Layer 422 . . . More Music, BBC4, Sister Rosetta, Hugh Masekela, Chess Records, Roots of Rock, Tests, Exams, Children Under Pressure, Education, the Oldham Verdict, Barack and Cuba

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Three wonderful programmes, back to back on BBC4 last night -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xf8k7

The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe

During the 40s, 50s and 60s Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock & roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African-American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.

 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s6bln

Hugh Masekela: Welcome to South Africa

South African musician Hugh Masekela celebrates his 70th birthday and reflects on his career in performance and interview, from first picking up a trumpet in the 50s through the apartheid years, exile and stardom in America, his return to South Africa on Nelson Mandela's release, and concluding with his vision of the future for his country.

The programme also features performances from his 70th birthday concert at the Barbican in London in December 2009, where he was joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, their Community Choir and guest South African singers.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vv0zz

Roll over Beethoven - The Chess Records Saga

Chicago's Chess Records was one of the greatest labels of the post-war era, ranking alongside other mighty independents like Atlantic, Stax and Sun. From 1950 till its demise at the end of the 60s, Chess released a myriad of electric blues, rock 'n' roll and soul classics that helped change the landscape of black and white popular music.

Chess was the label that gave the world such sonic adventurers as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James. In this documentary to mark the label's 60th anniversary, the likes of Jimmy Page, Mick Hucknall, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Paul Jones and Little Steven, as well as those attached to the label such as founder's son Marshall Chess, pay tribute to its extraordinary music and influence.

The film reveals how two Polish immigrants, Leonard and Phil Chess, forged friendships with black musicians in late 1940s Chicago, shrewdly building a speciality blues label into a huge independent worth millions by the end of the 1960s. Full of vivid period detail, it places the Chess story within a wider social and historical context - as well as being about some of the greatest music ever recorded, it is, inevitably, about race in America during these tumultuous times.

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The Tonight Programme (ITV)  - presenter: Julie Etchingham

http://www.itv.com/news/tonight/episodes/kidsunderpressure

Kids Under Pressure

We look behind the statistics that show a dramatic rise in the level of childhood depression over the course of a generation as Julie meets a young woman who has battled with the disease through her teenage years – and she hears from her mother about what it was like to support her daughter through such difficult times.

The programme investigates whether the current education system is adequately preparing children for the challenges they face in modern society and discovers how some schools are looking at new ways to improve pupils’ social and emotional skills, such as a revolutionary scheme involving children interacting with a baby in classes, as well as a ‘happiness class’ at one public school whose head teacher is critical of the emphasis on testing in mainstream education.

Do children have enough freedom nowadays? We meet the parents who have blocked off their own road to traffic to give their kids the chance for the kind of free independent play that was once commonplace. The programme also questions mental health issues and behavioural problems children are experiencing, as well as body image anxiety.

Are our children in crisis?

Why is there continuous testing in schools?

Are we raising a generation of troubled children?

Grounds for concern - Britain was ranked bottom in a UN survey of children's wellbeing in 21 countries around the world.

Are today's kids happy? A Mumsnet survey revealed that 1 in 4 parents think their  kids are less happy than they were at the same age. "A large majority of mums and dads are worried about the education system, the freedom for kids to play, and the pressure on kids to grow up too soon."

"Even David Cameron has said that happiness is an important indicator of child wellbeing." Well - duh! Genius.

The Mumsnet spokeswoman said, "We expect children to perform in ways that we didn't so aggressively before . . . competitive pressures now appear very early on in children's lives."

The programme talked about the devastating consequences of all this for a significant minority. There's been a 70% increase in children suffering from serious emotional problems since the 1970s. We're failing to protect the children who are most at risk.

10% of all adolescents have diagnosable mental health problems. 80,000 of our young people suffer from depression. Kids who were healthy, confident and outgoing become ill as a result of adult expections for them to achieve test and exam targets. "My emotions felt out of control, and I couldn't see a way forward. I thought my parents would be better off without me. I was causing them so much misery. I was desperate. Really desperate." So said one articulate and intelligent girl. "I decided that enough was enough and I tried to kill myself."

