Beyond the Pole
After the gloom of the last post, We’re Under Control, this one is about a new film called Beyond the Pole. It’s all about Brits doing what we do best; muddle through with courage, humour and style.
It has been made by Helen Baxendale and her husband and their struggle is described in The Times.
I hope it’s a hit. But if it isn’t it won’t be without the help of their fans and Facebook.
There’s an equally appropriate irony in the reason this low-budget flick with a tiny distributor and zero marketing budget is on the verge of becoming a hit in America — the pecs and abs of Alex Skarsgard. Between filming Pole and its release, the then unknown Swede stormed the screens in Generation Kill, but most particularly as the sensual, dark vampire Eric in True Blood.
I shall try and see it, but whether it gets to this neck of the woods is definitely in the lap of the distributors.
We’re Under Control
Last night’s television was frightening.
It wasn’t any old horror story, but two programmes which shared a common theme.
The first was Panorama about the Government’s, Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) which aims to stop unsuitable people working with children and vulnerable adults. A laudable idea, but it is being done in such a heavy handed way, that it will end up with large numbers of people being branded unsuitable, despite there being no real evidence.
Here’s what Sir Ian McKellen had to say about the effect on the theatre.
A new vetting scheme is dissuading amateur theatre companies from casting child actors, Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen has said.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) aims to stop unsuitable people working with children and vulnerable adults.
But some theatres say they do not have resources to carry out the paperwork it entails, and Sir Ian fears child actors will lose important stage experience.
He may be overreacting, but then I always worry about schemes like this, as I have a very common name. As an example I’m in a database in Hong Kong and every time I visit, I’m called aside for special treatment. At least I haven’t ended up in jail, but one day my namesake might have upped his level of crime or annoyance. I also used to live in a small village with a criminal with a similar first name and the same surname. I had great difficulty getting a credit card, as I was thought of as one of his relatives.
I will be very unlikely to have any trouble with the Act, but then I only have about two hours contact alone with children in every year. And that is with my granddaughter, either when I take her to the supermarket or show her something on the computer, with one of her parents in the next room!
However, I’m thinking about volunteering to perhaps provide transport or computer help. Because of this Act, I have said that I don’t want to do anything concerned with children or their parents.
Is that the purpose of the Act? Because if no-one worked with children, then we wouldn’t have any problems would we!
And then I watched Generation Jihad.
This was chilling as young Muslims talked candidly about their outlandish views.
I feel that we may be winning some of the battles against those who feel we should be punished because of our lack of religion. The Police are arresting people before they do any damage, mullahs seem to talk sense in good English, and the tone of Muslims on phone-in programmes seems to be very much more tolerant to others.
But again oppressive legislation has been used against the Muslim extremists, that in the end may prove to be unproductive. How many people have downloaded anti-Western videos? Probably a lot more than you would think. For instance, I’ve been sent links to them in spam, by spammers in the Middle East. I unknowingly downloaded the first bit, but then as my Arabic is a bit rusty, so I deleted it.
If your brother was locked up for doing something like this, would you support the authorities or the brother? I suspect, where no actual threat has been proved you would support him.
So is this legislation actually creating more potential terrorists, rather than reducing them? After all if you’re prepared to be a suicide bomber, then a few years in jail if you get caught preparing, is a small price to pay. You can wait and probably you’ll learn a lot more in prison to help you on your way.
Let’s face it, on a scale of nastiness, terrorists and paedophiles are the lowest of the low. Oppressive agencies feasting on innuendo as well as facts, relying on typical government computing and staffed by people on not the best wages are one way to do it. But is that the best?
No!
These systems only catch those on the radar of the authorities. The London bombers weren’t and neither are most paedophiles.
I also have a big worry about these sort of systems. Supposing one was found to be a complete waste of time. Would it be scrapped? After all, if a government did, they’d be described as pro-paedophile or pro-terrorist. Look at how long it took them to sort out the Child Support Agency and the damage that was done in the interim.
So what should we do?
We should look at what causes people to become paedophiles, terrorists and criminals for that matter. One thing stands out; poverty. There is also the way that the parents treat their children. Many paedophiles were abused by their parents, many criminals take up their parents habits and there are terrorists, who have strained relationships with their family. Obviously, not all, but as the programmes pointed out last night, the seeds of criminality are sown within the family home.
Poverty is a very difficult one. The poor are very little better off after nearly thirteen years of Labour rule. But perhaps we should radically change things like the tax system to make sure that those at the bottom end keep more of what they earn, paying for it with taxes on energy. The tax system should also be seamless with the benefit system, so that part-time work is better and less hassle than no-time work.
I have hopes though about poverty and from a rather surprising person; Iain Duncan Smith.
