Don’t Call Them illegal Immigrants, Sadiq Khan Tells Civil Servants
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These three paragraphs outline Khan’s new instructions to civil servants.
Sadiq Khan has told civil servants not to use the term “illegal migrants” but instead use “undocumented” migrants or those “with insecure immigration status”, according to internal guidance.
Produced for City Hall workers, the leaked inclusivity guide tells employees that instead of using “men and women’” they should say “people” or “Londoners”. It also advises the estimated 1,300 people who work for the Greater London Authority that the terms “male” and “female” are “dated and medicalised”.
“Similarly, instead of ‘ladies and gentlemen’ say something that doesn’t exclude non-binary people,” it reads.
In the 1970s, I can remember C and myself listening to a magnificent play on BBC Radio 4, by Václav Havel called The Memorandum.
The Wikipedia entry says this about the play.
The play is a black comedy that parodies bureaucracy and conformity. Havel wrote it prior to the Prague Spring of 1968 as an ironic satire dissenting against communist rule. Despite its veiled themes, the play was approved by government censors and published. The Memorandum centers on the introduction of a new language, “Ptydepe”, that is meant to make work more efficient despite having the opposite effect. Sam Walters considers The Memorandum to be Havel’s masterpiece.
Khan has obviously seen the play and feels he should sharpen up his act.
How Chemistry Overcame Politics
I sometimes describe myself as an engineer/scientist, despite the fact that I made most of my money by programming computers.
So this morning, this article entitled Thatcher and Hodgkin: How chemistry overcame politics, on the BBC’s web site caught my eye. Here’s the introduction.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dorothy Hodgkin’s Nobel Prize, a play – The Chemistry Between Them – has been written, looking at her friendship with Margaret Thatcher. Its creator Adam Ganz describes their ongoing mutual respect.
Whether you love or hate Margaret Thatcher, you must read the article about the relationship between two of the most influential British women of the twentieth century. There is this significant paragraph.
It’s a peculiar fact that the UK’s Margaret Thatcher and Germany’s Angela Merkel both studied science at university, yet no male leader of either country has had a science degree.
Is the lack of scientific knowledge amongst world leaders the reason, why the world is in such a mess?
I shall be listening to the play on Radio 4.
As regards the play, I can’t think of a serious play or film, with the exception of The Killing of Sister George and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, that has two female leads and no significant male parts.
Do Actors Sometimes Regret Their Early Roles?
Dame Diana Rigg is a well-respected actress and has appeared in many high-class productions. But there are performances in her past, that she might like to downplay. C and I saw her in the infamous 1970 production of Anelard and Heloise with Keith Michell, which was noted for its full frontal nudity. Everybody leaned forward at the appropriate moment. Wikipedia describes her performance in the play as follows.
A return to the stage and a nude scene with Keith Michell during Abelard and Heloise in 1970 led to a notorious description of her as ‘built like a brick basilica with insufficient flying buttresses’, by the acerbic critic John Simon.
She did of course star as Emma Peel in The Avengers in the 1960s. Some clips on YouTube are interesting to say the least. Would ITV show something like this today?
The New Buses Are Back
I saw two at the Angel today and actually took one home.
The New Buses Are Back
Note that every one is now advertising a London show. They only seemed to disappear for the rehearsal of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. I suspect each one is advertising a particular show and will the cast of each be getting out and doing a turn. After all London is the theatre capital of the world.
More Sherlocks Than Hamlet
According to the Guinness Book of Records, there have been 254 film and television versions of Sherlock Holmes, but only 206 of Hamlet.
It’s Driving Me Mad
Sometimes things get into your memory and even Google and/or Wikipedia can’t get the reference.
An example is a play, which might have been a Play for Today. It starred, someone like Leo McKern as Sir Harry, a barrister, who was defending someone who was being tried for rape. He doesn’t get on well with the judge and feels that his client is guilty. So Sir Harry mimics the alleged rapist’s modus operadi and clothes and attacks another young lady in her flat. She then gives evidence and Sir Harry’s client is found not guilty. The judge feels that Sir Harry has been up to his old tricks and accuses him of getting his client off by unfair means. Sir Harry then pulls a gun and shoots the judge dead in his courtroom. The last scene is Sir Harry being led away saying that this will be his greatest case. ‘Sir Harry defends Sir Harry’.
So what am I remembering?
Farewell Vaclav Havel
The death of Vaclav Havel was not unexpected given his health problems. It is very sad and he will be missed by many. He would be on any sensible person’s list of the greatest of the twentieth century.
If I look at countries that have thrown off dictatorships successfully in the last few decades, they seem to have needed a figure to whom they could rally. The charismatic Havel was a supreme example as he took Czechoslovakia from under the heel of the Russians to a free and proud country.
He was no mean playwright either!
When we lived in that flat in St. John’s Wood, we had no television, but we did have a radio and often listened to it, after the children had gone to bed. Some nights we listened to the play on Radio 4.
One night, I can remembering listening to a play called The Memorandum by a Czech author. It may have starred Donald Pleasance, but I can’t find any reference to the production.
It is a superb play and one of the best I’ve heard on radio.
The author, who was unknown to both C and myself, was Vaclav Havel.
How many politicians, even the good ones, will be missed for what they did outside politics? Not many!
Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare’s Globe
I’d never been to the Globe on the South Bank and I don’t think I’ve ever been to the theatre on a Sunday before in the UK.
The picture shows the outside in the fine weather.
Outside Shakespeare's Globe
And this one shows the people inside just before the play started.
Inside Shakespeare's Globe
I enjoyed the experience a lot and it is good venue. The play by Howard Brenton was good and was very much worth seeing.
I’m looking forward to seeing some Shalespeare in a theatre similar in layout to those for which it was written.
Waiting For Beckett
For those who love the work of Samuel Beckett, this news must be very heartwarming.
Is This a Must-See Show?
Charlie Sheen’s new one-man show has not had the best of reviews in Detroit.
The Times even gave it no stars.
So is it something that is so bad, it just has to be seen?
Mel Brooks got the story line of The Producers absolutely right, with it’s underlying story of the awful, Springtime for Hitler.
The Anonymous Widower 