi in Star Wars. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy ... " Evidently Obi Wan never visited Sky's post-debate spin room, which – pound-of-flesh for pound-of-flesh – must have been one of the most distasteful places to be in this galaxy or any other tonight.

The venue was an interactive science museum in Bristol, magically transformed by Rupert Murdoch's news network into a fully operational 10th circle of hell. Behold, the cream of Britain's arseoisie, as journalists, spin doctors and politicians interact in scenes that just scream "Come, friendly bombs …"

It was like watching the live abortion of democracy. Had the network decided the evening should have been immortalised in oil paint (surely only a matter of time), Hieronymus Bosch would have declined the commission on the basis that it was a hellscape too far even for him.

Still, the premise is simple. Even before the party leaders have finished debating, legions of spinners and spinners' lackeys materialise to explain exactly why everything you thought you saw and heard was wrong.

Having vapourised seconds before the debate, the spindroids were suddenly all back in the room, presumably having just slid through a haunted TV screen to begin immediately the task of dispensing weapons grade wisdom.

In America, they call these media pens Spin Alley, so those searching for a suitably small-time UK equivalent should alight on something like Fibbers' Close, or Bollocks Avenue.

To isolate the biggest whopper told in the room in the wake of the debate would be a task for a more sophisticated listening system than the human ear, but an audit even of those overheard in a mere six foot radius would have to include Douglas Alexander's "Gordon dominated the debate tonight. He left Nick and David Cameron trailing in his wake." In fairness, everyone was giving their best Iraqi information minister. "The infidels are nowhere near the airport! No one could ever want to slap David Cameron round the face with a wet fish!"

The entire affair is, quite simply, a two bath event, which is to say that when one finally escapes it, a single immersion in scalding water doesn't begin to get the psychological dirt off.

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Satire

Last week's 'In Our Time', as it happens, had satire as its subject.

In ancient times satirical attacks were known as satori!

Mocking the so-called elite in order to correct folly was seen as a noble calling.

Democracies need those who are prepared to attack the pomposity and snobbery of political elites, and need those satirists to be aggressively outspoken and even rude in order to drive home their points. The hypocrisy, pretense, falsehoods, self-indulgence, love of luxury and depravity of the ruling classes ought to be targeted.

The father of the genre, Lucilius, is the writer credited with taking satire decisively towards what we now understand by the word: incisive invective aimed at particular personalities and their wrongs.

All this happened under the Roman Republic, in which there was a large measure of free speech. But then the Republic was overthrown and Augustus established the Empire.

The great satirist Horace had fought to save the Republic, but now reinvented himself as a loyal citizen of the Imperium.

His satirical work explores the strains and hypocrisies of trying to maintain an independent sense of self at the heart of an autocracy.

This struggle was deepened in the work of Persius, whose Stoicism-inflected writing was a quietist attempt to endure under the regime without challenging it.

The work of the last great Roman satirist, Juvenal, was famously savage - yet his targets were either generic or long dead.

So was satire a conservative or a radical genre? Was it cynical or did it aim to 'improve' people? Did it have any real impact? And was it actually funny?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s0gwd#supporting-content

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Polly Toynbee's column yesterday was very good, and so far has attracted well over 1,000 comments on CiF:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/24/clegg-electoral-reform-tactics-romance?

Your heart might say Clegg. But vote with your head

Until the electoral system is reformed, progressives are stuck. If you do not want a Tory government, it's tactics, not romance

Get real. Keep your head screwed on. What result do you want? I will assume, dear Guardian reader, that like me you have two prime purposes. One is to prevent Cameron walking into Downing Street on 7 May. Equal first is to secure electoral reform so that we are never again presented with such a disgraceful voting choice. If that's not your view, you can save time, stop reading here and push off to some Murdoch organ that will amply satisfy your needs.