"I love walking the dog now. It gives you space to think. It's my way of de-stressing." This young woman is now 20 and still talks about anxiety and stress. This is an appalling situation. So many of our young people are burnt out, afraid of life, troubled every day, incapable of joy, incapable of embracing life.

"It's been hell," said Anabelle's mum. "The pressures on young people are so hard. Academically there's SO much pressure. Greater than there's ever been. They find it so difficult to cope."

Of course we were treated to a look at Wellington College's "happiness classes". "The focus is on helping a child develop meaning in their own lives," said Anthony Seldon, head of the college. "Also a sense of self worth and self esteem. An ability to face the trials and problems that will inevitably be part of anyone's life."

Yes, Anthony. But PLEASE don't call them 'happiness classes'. That's just ammunition for your enemies. I do like it though when he goes on to say, "An excessive emphasis on testing is putting unneccessary pressure on our children. The whole school system is skewed towards the passing of these frankly pretty meaningless bits of paper. How sad when schools could move towards truly identifying and nurturing every single child's innate and unique gifts. Because if they're not drawn out when children are at school they'll remain dormant for the rest of their lives."

Two thirds of the parents who took part in the Mumsnet survey said there's too much testing in our schools. Sarah Teather, Minister for children and families, rather pathetically said the usual rubbish - schools and parents need feedback on how children are 'getting on', blah blah . . . As if she's never heard of continuous formative assessment for progress through clear learning targets. As if regular weekly and monthly feedback on coursework isn't far more useful than high-stakes exams.

She rather unexpectedly went on to say, "However, we do recognise that there's  a tendency in schools to teach to the tests, and that's the last thing we need. It's not good for children, and it's not good for teachers."

So why not get rid of  "these frankly pretty meaningless bits of paper" and ensure that proper systems for pupil progress tracking are put in place? Afraid that schools might 'cheat', minister? Well then - get rid of league tables as well. Do that, and there's really no point in cheating. And in any case groups of schools can organise their own verification and moderation procedures, which need cost very little in either time or money. Unlike our disgracefully wasteful exam systems.

The programme went on to consider children's needs to explore their own worlds, make their own discoveries, and just play together.
78% of parents say their children don't spend enough time playing outdoors.

Independent, non-structured activity is crucial for developing life skills, forming friendships, developing emotional intelligence, etc.

75% of parents say their working day is too long, leaving them too little time for their children.

Typical working mums and dads spend just 19 minutes a day 'looking after their kids'.

The programme also dealt with the pressure put on kids to look "attractive", "sexy", etc. And to buy and own all the 'right' gadgets and gizmos.

How do we "give children the tools they will need to tackle the challenges of growing up"?

There was mention of a "Roots of Empathy" programme on the Isle of Man - to help children to "strengthen their emotional ties to other people". The idea is to "reduce aggression and improve social skills". The children learn to "understand how other people feel - through being able to put themselves in other people's situations." Bringing babies into classrooms is an important part of this scheme.

"We're giving them the emotional literacy that will last a lifetime."

"We want them to be able to share their emotions so that we don't have so much aggression in society." Almost there. Empathy - emotions - feelings: we still have some sorting out to do.

"If our kids are happier and more considerate they'll be better able to face the challenges ahead."

Dr Tony Sewell of the charity Generating Genius appeared in the programme, talking about 'targeting the cleverest kids and preparing them for university'. Though it seems like an elitist programme, at least Sewell is advocating learning science through proper first-hand experience and experimentation. This, of course, should be available to all children.

The presenter summed up by saying, "It may now be a matter of political will to drive through the changes that could benefit ALL of our children."

MAY be a matter of political will? Let's just say the current generation of teachers and headteachers can barely even organise a boycott of KS2 SATs, so they're hardly going to drive through the major changes that are needed of their own accord. SATs have to go. Tracking systems for pupil progress in ALL areas of learning - academic, social, emotional, etc - have to be brought in. Pedagogy has to change to give all children the ability and the opportunity to learn through activity, experience and interaction. Pupils should be setting their own learning targets. All of the ideas of Paulo Freire, and of the New Learning Revolution need to be adopted. Other countries are already doing it. It's outrageous that Britain isn't.

