Griffin and Question Time - the verdict

What are we to make of the appearance of Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, on last night's BBC Question Time? I'll kick off by saying that I got it wrong in my last post about Griffin being isolated at the end of the table - the reality was that he sat next to chairman David Dimbleby with Bonnie Greer the coloured American born playwright and critic on his other side. These two were on Dimbleby's left (or right when viewed from the audience) whilst the representatives from the three main parties formed a triumvirate on his other side.

It became obvious from the start that the format of the programme could be summed up as "Operation Get Griffin" because it was almost entirely devoted to a character assassination of the BNP leader. Now I was quite happy in one sense to see his facade of bogus acceptability torn away but was QT the right forum in which to do this in as much as this appeared to be the sole intention of the other panel members and it has to be said David Dimbleby as well.

Unsurprisingly comment today has been very polarised in response to the programme. On reflection I suppose it was always going to involve strong personality attacks rather than discussion about current policies and events. We should remember that this country has a strong tradition of wishing to see fair play and of supporting the underdog and I think that there are quite a few people who don't support the BNP but who nevertheless have reservations about what turned out to be five against one (this is including Mr Dimbleby) and so maybe a one to one interview to expose what the BNP are standing for should have been the way forward. Jeremy Paxman on 'Newsnight' seems an obvious candidate for this. Griffin on QT was able to get the sympathy vote from some.

Immigration got an airing on the show and this seems to be a subject attracting some normally Labour voters to the BNP. It's a bit like the Tories losing votes to UKIP - these minor parties may never get an MP under the first past the post system but they could do enough damage to the two main parties to cause the latter to lose their seats to the LibDems as an example. Factor in at the next General Election the voter's discontent about the mainstream parties following the expenses scandal and many current MPs standing down and who knows what will happen. Interesting times indeed.

Hain scores own goal against Griffin

Whatever possessed cabinet minister Peter Hain? Is he thick or what? I'm referring of course to his apparently one man intervention to try and stop odious BNP leader Nick Griffin appearing on BBC1's 'Question Time' tonight. The BBC, perfectly correctly in my opinion, have allowed the BNP, a minority party, to have its say on the flagship programme. After all the BNP garnered a considerable number of votes in the European elections earlier this year and now I think have two MEPs, one of which is the said Mr Griffin. I hope that I've got my facts right here but I think that Hain's complaint was that the BNP were breaking the law by prohibiting certain people from joining their party because of their ethnic origin for example. The BNP say they will amend their rules to allow such people to join them.

Now if this is the case it just shows the total idiocy of our laws. I would prefer that if organisations want to preclude people because of the colour of their skin then that is their affair. We know that the BNP are racist thugs but if they allowed coloured people to join (and just how many such people would wish to join them I ask) then they would be gaining some sort of legitimacy in the eyes of the general public perhaps. It is noticeable how they are doing what they can to shed the very nasty image they have had and are targeting disaffected Labour voters particularly in areas of high immigration. The reality of course is that this leopard is certainly not changing its spots! The right questions eg about his denial of the Holocaust could really do him down. Let's hope so.

Hain has been mightily stupid as the one cabinet minister going out on a limb in trying to stop Griffin from appearing on the programme when in fact senior Labour cabinet man Jack Straw has already agreed to be in the line up. All that Hain has achieved is giving Griffin the oxygen of publicity that the latter so clearly craves. Talk about an own goal!

Interesting question for the Beeb now is "where abouts on the platform do they put Griffin?" My guess will be on one end so that only one other person on the panel has to be next to him. One prediction I think I can make is that there will be plenty of people in the blogosphere having a say about the programme, and Griffin in particular, after the event.

Kenji playing hammered dulcimer

First of all apologies for the fact that this YouTube video isn't of the best quality and has some extraneous sound but of course this site is open to all who want to upload onto it and the quality varies enormously. However there are two special reasons for my wanting to share this: firstly Japanese hammered dulcimer player Kenji Komatsuzaki is a huge inspiration to my more modest playing of this instrument - I'm just in awe of his technique and lightness of touch. The other point I want to make is that this a fabulous rendition of a wonderful tune by the blind Irish harper and composer Turlough O'Carolan. Called "Si Bheag Si Mhor" it is said to be about the war between the fairies of the two fairy mounds called Si Bheag and Si Mhor (the little hill and the big hill). The little hill won (allegedly).