Hundreds of posters on Guardian threads yesterday wanted a Liberal Democrat win. No surprise, since there is no doubt that Clegg was the best in both debates. He talks human not slogans, he is sincere, and he stands by unpopular positions without trimming. Those who squirmed at Gordon Brown asserting that Trident will protect us against Iran and North Korea – or his failure to answer on what to do about long-term illegal migrants, their children and, soon, grandchildren: stateless, exploited and paying no taxes – will think Clegg a brave and decent man. So he is on human rights, and how to "punch above our weight" in Europe. He might make a good prime minister. But it won't happen this election because the abominable voting system makes it impossible. Win electoral reform and he might win next time, if there is a rerun after we have got voting reform.

But until that day, never take your eye off the ball, whatever it takes. If many go with heart not head against such ferocious odds, and Cameron gets the crown, electoral reform will be a dead duck, and it's back to square one.

I have never much minded what the best anti-Tory party is called, I just want the left of centre to win. I will always back whichever group combines being furthest left with winnability: that's always a trade-off.

It's not a game. The people who always, without fail, get hit hardest by Conservative governments are the powerless, the weakest, the voiceless – and they may not even vote. It is an absolute certainty that inequality will always worsen under the Tories, always did, always will.

This time it will happen faster . . .

It's low tactics, not high romance. Vote what best keeps the Tory out where you are. Buck that arithmetic at your peril.

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Cif comments included:

rednorth

These damn Tories take people for simpletons.

If you are reasonably well off, there are good reasons to vote Tory, so why not just be honest and admit you vote Tory out of self interest, instead of persisting with this ludicrous conscience-salving charade that the Tories have social mobility and the poor's best interests at heart?

It always amazes me that Tories dislike Modern 'broken' Britain so much. It was, after all, built in their image by Thatcher, and sustained by Blair.

What do you people think this is? a fucking game?

We're heading for a Libcon pact. Ideas of a Libdem clean sweep are fanciful rubbish. The task of the clued-in social democrat is to frustrate Toryism when and wherever you encounter it. The Tories are not a political party in the same sense as Labour and the Libdems. They are a Conspiracy, funded by business and corporations, and kept in power by the power elites and media barons, class interests and landowners.

They, in Bevan's words, are lower than vermin, and our job, as left of centre voters, is to don any kind of nose peg, plastic bag or gas mask and put down the seeds of democracy everywhere they feed.

Democracy to Tories is poison.


TiggerNoFan

YouGov 22 Apr - Con 33 Lib Dem 31 Lab 27
Seats: Con 253, Lab 256, Lib Dem 112

OnePoll 24 Apr - Con 32 Lib 32 Lab 23.
Seats: Cons 262, Lab 213, LD 146

Now then Polly, remind us which one of these massive Tory overall majorities it is that you're so worried about?

That's right - there isn't one.

One poll I spotted an hour or two ago gave me pause for thought:

Mums Net voting intentions following 2nd debate - LD - 50.3% Lab 20% Con 18%

Seats: Lib Dem 598, Lab 23, Con 3, others 26

Funny how close the MumsNet 50.3% is to the 49% who would allegedly vote Lib Dem if they thought the Lib Dems had any chance of winning...

Maybe that's what both the Guardian and the Murdoch empires are so worried about that they want to frighten you into not voting Lib Dem.


Natacha

A very good article, one of the few truly intelligent pieces of journalism produced in this election.

For all the excitement Clegg has generated a couple of facts remain;

If we have a Tory government after May 6th Clegg might as well never have existed.

If we have a Tory government after May 6th there will be no electoral reform.

If we have a Tory government after May 6th the LibDems will find it much harder to achieve a breakthrough next time.

If we have a Tory government after May 6th Cameron has said he will actually make the current electoral system worse and even more skewed against the LibDems.

If we have a Tory government after May 6th Clegg will go back to being a nobody.

I am now a member of Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party and I am risking being thrown out by saying this but everyone, Labour as well as LibDem voters, should vote tactically against the Tories.

In doing so you are voting positively for PR, social justice, a sensible economy and better public services. Cameron and Osborne's malicious, mendacious incompetence is the last thing the UK needs.