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The Labour party still has to change

Despite the victory in Oldham, the next election won't fall into our lap. We must become the progressives' champion

by Ed Miliband

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/14/labour-oldham-progressives-champion

The first real electoral test for this Conservative-led government has revealed people's deep sense of unease about the direction in which our country is being led, and their anger at promises so solemnly made and yet so casually broken.

I believe that unease stems from misgivings shared right across Britain on the three arguments that will dominate the year ahead: the economy; the damage being done to the next generation; and the way we conduct politics. From the trebling of student debt, to capitulation on bankers' bonuses and a VAT rise squeezing working families, this government is showing it shares neither their values nor their hopes for the future.

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Oldham East and Saddleworth byelection: Trouble for the Tories

David Cameron faces the anger of the Conservative right after the party lost more than half of their votes in the constituency

Editorial

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/15/editorial-oldham-byelection-conservative-party

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This piece on Miliband is well worth a read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/13/ed-miliband-new-labour

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This is brilliant. I was beginning to think this would never happen. Great timing Mr President - a brilliant challenge to the Tea Party mob, in the aftermath of Arizona.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/15/barack-obama-us-embargo-cuba

Barack Obama acts to ease US embargo on Cuba

President brings end to travel and finance bans in place since 1959 in move which will help his standing with American left

Barack Obama has eased America's long-standing embargo on Cuba, allowing many Americans to travel there for the first time and increasing the amounts that they can invest in the island.

Other changes announced by the president will allow all US international airports to accept flights to and from Cuba; at present, chartered flights are restricted to Miami and a handful of other airports. The moves represent an important step to rapprochement between the US and Cuba.

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Layer 421 . . . People Power, By-Election, Miliband, Obama, America, Wikipedia and Intelligence

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Tunisia

"A lesson in people power - from the Arab world!" said the Channel 4 correspondent. Non-violent demonstrations "led by the secular middle class" have deposed the President, who has now left the country.
The protests were over unemployment, rising prices, lack of proper democracy, and State repression.

Interesting lesson . . .

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By-Election Non Shock
So the Oldham and Saddleworth result turned out pretty much as expected. So what?

I watched the studio discussion after the results came in. The Tory talking head was decent, but witless, and said nothing of interest or impact. The Labour guy was also uninspiring. This was worrying - the fact that Ed Miliband thinks so highly of Sadiq Khan and yet he seems callow, unprepossessing and lacking in style as well as substance. Of course Ed thinks that Khan, being of minority ethnic origins, is a good choice to speak after an election in an area such as O & S. He's not. He's another young politico burning with ambition and guile, and not much else. At least that's what comes across from the TV. Not an attractive personality. Not a good speaker. Not convincing.

The LibDem guy was the most interesting in that he simply twaddled on about the LibDem vote holding up - which was clearly not the case. Why let him get away with it? It's perfectly obvious that it was tactical Tory voting that kept the LibDem vote somewhat respectable. Why bullshit about this? Why not just admit that  thousands of Labour voters who either abstained or voted LibDem in order to get rid of Brown and New Labour are now back in the fold? Why not admit that thousands of people, including lots of first-time voters, who voted LibDem in order to break the Lab-Con monopoly are appalled at what the LibDems have done within the coalition, and will never vote for them again?

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And then there was Ed Miliband giving a few comments this morning. Not good, Ed! Talking about voters being against the coalition on account of the VAT increases and tuition fees. For fuck's sake - these are the minor issues! He should be hammering the coalition at every opportunity about the vicious budget cuts, and their determination to shrink State spending at a moment when it's vital it should be broadly maintained (apart from legitimate cutting of waste and crap projects). He should be hammering them about their failure to do something about the bankers and their bonuses. He should be hitting them hard about their deliberate use of unemployment as a cost-cutting measure, and about the illegitimacy of this - especially as unemployment reduces the national income tax take, and requires more state spending on individual and family support. He ought to be beating on the Tories for their illigitimate radical changes to the NHS and the education systems - their Shock Doctrine do-it-all-in-the-first-six-months-without-any-consultation neo-conservative slash and burn tactics.