As to family problems, my late wife spent a lot of her working life dealing with their breakdown. Barristers like her are being squeezed by the Legal Aid Fund and anyone worth his or her salt would not go into that field today. But then government doesn’t properly fund the Social Services, so that we get so many problems there.
But then those at the bottom end of society don’t vote, so looking after them is not on the average politician’s radar. Also horrendous crime plays well in Middle Britain, when the government says that they’ll bring in ASBOs, Super-ASBOs, life for littering etc. etc. I bet some wish capital punishment was still available.
But perhaps something that would help everybody, is that we should look at society and make it all a lot simpler.
Let’s have a Bonfire of the Regulations.
Would the Owner Please Remove his Fridge
At the bottom of my lane last night, I noticed a dumped fridge.
Is This Your Fridge?
What annoys me about this is that I doubt it was anybody in the village and someone must have taken the trouble to drive it a few miles. Now when I had to get rid of a fridge a couple of years ago, I put it in the back of my car and took it to the dump in Haverhill. So I probably drove as far, but I was within the law.
At least we don’t have Glasgow’s problem.
Velcro Wallpaper
I like photographs and I have small frames of them everywhere. Sometimes I put letters and newspaper clippings into frames and want to hang them on the wall. But getting them all in line is a pain and you end up bashing endless hooks in the wall or drilling a large number of holes.
I thought that an idea to handle this would be Velcro wallpaper. Perhaps, in it’s simplest form it would be a plain colour heavyweight paper, with say 10 mm. strips of the loop Velcro vertically every 50 mm. or so. Pictures could then be hung by just sticking the hook Velcro to the back of the frames. No nails or screws. I know I could just stick strips of Velcro to the wall, but then if they were on the wallpaper, I wouldn’t have to space them out. Removal would also be much simpler.
I’m not the first to think of this, although this lady on her blog envisages modified flock wallpaper. From her experiments it would appear that Velcro can support quite a weight.
I’m not sure I’d use it like she has proposed in her bathroom.
PeopleQuake
I heard about this interesting book as I was driving along at three in the morning. I’ve just ordered it from Amazon.
Victoria Park
Coming back from Brands Hatch, I needed a walk and a visit to the loo, so what better place to do this than Victoria Park in Bow.
I got a short walk, but the toilets were closed, as that had probably been vandalised. So I had to leave.
I have many fond memories of Victoria Park. When we lived in the Barbican, our children used to go to school near the park and we’d take them for walks afterwards. Years later, my son lived with his wife near the park and we’d walk again and later with our granddaughter.
There used to be a lido, but that closed in 1990.
It is a park worth visiting. Remember that it is within walking distance of the 2012 Olympic site, so it will be a lovely place to take a picnic before going to the Games.
Lotus/TVR Meet at Brands Hatch
I went to a meet between Lotus and TVR owners at Brands Hatch this morning.
Here are the pictures.
It was a good morning. I did skip the drive and lunch afterwards though.
It was the first time I’d been to Brands Hatch for many years. I actually told the story of one visit to see the Guards Trophy in Brazilian Farce. The circuit has changed a lot and where we parked today, was where we sat on the grass all those years ago.
The Cost of the Death Penalty
I have an axe to grind over capital punishment, in that I think it’s wrong. Well not just wrong, very very wrong.
My main reason is that by taking someone’s life in retribution for something they have done, is just stooping to their level. We should be more humane than that. After all, dictators like Hitler were all for capital punishment, so that’s a pretty good reason too. And what happens with a miscarriage of justice.
But Parade Magazine in the United States has just published an article with a poll about the Death Penalty. One of the arguments in the article is that the death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. It is also a bit more convenient, if the judgement was wrong in the first place.
So vote early, often and many times.
The Iraq Inquiry
I can’t see the point to the Iraq Inquiry.
Never has so much hot air and money been wasted on so much to generate so little. Well possibly the Inquiry into Bloody Sunday has wasted a lot more and all of the money wasted would have far better been spent on the victims.
But that is only the start to this pointless inquiry, which will not find anybody guilty and never get anywhere near the truth. Probably, in my view, because the truth isn’t actually written down and it is much more a cock-up by lightweight incompetents, rather than any conspiracy.
You have to ask why Tony Blair was the politician and his wife was the lawyer. Perhaps she had the brains to earn the money and he had the style to convince the average man in the street. Could he convince the average judge and jury? He gave up the Bar too soon for anybody to find out.
But what really gets me about the Iraq Inquiry is that the best daytime radio programme of the week, the Mayo/Kermode film review has been cancelled.
Shame on the BBC for giving us endless drivel instead of entertainment. I doubt more than a dozen people outside the Westminster circle are listening. And that is the problem with British politics. It’s them in control and us what pays for it!
The Anonymous Widower 