Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige went to the same primary school as my late wife. It’s funny but we never saw her in any of her many shows. When I suggested it, she always said no!
David Starkey and the Canadian Solution
I watched the political programme on BBC1 last night, This Week. One of my favourite broadcasters, David Starkey, gave a history lesson about Canada. He has a reputation for being difficult, but I needed to borrow a picture from one of his books for a web site and he was charm personified.
Fifteen years ago, the dominion was in a terrible mess, with massive borrowings and a stagnant economy. The new government cut very deeply and within three years many of the problems had been solved. Now Canada has the strongest growth rate of the countries in the G7.
Whoever wins the election must cut and cut very deeply. But they won’t!
Stupid Letter of the Week
This is from Private Eye, but it is worth repeating here.
Spot the flaw in this letter to Eye reader Carl Mungal, who wrote to Sky to cancel his late mother’s account.
“I’m sorry to hear about your loss and would like to offer my condolences. As this account is not registered in your name, I;m unable to process your cancellation request. To be able to cancel the above account, we’ll need the account holder to contact us.”
It’s not the first time an organisation got their bereavement process wrong! Every one should have a simple set of rules that they apply. They might even get more business, as it would show them to be someone who cares.
Mrs. Mills in the Sunday Times
I always find this column in the Style section of The Sunday Times worth reading.
She has a superb question and answer today under the title “Heated Debate”.
I have heard that the government has extended its “cash for clunkers” scrappage scheme to include old boilers. I would like to trade mine in for a newer, decorative and more energy-efficient model. How do I apply? If the one I select proves to be high-maintenance, is there a returns policy?
JHT, Leeds
There is a big question mark next to the merits of this scheme now. Newer models not only have installation costs, but also typically burn out irreparably after five years or so, and have to be replaced. Old boilers tend to be much more reliable. They might be a little on the large size and likely to make strange noises, but as long as the gas leaks are not too serious, I know which I’d rather rely on to see me through the cold nights.
How to Groom a Basset Hound
These pictures show how amenable my basset is to a touch of grooming from my secretary/stud manager/general factotum etc.
What If?
You sometimes wonder what would have happened to your life, if just one thing had happened.
I was lying in bed this morning and remembered that when I got my first job at ICI in Runcorn I was paid £1,150 a year. Not a lot you might think but it was 1969. In the end we lived in a rented flat at Rosehill Court in Woolton, but we might have lived in a little cottage in Woolton Village, if only we could have found the mortgage.
The cottage cost just £2,000.
It just shows how time it was for first time buyers in those days.
But what would have happened if we’d stayed in Liverpool? Would I have been the success I have been since, if we’d bought that house?
Live changes on the turn of fate.
The Prisoner
Patrick McGoohan must be turning in his metaphorical grave (He was actually cremated), after reading this piece about the remake of The Prisoner in The Times.
I shall not be watching. But then I rarely watch ITV, as I’m allergic to adverts. When I watch football there, I always turn over to Radio 5 Live for the breaks. I do that on Sky too!
I Like Michael Nyman
I’ve never really heard of Michael Nyman before. But he seems like my sort of man according to The Times.
Last November, Michael Nyman found himself unable to speak, play or compose music. This wasn’t writer’s block or some kind of avant-garde art experiment, but something far more serious. During a routine medical operation, Britain’s most scorned and celebrated contemporary composer suffered a minor stroke.
He’s made a complete recovery, as I hope to.
Some though have been cruel to Michael.
In 2008, Nyman received the CBE at Buckingham Palace. The critic and composer Philip Clark delivered a damning verdict in The Times. “The loneliest man in British contemporary music has finally got the acceptance he craves,” he jeered. “Pity it’s not from anybody interested in music.” Ouch.
I sympathise!
Saudi Arabia’s Got Talent
This headline in The Times caught my eye. The first paragraph describes a hit show on TV throughout the Arab world.
Much of the Middle East will grind to a halt tonight as an audience of more than 20 million gathers round television sets across the Arab world for the final of the hit show Million’s Poet.
But the surprise is that one of the five finalists is a housewife with four children from Saudi Arabia, who appears fully vielled in black.
Three weeks ago, she stormed into the penultimate round with a blistering attack on extremist Muslim clerics. Her poem, The Chaos of Fatwas, denounced those who issue hardline religious decrees, comparing them to suicide bombers as “monsters wearing belts”. She attacked the segregation of the sexes maintained by preachers who “prey like a wolf” on those who seek progress and peace.
Her performance won an ovation from the audience and the highest mark of the round from the judges, who praised her courage and honesty. As the scores were announced, she punched the air.
She has received death threats for what she has said, but it would appear that she has certain backing from the King.
The West may blanch at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record but Hilal is full of praise for King Abdullah’s efforts to drag the country forward in the face of the same opposition and bile that she has endured in recent weeks.
Radical clerics were outraged when the kingdom opened its first mixed-gender university last year. Fatwas have been issued calling for those who promote equality of the sexes in education and the workplace to be put to death. Through it all, the elderly king continues to force the pace of change.
I wish Hilal all the luck in the world in the final of the contest.