Although I'm a great admirer of O'Carolan I have to say I don't think of any sort of battle when listening to this music! To me it is just hauntingly beautiful.

Recorded memories - a unique present to give

The word "Christmas" slipped into my last blog post. Now I've stated before that I'm not big on Christmas: yes great for children and a reason for families to meet up but for me not something to get overexcited about to be honest. "Christmas" inevitably leads on to the little matter of presents and here I'll put my hands up and say that personally I'm not into exchanging presents with adult relatives; if that makes me sound scrooge like then so be it - I'll just have to live with that!

However this is an opportunity to flag up a very very different sort of present to the usual products - it's about the oral recording of people's memories. With today's technology that permits really top class recording in a person's home and our increased desire to connect with our past family history it is unsurprising that recording voices for posterity has become increasingly popular - history groups for instance are getting into this. An example is our own Calstock Parish Archive in which a number of our more senior citizens have willingly allowed themselves to be taped.

This is fine of course for we local historians but there are many people out there who would wish that they had recordings, really high quality recordings, about the richness and variety of their own lives and the changes they have seen that they could hand down to the family. Yes photo albums are great but what if these were complimented by CDs of their voices recalling their memories. Sadly in my case I took insufficient note of what my late mother and father said and recollections have got a bit fuzzy to say the least. But for today's folk help is at hand - well in Devon and Cornwall at least. How? Well let me introduce you to a lady, Lorna Baker, who with husband Ted lives in the Tamar Valley. Lorna has a business 'Real Life Recordings' in which she professionally records peoples life stories. When I say "professionally" I mean it in the truest sense of the word - Lorna has in depth experience of working with the BBC in her earlier life and is the sort of person who doesn't do things in a half hearted way so what you get from her is a 'proper job'. She has a really pleasing website here which includes some audio clips (with the various 'owners' permission obviously) which are indicative of the sort of memories that come out when she talks to people.

Of course recorded memories would make a wonderful present at anytime of the year, not just at Christmas. And unlike the typical consumer product which is likely to wear out, break or otherwise get discarded this is something that will last indefinitely. I'm very happy to endorse high quality products and services on this blog and believe me this is of the best.

All change on the weather front

For the latter part of September and the first half of this month the weather has been very benign in my area, some compensation for the dampness of the past summer, but now it's taken a turn for the worse. Low pressure has taken over from the friendly 'high' and yesterday morning we experienced the first significant amount of rain for several weeks. Added to that the wind is a lot brisker. Having said that there is some blue sky out there as I type with a few fitful glimpses of the sun so it could be very much worse.

Just to illustrate how incredibly variable our weather is it was interesting to hear the reports on Radio Devon this morning from their volunteer weather watchers of the amount of precipitation collected in their rain gauges yesterday. Up in North Devon it was 37 mm I think which equates to about one and a half inches in old money. However in the South Hams an almost negligible 2mm was noted. I would say that here we were between these two extremes.

Just a couple of months now to the shortest day of the year. So it's long dark evenings, Halloween and fireworks to look forward to. Or not. I can't enthuse about any of the aforementioned I'm afraid. Nor the commercial splurge of Christmas. But I have a thousand and one things to be thankful for in my life so I don't dwell on the things that aren't to my taste.

Smeaton's Lighthouse lit by candles again

Our local media have been faithfully reporting the anniversary of the first lighting of Smeaton's Lighthouse on the treacherous Eddystone Reef. To be precise it was 250 years ago from this last Friday that 24 candles were first lit in the lighthouse and on Thursday evening the great and good congregated at the lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe to re-enact the lighting of those candles. I won't repeat here the riveting story of the Eddystone Lights as it has been well recorded in many places. However I will mention the fact, I think well known, that the reason that his tower had to be replaced out there was because the section of rock on which it stood was getting undermined by the waves - there was nothing basically wrong with the design. What we now see on the land is the upper part of the construction on a new base: the bottom of it was just too well attached to the underlying rock as I understand it for the good folk of Plymouth to bring the whole of it back.