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Graduates: a problem in four parts

Only when students, academics, employers and politicians can agree what university is for will answers emerge

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/18/students-universityteaching?

Oxzen's comment:

How would it be if universities were places where people of all ages could go in order to pursue their own educational agendas, with a right to be as narrow or as broad in their learning pathways as they see fit? Maybe we could have universities that set out to meet the needs of learners, whatever they might be, with a view to creating a nation of well-balanced, highly intelligent, creative, enlightened and productive individuals who could make creative, enlightened and useful contributions to society? This might even make a refreshing change from generations of narrow, over-specialised and uncreative individuals pursuing self-interest and greed to the exclusion of any other goal in life.

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The end of the affair?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/23/sharon-shoesmith-crisis-child-protection

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Elderly 'should learn martial arts'

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100422/thl-elderly-should-learn-martial-arts-d831572.html


Fighting disciplines such as kung fu, karate and judo involve techniques that can help brittle-boned patients fall more safely, research suggests.

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Album of the Week - Aerial, by Kate Bush

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_%28album%29

http://www.katebush.co.uk/katebush_html/lyrics.html
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Layer 239 . . . Political Porn, Souls Laid Bare, and All That Jazz

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This weekend has been a high water mark for desperate over-stressed middle-aged male politicians flashing their naked emotions in front of TV cameras.

It was hard to tear one's eyes away from a gasping Alastair Campbell welling up with barely suppressed emotions to the point of choked silence for what seems like almost a minute in the company of Andrew Marr and viewers on live TV this morning.*

To make it more like a proper porn show we should have had viewers phoning in their own questions in an attempt to get Ally C to expose even more of his private "bits". If he has problems with the mild questions and comments of a pretty non-threatening Marrtian then imagine how much more we would get from him coming into contact (even virtual contact) with proper panting punters who long to see what's really concealed beneath the sharp suit and the professional scowl.

Marr's questioning, of course, was not about Ally's new 'novel', the promotion of which was the reason for allowing Marr this opportunity to undress him a little. No - it was about Iraq, Ally's appearance in front of Chilcott and Co, and Blair's continuing denial that he deliberately lied to and misled Parliament.

We should nail this question right now. Ally sees, quite rightly, that Blair is not a LIAR. To be a liar you have to know that what you're saying is untrue.

What psychopathic liars do is convince themselves that the stuff that comes out of their mouths is true, or at least not factually incorrect, as far as they care to see. Not that they care to delve too deeply into what they actually want to believe, and what they want their listeners or victims to believe.

An example of this would be Hitler actually believing that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany's ills. And also believing that the Final Solution was the correct one. ("I did what I thought was right.")

(Incidentally, I wonder what level of collateral damage Blair would have considered acceptable in Iraq. 100,000 killed, injured and made homeless? One million? 2 million? 6 million?)

Did Ally also believe in WMD and the 45 minutes? Does he still? This is hardly the point. He simply believes that his pal Tony believed it. And Tony was not, therefore, a liar.

Does Ally then see, especially with hindsight, that Tone is/was a psychopath?**

Again, it's beside the point. Nobody's asking him that question, and no-one's likely to. And there's no way he'd answer it honestly if they did.

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I once had the ill-fortune to sit and listen to Blair whilst he made a speech. It's the dead eyes that give it away. Dead in the sense of not being able to connect in any proper empathetic sense with other people. Dead as in unable to really look and observe properly. His eyes function only in the service of his own ego and his own ambitions.

It's a bit like the Terminator - a robot who knows he's a robot, whose relentless existence is only for the purpose of carrying out its mission, which is twofold: to survive and prosper, and to defeat its enemies.

There's nothing wrong with its logic circuits - they're probably better, faster and stronger than any actual human - by far. What it lacks, of course, is a beating, emotional heart, a genuine concern for others, and a spirit capable of feeling either transcendental joy and bliss, or genuine sadness and melancholy.