Wake up, Ed! You were right to stand for the leadership in order to draw a line under New Labour, and you're a bright and decent guy - but you really have to be better prepared for interviews and say the things that are really important, the things that are most likely to make an impact. Compared with highlighting the really big issues this emphasis on the VAT increase and on the decision to ensure students pay higher fees are just pinpricks in the coalition's thick skin.

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Simon Jenkins on Obama and America

The USA, as we know, is a monster. Who'd be the President of such a huge, violent, unmanageable country? What kind of people even want to be Senators and Congressmen?

Free speech can't exist unchained. US politics needs the tonic of order

If America is to speak in a way that heals, as Obama wishes, it needs the curbs and regulations that make freedom of expression real

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/13/free-speech-us-politics-obama

The ugly American is back. Can the handsome one do anything about it? When Barack Obama addressed a shocked nation in Tuscon, Arizona, yesterday, he deployed the only weapon left to a crippled presidency: the power of rhetorical cliche. He deployed it brilliantly.

The vitriol and inaccuracy of the campaign against Obama's public health reforms last year were like those against abortion and homosexuality. To many Europeans, the echo across the Atlantic came from a people isolated from the outside world and unable to handle today's social and scientific progress. The debate was infused with nastiness and xenophobia, as if the US was a land composed of tribes bred only to hate the outside world, and often themselves.

I was asked some time ago by a university-educated Texan, in the nicest possible way, what it was like to live in a country of "baby-killers" about to be "overrun by Muslim bad guys". I inquired where he had gained this bizarre impression of Europe, which he had never visited. It turned out his sole information about the world beyond America's shore came from Fox News. He was not stupid. But he and millions of people like him considered this source of news a sufficient window on the world. He genuinely thought American troops would soon have to save Europe from "the Arabs".

Fine. But how different is this from all those in Britain who  get their news exclusively or mainly from the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Express, etc? There are lots of people here who apparently believe that BBC news and current affairs are hopelessly biased towards the left wing. And who tells them this? Those newspapers, of course. Turn on any phone-in radio programme and just listen to these morons.

When the art historian and TV presenter Sir Kenneth Clark was asked what quality best defined civilisation, he did not answer with liberty or wealth or equality. He answered with courtesy, the framework of rules governing people's tolerance of each other, so their discourse might be creative. Most of the time, it is best for that courtesy to be informal. The best rebuttal of the politics of hate is a torrent of love – or, if not love, at least of facts.

But sometimes, as Obama said, there is a yearning "to try to impose some order on the chaos". If American politics is now going the way of wounding, not healing, it needs the tonic of order. It is the great paradox of democracy. Free speech cannot exist without chains.

Obama's full speech available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztbJmXQDIGA

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Intelligence

I've finally got round to watching the recent BBC4 Horizon programme about 'intelligence'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x7cb3/What_Makes_Us_Clever_A_Horizon_Guide_to_Intelligence/

On the website the "key talent" for this programme is listed as the presenter, Dallas Campbell. Dear oh dear.

Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it.

How "clever", eh?

No. Throughout this programme there's absolutely no attempt to differentiate 'intellect' from 'intelligence'. The script is so stupid it continuously uses the word intelligence when it actually means intellect.

IQ is of course the starting point - "the benchmark".