Look out to sea now, and providing it's a clear day, the stump is visible alongside today's Douglass Lighthouse. What I've not seen mentioned is the fact that on the old pre-decimal coinage, when the penny was much bigger, the Eddystone Lighthouse featured on it in a small way. If my memory serves me right it was on the 'tails' side of the penny and down at the bottom... Not particularly obvious but still great that it was embossed on it.. It really is an iconic structure and joins Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall, and Exeter's fabulous cathedral as the three most magnificent structures in my two counties, in my opinion at least!

Well done to the 'Western Morning News' who have cleverly linked this latest lighting of Smeaton's tower with another "candles" story. This was about the lovely rustic church of Rame on the peninsula of the same name which celebrated it's 750th anniversary with a candlelit service, the only means of lighting in this sweet little building. The whole peninsula is really special and for me Rame Church is one of its jewels. So two buildings in the one WMN story that couldn't be more different from each other. And one final point that the paper didn't mention - Rame is the closest point on the mainland to the Eddystone reef so another connection there.

Empty apology from Jacqui Smith

Reading the Telegraph online I noted that Simon Heffer started his piece with a great turn of phrase: he used the words "When I surveyed the spectacle of Jacqui Smith winning the Nobel Prize for Insincerity on Monday ... " Yes, absolutely right Mr Heffer, it made me cringe that's for sure. She only did the sorry bit because she was told she had to and technically it might have been an apology but it certainly didn't sound heartfelt to me. In the end she owned up to the fact that in one year at least she was spending more nights at the constituency home in Redditch rather than her sister's house in London. She kicked off in her all of 1 minute 59 seconds of apology by saying it was a mistake that she had included the cost of films in with her expenses (this included those porn films that her husband watched it will be recalled) and that she had repaid this sum of money. Oh well done Jacqui, you're a star - not. She of course could easily afford to repay the relatively minor cost of the film hire and no doubt she was hoping that once repaid perhaps people would forget that little mistake. Er, sorry Jacqui but no, people won't forget that one.

A bit late on she went on to point out that she hadn't 'flipped' properties. A totally irrelevant comment to make Ms Smith. Nobody was suggesting you were, your misdemeanour was never about that, unlike some of your colleagues so why mention it. You don't get a gold star for that. And so it went on. She has been found guilty so far as at least part of her expenses claim is concerned, she has had little option but to admit to that yet she has not been required to repay any money. It is an absolute disgrace and I'm looking forward to her getting booted out of Parliament at the next General Election.

Lord Paul to be investigated

In my last blog post I compared two very different men: Lloyd Gardner and Lord Paul of Marylebone. In the case of his Lordship there has been a development concerning his highly questionable expenses claims. He is to be investigated by the House of Lords and, get this, he Lord Paul has asked for the investigation! For a moment I was astonished to hear this but then I could see some twisted logic. Given what I consider to be a flagrant criminal act by Lord Paul I think that it is inevitable that what he did will be investigated - or at least it darn well should be! So perhaps Lord Paul is taking a calculated gamble here: by asking to be investigated he is putting out the message "I'm innocent, I've got nothing to hide" and then he might also think that their Lordships would be the people most likely to give his actions a clean bill of health.

High risk but "desperate times call for desperate measures" I think is the phrase used. Lord Paul is both a personal friend of Gordon Brown and a much needed donor to the Labour Party. If he doesn't get the support he is hoping for from his colleagues then the situation will be very problematical for Brown.

Compare and contrast two very different men

The names Lloyd Gardner and Lord Paul of Marylebone probably don't resonate with many people but here are two individuals displaying the very best and the very worst of human nature. They are both in the news: in the case of Lloyd there is a wonderful example of selfless behaviour whilst the very rich Lord Paul has displayed greed bordering on obscenity.