Joy is presumably what Ally feels when Burnley FC occasionally win a match. (Why else carry on going to their matches?) And as of today, let no-one say that he has no feelings or emotions; or call him Mr Angry or Mr Terminator. The more subtle and sincere feelings may be unusually well hidden, on the whole, but they're in there somewhere.

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As indeed they are in Gordon Brown, who appears to have broken down and cried on camera whilst recording a programme this week.

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*
See the relevant part of the interview on video, and read more about it, and about Gordo, here -

Alastair Campbell in emotional defence of Blair on Iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8502730.stm

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**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopath

Psychopathy is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Researcher Robert Hare, whose Hare Psychopathy Checklist is widely used, describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators who use charisma, manipulation, intimidation, sexual intercourse and violence to control others and to satisfy their own needs. Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse".

Psychopaths are glib and superficially charming, and many psychopaths are excellent mimics of normal human emotion; some psychopaths can blend in, undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments. There is neither a cure nor any effective treatment for psychopathy; there are no medications or other techniques which can instill empathy, and psychopaths who undergo traditional talk therapy only become more adept at manipulating others. The consensus among researchers is that psychopathy stems from a specific neurological disorder which is biological in origin and present from birth. It is estimated that one percent of the general population are psychopaths.

The prototypical psychopath has deficits or deviances in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and self-control. Psychopaths gain satisfaction through antisocial behavior, and do not experience shame, guilt, or remorse for their actions.

[Remember Tone was given the opportunity by Chilcott to express some regrets - and totally flunked it. Whoops!]

Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.

Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression. Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth. Shallow affect also describes the psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short lived and egocentric with an overall cold demeanor. They do not . . .  deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.

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Also important to have on record Clare Short's efforts to put the record straight last week

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8501087.stm

Clare was on Question Time last week, alongside George Galloway, Charlie ('Lord') Falconer, Melanie Phillips, and the makeweight, Teresa May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8500549.stm

This Question Time, from Coventry, was one of the best ever. Short and Galloway, especially now they're unconstrained by party allegiances, are genuine loose cannons, not afraid to speak truth to power. See it here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn443#segments

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The Virtual Revolution

Another episode of this excellent series on TV last night.

How 20 Years of the Web has Reshaped our Lives

Good talking heads - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Al Gore, Stephen Fry, etc.

Discover more about The Virtual Revolution with our exclusive 3D Documentary Explorer. Mixing video from the series, with the web pages that tell the story of The Virtual Revolution, this is a radical new way to experience a documentary.

See all 4 programmes coming up in the next 7 days (including repeats).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/

http://alekskrotoski.com/

Al Gore said, "The web is capable of supporting a rising political consciousness. It will have a more profound effect on civilisation than the invention of the printing press."

Others said,

* The web tends to lead naturally to openness
* It's impossible for any one government to either police or control the web
* The web allows China's masses to give shape and direction to their spontaneous energy
* The web is "Against the Machine"
* Paypal is one of the means by which barriers between people can be broken down
*The web enables you to contact the kind of people you have something in common with, and people you can learn from.

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Biddles @ Biddles

One of the essentials for a really good live music venue is that it's situated within easy walking distance of home so that you can stroll there after consuming a couple of whiskies, a pint, and a glass of wine with dinner, and still roll home afterwards after drinking more wine, preferably after paying no more than a reasonable £3.20 for a decent glass of house red.

On top of that, if you can get a seat right next to the band, with a clear view of how the keyboard player is playing his Hammond XK3 - which drawbars he's using, etc - then you might find yourself in jazz heaven.

Of course it depends on the quality of the band. The Biddle Brothers Band playing at the bar of the same name were excellent last night. Not perfect, but very good indeed. Well done Biddles for bringing them back, and for continuing to run such a funky venue, late license and all . . .

http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2008/11/29/claptons-community-pubs/

Biddle Brothers
88 Lower Clapton Road E5 0QR

Nestled in a crevice of Lower Clapton Road, the Biddle Brothers pub belies its almost Zen-like external anonymity by its gloriously rich interior, seducing the weary traveller with a warm promise of cold drinks and deep, comfy couches.