IQ testing brands us with "a single mark".
IQ testing was introduced in 1912. Almost a century ago, and we're still doing it.
How has our understanding of intelligence changed?
Sternberg was introduced and talked about "the testing 'industry'". Well we know all about that!
Someone called Gould talked about animal and insect 'instinctual' intelligence as being "automatic responses to cues"
Is this intelligence?
The presenter clearly thought not. He's obviously not even considered instinct as a true intelligence.
He was only interested in 'ability to solve complex problems'.
Chimps and bees were described as 'Intelligent enough to cooperate' - so there's some sort of inkling there about social intelligence, but it was quickly glossed over.
'When did we learn to think?'
"Humans alone plan ahead, dream and think. Other animals live from day to day."
How do we find evidence of the first recorded expressions of intelligence?
'Only humans create and can make sense of art.'
"Paintings and abstract art are expressions of thought."
The ability to store something outside the human brain.
Galton was convinced that intelligence is inherited.
He was a hero for Cyril Burt. Ah, yes. Dear Cyril. The Bogus Man.
He believed in Eugenics and 'good birth'.
Believed the poor should be prevented from having children. Hitler agreed.
Burt was responsible for the development of IQ tests and the introduction of the 11+.
He claimed to have tested separated twins - and claimed that genetics is responsible for 80% of IQ.
Only after his death were his results properly scrutinised.
'Clearly something was drastically wrong.'
Probably he never saw a single separated twin.
Robert Graham believed the gene pool was deteriorating. He hoped to use the 'sperm of clever men' to breed 'intelligent kids' with 'outstanding genes'.
His sperm bank was operational for nearly 20 years.
Three Nobel scientists were persuaded to donate sperm.
So are there inherited components of intelligence? No specific genes have ever been identified.
But a large part of intelligence IS inherited, according to recent research with twins. According to this programme.
Should we be engaging the minds of children in "something useful" ALL of the time?
Can other behaviours predict academic success?
Kids who defer gratification apparently do better at school.
Other variables? Parents? Upbringing? Wider environment?
"IQ tests seem to show we have an all-purpose thinking skill that can be measured."
Memory/intellect seems to be an all-round ability. (?)
What about a broader spectrum of skills, abilties and aptitudes?
Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligence Theory were eventually mentioned.
Gardner says we have at least 8 separate intelligences.
But there's NO agreed system for measuring them.
Writer and dramatist Bonnie Greer scored highest of a bright bunch of people when 'a wider range of skills' was considered. Joint top with a quantum physicist. But we never got to find out which skills she did well on.
Is a high IQ a predictor of longevity?
Can we use microwaves to alter the structure of the brain?
Could this be the dawn of a brave new world?


Lawks. Most unenlightening. Such a waste of a programme.

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Wikipedia

We've seen America's vitriol. Now let's salute Wikipedia, a US pioneer of global civility

For all its shortcomings Wikipedia, now aged 10, is the internet's biggest and best example of not-for-profit idealism

by Timothy Garton-Ash

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/12/wikipedia-us-pioneer-global-idealism

If Wikipedia's principal architect, Jimmy Wales, had chosen to commercialise the enterprise, he could now be worth billions – like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Putting it all under the not-for-profit umbrella was, Wales quipped to me, at once the stupidest and the cleverest thing he ever did. More than any other major global site, Wikipedia still breathes the utopian idealism of the internet's heroic early days. Wikipedians, as they style themselves, are men and women with a mission. That mission, upon which they boldly go, is summed up in this almost Lennonist (that's John, not Vladimir) sentence from the man they all refer to as Jimmy: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge."

To suggest that this utopian goal could be achieved by a world wide web of volunteers – working for nothing, editing anything and everything, with the words they type immediately visible for the whole world to see – was of course a totally barmy idea. Yet this barmy army has come a remarkably long way in just 10 years.

We do not yet know if the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, was a direct product of the vitriolic incivility of American political discourse, as heard on talk radio and cable channels such as Fox News. A crazy man may just be crazy. But America's daily political vitriol is an undeniable fact. Against that depressing background, it is good to be able to celebrate an American invention which, for all its faults, tries to spread around the world a combination of unpaid idealism, knowledge and stubborn civility.

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I was intending to finish this blog with a piece on another TV programme about children under pressure, but that'll have to wait till tomorrow. Y'all come back now.

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Layer 417 . . . A Generation Under Strain, Old and Sad, Parris & Portillo, Brandreth, Clive Rowe, Panto, and the Secret Mediterranean?