So what are the two stories about? In the case of Lloyd we have a 22 year old waiter from the Devon town of Ottery St Mary. He was recently awarded £10,000 for his part in securing the conviction of a brutal rapist. This relates to one of the most horrific rape attacks I can recall hearing about in my two counties. It happened in Exeter in July 2006 when a woman was walking home from a nightclub. She was raped, stripped of her clothing and eventually found badly battered with a fractured skull. It is thought that she will never fully recover. Police had some CCTV footage of the area and had a lucky break when Lloyd recognised in the footage two Polish women with whom he had worked. He informed the police and that information was to lead them to Polish national Jakub Tomczak who was arrested, tried, convicted and given two life sentences. As stated above Lloyd received the very usable sum of £10,000.

We have then a young man, hardly rolling in money, and suddenly finding himself £10,000 richer. You would imagine that he would be grateful to keep this money. Nope. Lloyd reckoned that the victim was much more in need of this cash to help rebuild her life and donated it all to her. And remember he could of not told the police about the two women he recognised, a line some others might have taken. Again and again one hears of acts of total selflessness and Lloyd's case is a shining example of just this.

What then of Lord Paul that has so raised my ire. The 'Times Online' has the story today and you can read it here. In a nutshell Lord Paul, a deputy speaker of the House of Lords, personal friend of Gordon and Sarah Brown and generous donor to the Labour Party appears to have been on a good old fiddle with his expenses. The piece talks about questionable expense claims made between 2004 and 2006 when Paul was living in a London apartment block owned by he and his family. But his story to the House of Lords was that his main home at that time was a flat in an Oxfordshire hotel, owned by his own company. This meant, says the article, that he was able to claim more than £20,000 in expenses. Nice money if you can get it. It turns out that the flat has for years been the live-in quarters of the hotel manager. The present manager cannot recall spending a night in the flat or the hotel and her predecessor stated that he had lived in the flat for the whole period that Paul was describing it as his main home and moreover doesn't think that Paul stayed at the hotel during this time either.

I'm not going to repeat the last three paragraphs in the report, it's enough to want to make you throw up. The cheating of the system is just so blatant, even when caught out these men have no shame. I've said enough now, but you couldn't get a better contrast between generosity and greed.

Nobel Peace Prize now in disrepute

I will start off by saying that in principle I am a fan of Barack Obama and that I fervently hope his Presidency will be a force for peace in our troubled world. But like many many other people I was dismayed and shocked to hear that he is the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This is more especially so because of the fact that nominations for this accolade were made as long ago as last February - he was only sworn into office the month before! I mean he could have hardly warmed his chair in the Oval Office by then. I suspect that Obama has high aspirations when it comes to peace but what has he physically achieved in this field? Nothing so far as I can see, and that's no reflection on him. I can't believe that there aren't other worthy contenders for the Prize, people who have been around for a long time, who have doggedly pursued peace in some area of the globe but don't have the very high public profile of Obama.

This business of people getting rewarded like this for something that may have happened in the very short term is something that I feel increasingly annoyed about. I know that it was an entirely different type of award but I ranted before about the England cricket team getting MBEs in 2005 when they beat Australia by the narrowest of margins only for them to be thrashed by the Aussies when they went 'down under'. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous and absolutely devalues the gaining of an MBE and now it's the same with Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. What is the matter with the people who decide on who should get what in this awards game?

Zircus Renz played by Silvia Plegniere

Although my intention had been to insert no more than one video a week on this blog and it was only yesterday that the last one was added I just couldn't resist this one. Again it's Silvia Plegniere and her Yamaha Tyros keyboard and the tune is Zircus (or Circus) Renz. Is there a happier tune on the planet than this? Or a better rendition of it? For anyone whose spirits are a bit low then watching and listening to this one can only help I feel.

Normally this is played on the xylophone, I can't begin to understand the technical wizardry that's in the Yamaha but the xylophone sound is the right one to use and Silvia uses it to great effect. Please feel free to comment on this video, and anything else I write or add for that matter.