Surrounded by paintings from local artists, Biddle Bothers isn’t cheap but it is a beautifully kept and friendly local bar with a thriving community of loyal regulars.

Owned and run by Paco the Dog, the one-time builders’ merchant features a full programme of regular live acoustic and open mic nights, making good use of the obligatory piano-in-the-corner and its pretty good aural acoustics in the tiny hub of a back room.

Think nothing of sitting down, putting your feet up, play with Paco and passing an enjoyable evening forgetting about your worries.

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In a way it reminds me of nights at the Mercer's Arms back in the day, sipping pints whilst listening to great bands like the original Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, up close and personal. That was also the beginning of my love for blues and jazz played on the Hammond B3 with a Lesley cabinet amp - standing just feet away from guys like Wynder K Frog as they worked the keyboard, creating amazing soul-gripping sounds from keys and drawbars. Keith Emerson - when he was still with The Nice. 'America'!

Oh yes! - and Brian Auger (with Julia Driscoll) - Season of the Witch. Unforgettable.

Here's an interesting little musical history -

http://deanocity3.piczo.com/coventrysgigconcertguide1960-85?cr=5&linkvar=000044


There's only one mention of the Mercer's Arms though. Strange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillfields

Rod Stewart used to sing with Brian Auger's 'Steampacket', along with Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry: they once played the Hotel Leofric jazz club in Broadgate.

"The Jeff Beck Group snapped him up as lead singer for three years until 1969. Some Coventrians still debate whether Stewart performed with the band when they played the Mercer's Arms, near the old Highfield Road stadium, during this period."

I can clear this up. The confusion stems from the fact that the Beck group didn't actually play there. Auger & Driscoll did, and Rod the Mod definitely wasn't with them.

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/coventry-evening-telegraph-england/mi_7969/is_2006_Nov_7/cov-rod-40-years-entertainment/ai_n34409181/
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Jazz

Johnny Dankworth RIP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/07/sir-john-dankworth-obituary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/7180882/Sir-John-Dankworth.html

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Desert Island Discs

Gok Wan this week. The wonderful Gok. I hadn't realised what an amazing life story he has, and that he's a lad from the Midlands.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qg0r2/Desert_Island_Discs_Gok_Wan/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok_Wan

He has good taste in music too - Tracey Chapman, Lou Reed, Brian Ferry . . . In fact two songs by the wonderful Ms Chapman.

"It definitely wasn't because I was talented", said Gok, very amusingly, when pondering why he'd been given a place at a school of speech and drama.

And he was another male who this weekend cracked up with emotion - whilst remembering and reflecting on what it felt like to look fat, and to feel ugly.
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Layer 41 National Treasures, Great Thinkers and Failed States.

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There are some things that we Brits have to give ourselves credit for. Electing a socialist government in the aftermath of World War Two. Setting ourselves against any form of fascism. The creation of a national health service. The BBC and the concept of public service broadcasting with a mission to ‘inform, educate and entertain’.

On television over the weekend it was possible to watch the following on free terrestial channels:

The FA Cup Final (never mind that it was a rubbish match with a John Motson commentary so predictable, dull and boring that it’s not surprising the BBC have had the FA Cup broadcasting rights taken away from them. They should have given Motty the boot some years ago.)

Have I Got News For You. (Hislop & Merton - national treasures) (BBC)

Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain. (BBC)

The Comedy Map of Britain. (BBC)

Wild China. (BBC)

Doctor Who. A special Agatha Christie edition.(BBC)

Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures. (BBC)

Coast (BBC)

Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby. (BBC)

Bremner, Bird & Fortune. (National Treasures) (Channel 4)

The South Bank Show: Gore Vidal. (ITV1)

Various movies, including a TV premier of Brokeback Mountain (a dismal, depressing film if ever I saw one.)