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Having watched the first programme of Trevor McDonald's new series, 'The Secret Mediterranean', I felt moved to write something about it - but really, I don't know if I can be bothered. This is OK! TV for the retarded. This is Hello! TV for couch potatoes. You can get a pretty good flavour of what it's like from Sam Wollaston's review, and the spot-on CiF comments following it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jan/05/secret-mediterranean-with-trevor-mcdonald

This is a stinker of a TV production. How can anyone possibly make a bad documentary about an amazing place like the Med? Sir Trev and the people from Plum Pictures can - with ease. Traipsing round ludicrously expensive 'yachts' and the super-luxury hotels favoured by the super-rich and famous, making fatuous comments in his plummy accent - this what Sir Trev McWhicker does best.

He and Plum even managed to make Venice look boring, whilst Trevor himself looked slightly seasick as he was gondoliered around the less well-frequented canals of this jewel of the Mediterranean. The reason some of those outlying, dare I say backwater, canals are infrequently visited (though hardly 'secret')  is because they are boring. I'd rather take a cruise down the Grand Union through the Black Country. As long as I didn't have Sir T as a companion.

You can never expect Trevor to say anything interesting about anything - but surely we could expect more than, "This is very narrow," "Oh, it's lovely!", "Quite marvellous!", "It's quite soothing in a way, isn't it?" "We made our way along the calm waters, as the city slowly drifted by, as if in a hypnotic haze." I kid you not.

"It's not very easy getting around in this city - on the water."

Quite so, Trev - that would be on account of the narrow canals.

"But it's more beautiful!" said the gondolier.

"That's a very Venetian view of life!" said TM.

Er - No, Trev. That's just a fact. Venice is, on the whole, incredibly beautiful.

The final straw was hearing Trevor calling the canals "canarls", as in "gnarls". Is this what elecution lessons do for someone? Is this what gets bland people knighthoods?

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By way of contrast, and for some brilliant laugh-out-loud entertainment, you could go to see Clive Rowe in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hackney Empire. Except you can't, since it's the last show today. Mr Rowe is fantastic as the Dame in this excellent production - dominating and carrying the show with his incredible voice, timing and comic persona.  
  

Pantomime is such an amazing artform - consisting of spectacle, audience participation, singing, dancing, drama, comedy, storytelling, men dressed as women, women dressed as men, etc. The giant in this production was really something special. Get a flavour of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koQg8mJ3MAE&feature=player_embedded

    

Arise Sir Clive: Dame Extraordinaire!

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/08/unthinkable-ashes-free-to-air

by SalvadorDarley
I'm not used to England having a highly organised, utterly competent and ruthless cricket team. I preferred the days of collapso cricket, Gower in the Tiger Moth, Devon Malcolm swinging the bat to get the hundred up, Tuffers wheezing around the outfield looking for his fags and the occasional, heroic match-saving innings or tight victory (when the series is already lost).

Subsequently I've gone off cricket as I don't really understand it any more.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/jan/07/ashes-england-bowlers-reverse-swing

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"Live in the moment!" said Giles Brandreth, on Desert Island Discs. Zennist (!) Giles admitted he has no music in his soul, like so many of these desert islanders. He's a man of the theatre, a man of the spoken word, he told us, by way of non-explanation. As if you can't be passionate about musical expression  as well as spoken language . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x8f2l

However, he did select "Boum!" by Charles Trenet.

Is it legit on this programme to choose a speech by Laurence Olivier (from Othello)?

His love of musicals is interesting, given his lack of interest in music. Clearly it's the words and the drama that appeal to people who love musicals.

He also loves Gilbert & Sullivan - more camping about and more wordfests for people who aren't interested in music.

"I wasn't young like other people were young in the Sixties."

"It's been useful being camp and having people think I'm gay. Very good cover!"

"You can't imagine anyone with more advantages than I had - a middle class child of the mid-Fifties."

"I am the world's most spoilt and self-centred man."