End of an era as Jo drops off her last pint

One of the most familiar figures in my village is Jo Hall, the lady who delivers the milk. Or at least she did, last week saw her drop off her final bottles because at the age of 71 she has decided to retire! She had been doing her rounds for 55 years so I think she is entitled to call it a day. In fact she is the third generation of her family to supply the good folk of Gunnislake with milk and the hum of her electric float was a very familiar sound around the roads and streets of the village.

Jo is one of those very straightforward people always ready to say hello. I think that she will find it very strange now without her rounds, I believe she always enjoyed it unlike so many of us who can't wait to retire! Enjoy your new found leisure time Jo!

Orange Blossom Special on Keyboard

A week ago I wrote about my desire to regularly add videos of music I like to this blog. Hopefully it will draw attention to music and performers that won't be known to many and that I think deserve a viewing. Last Monday I started of with banjo and hammered dulcimer playing 'Billy in the Lowground'. Now it's the turn of a keyboard player to shine - Silvia Plegniere from Germany is the one who does the business. Silvia started learning the instrument when she was three years old (!) and really knows what she is doing. She has a great voice too and I shall be posting more of her videos later.

Bere Ferrers tragedy remembered

The Bere Peninsula in West Devon lies between the River Tavy and River Tamar and being a long peninsula seems to have that other world feeling where time (almost) stands still. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the sweet little village of Bere Ferrers which is almost at its southern toe, close to but disconnected from, other than by the railway, the hustle and bustle of Plymouth.

It was the aforementioned railway though that was to feature in an appalling tragedy on the 24th September 1917. The story is well documented and rather than me repeat it again I'll give a link in a moment. Don't be put off by the one paragraph style (why do people do that?) because the narrative is comprehensive and there are some good photos to round it off. Anyway the link is here.

Exactly ninety two years on from this freak accident a short ceremony took place at the Bere Ferrers war memorial. This came about as a result of a request from the New Zealand Army Museum (their website is here) because the museum is trying to identify servicemen from their country buried in Devon and Cornwall.

Visit Bere Ferrers today and it is difficult to comprehend such a tragedy occurring. Long gone are the times when express trains would thunder through its station, now it's just the gentle plodding of the diesel units on the branch line between Plymouth and Gunnislake. Bere Ferrers is a proper village community - I can recommend its annual pantomime in its cosy little village hall - but the folk there will never forget that horrific event on the afternoon of 24 September 1917.

Sarah Brown gimmick - once was enough

The 2008 Labour Party Conference saw Sarah Brown do a warm up act prior to her husband coming on stage to deliver his keynote speech. It was a departure from anything seen before and yes she is generally well liked and yes it was something that worked on that occasion. As I understand things she is switched on from a media point of view - unlike Gordon of course. But it is a gimmick that you can't keep repeating and I thought she might be savvy enough not to try it again. However at the conference just finished she did introduce him once more and although I've only seen a bit of her speech it was pretty awful - I don't really want to be reminded about her undying love for Gordon, nor do most of the general public surely. Having said that perhaps most of her listeners actually in the hall do lap it up!

The first time it was fresh and original and she used the opportunity to thank party activists for the way they had responded to her as the Prime Minister's spouse. But it should have been a one-off. Imagine for a moment that Brown wins the General Election next year - she would then be on the treadmill of having to introduce him for every year he is PM because now having done it twice in succession there is no way the process can be stopped. Admittedly this is hypothetical because Labour won't form the next government but it seems now that she was a prop that her husband needed and I don't think it has done him any favours.

Ben Macintyre in The Times - you can read it here - doesn't pull any punches. His rant aligns with my viewpoint that the spouse of the Prime Minister should have a very low profile so far as politics is concerned. Sarah Brown is now getting too involved, I can understand that she might wish to present her husband as a more natural and likable person than he is usually perceived. But this just demonstrated the weakness and flaws in his character to my mind. So in my opinion the 'Sarah Show' was a flop this year. Some tricks you can perform once but not twice. I was certainly amazed that she thought that it was an idea worth repeating.