All of the above (- a single weekend’s output) with the exception of the movies, are made in Britain or made by British companies shooting in China, America, etc, - an incredible creative effort that adds enormously to the culture of the nation. This is something we have a right to be proud of as a nation. I have no time for people who moan about there being nothing on TV worth watching. The fact that we can now access Catch Up TV On Demand is something else worth celebrating.

Not that I have anything against the best of American TV either. Down the years there have been some amazing programmes - too many to remember. Twin Peaks. The Simpsons. ER. Murder One.The West Wing.

Though nothing can ever surpass our very own Green Wing, which I miss very badly.

The BBC did very well to recruit Andrew Marr from the Observer, though I really miss seeing him in print. A friend’s son, who is by no means politically sophisticated or astute, happened to see him on an interview programme and remarked that he should be Prime Minister. Too good for that, I’m afraid, laddie.

His History of Modern Britain is a masterpiece of clear, concise and well-judged historical analysis, made vivid with some very well chosen clips from the film archives, which carry the viewer along and maintain interest throughout. Superb TV.

Melvyn Bragg is another national treasure, who has contributed to the culture enormously down the years, making very few dud programmes either on ITV or BBC radio. We will just have to forgive and forget his madness in making a programme about the pathetic and laughable ‘The Darkness’ - possibly one of the silliest bands of all time.

Gore Vidal, born on my daughter's birthday and a Libra Ox, is one of the USA’s national treasures. Bragg’s programme on him this weekend remarked that at 83 he’s the last surviving member of a brilliant generation of American writers - with Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and Norman Mailer all being sadly departed.

Vidal makes the point that the USA’s education system (like ours) kills curiosity. He says you can no longer meet interesting 16 year olds who have real individual voices, whereas at the age of five or six they still do.

The New York Times for years tried to persuade readers not to read Gore Vidal or Norman Mailer. Vidal still feels that it’s possible to have a positive impact on society through literature and fiction. His instincts are to still to ‘intervene in the affairs of a sad country’.

He’s old enough to remember America in the time of the New Deal, pre neo-conservative America, in the era of liberal intervention and federal policies to reduce poverty and unemployment. The era before the USA’s spending on ‘defence’ went completely crazy. He spent decades living in self-imposed exile in Italy, but he’s still a great patriot, in that he still believes in the ideals of America’s Founding Fathers.

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Andrew Marr’s programme quite rightly gave a heavy emphasis to John Maynard Keynes, who was a brilliant economist, a liberal interventionist, and an incredible guy. He literally worked himself to death on behalf of Britain trying to persuade the American administration to give proper support for reconstruction in Britain in the aftermath of World War Two.

What did the Americans really think about a Britain governed by Socialists? Why did they play such hard ball over financial help? It was pretty obvious they wouldn’t have wanted State socialism to succeed in Britain - national health service and all. They still don’t, but then neither do New Labour. We’re living in the American Era all right.
Read more about Keynes at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes
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The last book by Gore Vidal that I bought is ‘Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace’ (How We Got To Be So Hated - Causes Of Conflict In The Last Empire) [2002], which should be on every student’s reading list. The Guardian’s review of the book called Vidal "the most elegant, erudite and eclectic writer of is generation". The Times said, "There is no one quite like him, and if you do not know his work, you should".

Melvyn Bragg is quoted as saying, "Vidal is the outstanding literary radical of America". The Observer said, "Vidal’s combination of learning, wit and disdain gets into your blood. He can change the way you think."

So some Quotes from Vidal:

"Our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never told the truth about anything our government has done to other people.

[Our government] masterminded the killing of Lumumba and Allende; and it unsuccessfully tried to put to death Castro, Khadafi, and Saddam Hussein; and vetoed all efforts to rein in not only Israel’s violations of international agreements and U.N. resolutions but also its practice of preemptive state terror.

George Bush booms, "Either you are with us or you are with the Terrorists". That’s known as asking for it.