Even so, there's something a little bit endearing about Giles, as his many fans will no doubt attest. He certainly doesn't come across as a hard-line Thatcherite, or a fully paid-up member of the Nasty Party.

In a similar vein, there was an excellent panel on Any Questions? this week - Ken Livingston, Matthew Parris and Michael Portillo. And Vivienne Westwood.

Parris and Portillo are a couple of interesting Tories - which you can't say about very many of them. Is it 'cos they is gay? You may not agree with their views, but you get a real sense of individuals who have long ago given up on parroting the party line, and who usually say what they truly believe. What's more they are knowledgeable, open-minded, decent, unbigoted and they think before they speak. And you can hardly say fairer than that. They may not have a complete grasp on economic theory, but then who has these days? They may not be egalitarians, but then neither were New Labour. And it's not entirely clear whether Ed Miliband's Latest Labour is going to be, either.

I particularly respect Parris for saying this:

Criticism of Tony Blair

Parris has suggested that Tony Blair has a deep flaw in his personality which made him unsuitable for the role of Prime Minister. On 18 March 2006 he wrote:

    I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he even believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role.

- Wikipedia

Classic symptoms of a psychopath, as I've said so many times myself.

As for Portillo, you have to have some respect for a man with enough of a sense of humour to say, "My name is now synonymous with eating a bucketload of shit in public".

That's right, he's talking about "the Portillo moment".

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A couple of very worthwhile articles in the Observer today:

In contrast to Giles Brandreth's gilded youth -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/09/young-people-generation-under-strain

No country for young people: is this generation under strain?

Young people confront a radically different social landscape to that of their parents, who stand accused alongside bankers and politicians of bequeathing an economic and environmental mess. Tracy McVeigh hears their views

Gary Watts said some very sensible things, including, "When you're growing up, no one tells you what life really is going to be like. It's constantly exams and then stress, more stress, coursework. By the time I reached 18 I was virtually burnt out from all of that."

Someone commenting on CiF said, - "Surely mankind will develop through education. If one generation is educated, and they educate more than the last generation, and that goes on in a long process with each generation more educated than the last, then surely that is a good thing?"

Well - it depends on what you mean by education. Learning to pass examinations doesn't necessarily equate with becoming wiser, more enlightened, more able to see the wood for the trees. Neither does it equate with becoming more emotionally intelligent, more empathetic, more intuitive, etc. In many respects our schools, through a relentless concentration on academic success, stifle the development of other crucial intelligences. Is this what our planet needs? Clever little academics with little in the way of human/spiritual values, little in the way of emotional and social skills and understanding? Is this not why we see so much drug-taking and violence in our society? No wonder some universities and some businesses are now beginning to see the need to produce more rounded individuals with more "life skills" and "employment skills", as they call them. Plus more creativity and more imagination. Thank goodness they do things differently in other, more enlightened, countries, such as Finland and Denmark, where education is still pupil-focused and pedagogy and the curriculum are still driven by respected professionals. Why are English pupils the most examined, the most miserable and the most burnt-out - as Gary Watts attests in this article? We do indeed have much to learn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/09/andrew-rawnsley-oldham-saddleworth-byelection

Oldham and Saddleworth: All three leaders are jumpy about the verdict of the Pennines

The Oldham and Saddleworth byelection highlights the challenges facing each of the parties in the year ahead

by Andrew Rawnsley

This Thursday, the good folk of Oldham East and Saddleworth will vote in the first byelection of the coalition age. Some of the bad and ugly folk will take part as well. The result will be part-verdict on what has happened since last May, including the performance of the coalition and the leadership of Ed Miliband, and part-harbinger of how voters are likely to react in the 12 months ahead, a year of sharp tax rises, deep spending cuts and threatened strikes. What's not so agreed is precisely what and whom is being tested in Old and Sad.

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It was Derren Brown night on C4 last night. This guy is a phenomenon. What it must be like to be that clever, and to have that much nerve and originality? He must have some fun times too, with friends as funny and brilliant as Matt Lucas and Bill Bailey.
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