His predecessors also assiduously served the 1 per cent that owns the country while allowing everyone else to drift.

Clinton, in his frantic pursuit of election victories, set in place the trigger for a police state that his successor is now happily squeezing.

We are no longer even remotely the last best hope on earth but merely a seedy imperial state whose citizens are kept in line by SWAT teams and whose way of death, not life, is universally imitated.

Once we meditate upon the unremitting violence of the United States against the rest of the world one begins to understand why Osama struck at us from abroad in the name of 1 billion Muslims whom we have encouraged, through our own preemptive acts of war as well as demonization of them through the media, to regard us in - how shall I put it? - less than an amiable light.

These guardians of our well-being have sternly, year in and year out, refused to allow us to have what every other First World country simply takes for granted - a national health service.

At the first suggestion that it was time for us to join the civilised world, there began a vast conspiracy to stop any form of national health care. It was hardly just the "right wing", as Mrs Clinton suggested. Rather, the insurance and pharmaceutical companies combined with elements of the American Medical Association to destroy forever any notion that we be a country that provides for its citizens in the way of health care.

Although drugs are "immoral" and must be kept from the young, thousands of schools pressure parents to give the drug Ritalin to any lively child who may, sensibly, show signs of boredom in his classroom. Ritalin renders the child docile if not comatose. Side effects? "Stunted growth, facial tics, agitation an aggression, insomnia, appetite loss, headaches, stomach pains and seizures."

For Americans morality has nothing to do with ethics or right action or who is stealing what money - and liberties - from whom. Morality is SEX. SEX. SEX.

This is just plain old-fashioned American stupidity where a religion-besotted majority is cynically egged on by a ruling establishment whose most rabid voice is The Wall Street Journal.

More than 50% of the national budget goes for war. Fifty years ago Harry Truman replaced the old republic with a national-security state whose sole purpose is to wage perpetual wars, cold, hot and tepid.

Representative government of, by and for the people is now a faded memory. Only corporate America enjoys representation by the Congresses and presidents that it pays for in an arrangement where no one is entirely accountable because those who have bought the government also own the media. Now, with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard at the Pentagon, we are entering a new and dangerous phase.

Although we regularly stigmatise other societies as rogue states, we ourselves have become the largest rogue state of all. We honour no treaties. We spurn international courts. We strike unilaterally wherever we choose. We give orders to the United Nations but do not pay our dues. We complain of terrorism, yet our empire is now the greatest terrorist of all. We bomb, invade and subvert other states.

Our Congress has been hijacked by corporate America and its enforcer, the imperial military machine. We the unrepresented people of the United States are as much victims of this militarised government as the Panamanians, Iraqis, or Somalians. We have allowed our institutions to be taken over in the name of a globalised American empire that is totally alien in concept to anything our founders had in mind. I suspect it is far too late in the day for us to restore the republic tat we lost a half-century ago.



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This theme of the USA behaving like a rogue state is taken up by another great American writer and thinker, Noam Chomsky, in his 2006 book, ‘Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy’.

The book’s blurb says, "Offering a comprehensive and radically insightful examination of America past and present, Chomsky shows that this lone superpower - which topples foreign govenments, invades states that threaten its interests and imposes sanctions on regimes it opposes - has stretched its own democratic institutions to breaking point. And how an America in crisis places the world ever closer to the brink of nuclear and environmental disaster."

Gore Vidal is a great thinker whose family background and circle of friends have given him intimate connections with the highest levels of government, so he has every right to see himself as an ‘insider’ with a clear understanding of how power operates in the USA. Noam Chomsky, a professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, was recently named the number one public intellectual in a poll by Prospect magazine. We, and the people of America, ignore these people at our peril.

But as Gore Vidal says, truth-telling can drive people crazy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chompsky

(note to Wikipedia - dreadful spelling error in web address!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcO4WD5Z81c Gore Vidal - www - well worth watching

http://www.chomsky.info/

http://www.zmag.org/

http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/chomsky.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Marr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvyn_Bragg

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