UNPOPULAR VIEWS

 

It is in the nature of my kind of journalistic commentary that many readers will disagree strongly with what I write. I would like to explore some of these issues, so that the controversy can be kept alive, if it deserves to be, before disappearing permanently below the horizon.

(1)    King Charles III’s Coronation.

I am delighted we now have a date (6 May 2023) for this special event but I am dismayed that the Palace plan to have a truncated version, and are not even sure if there should be a Bank Holiday to celebrate. I am old enough to remember Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation (wet, but wonderful) and of course it must be up-dated, but forget about “cut-price coronations” – we need a glorious and glittering occasion followed by lavishly memorable celebrations, from which we will require a Bank Holiday (or 2!) to recover.

I well understand that the public do not want an expensive display of privilege and we live in economically dicey times but a Spartan approach to the Coronation is entirely misplaced.

The ceremony itself could be drastically trimmed of some ancient formality without any great offence. I doubt if anointing Charles with holy oil is in keeping with the modern spirit, but he should be invested with the Crown, if not with all the other regalia. The now irrelevant peers can be banished entirely with their ermine and coronets, as can the judges in their silks and wigs and most of the lawn-sleeved, mitre-topped bishops. In the Abbey, the music of Handel, Purcell and Vaughan Williams should resound from the rafters competing with the Vivat Rex of the scholars of Westminster School and of the congregation. The congregation should represent the nation, all professions, and all condition of citizen. The King wants to be Defender of all the Faiths, so we must make room for Protestant sects, Catholics and Orthodox with a modest sprinkling of rabbis, imams and Hindu priests. The religious service is scheduled to take about an hour or so – plenty time. Receiving Homage from any quarter is redundant, as it is a given.

                                         The (uncomfortable) Golden State Coach

The public want to see their crowned King in his golden coach and a splendid procession to Buckingham Palace is a necessity. Ranks of servicemen, marching or mounted, military bands by the bucket-full, supplemented by a Pageant celebrating the past and present achievements of our great country, crowds cheering, bells ringing, canons booming, flags in profusion. Please spare us woke guff about the wonders of the NHS, immigrants and the transsexual community. Finally, a fly-past and a massive firework display will complete the official (tax-payer funded) ceremony.

 I would not expect the Exchequer to foot the bill for the subsequent feasting and conviviality but roast oxen, gallons of beer and the best Champagne would be on my menu. The people will be happy, London will rock, the tourist trade will be ecstatic and our friends and neighbours filled with admiration.

So, your Majesty, do not stint – make sure it is a truly memorable day!

(2)    André Rieu

I used to be sniffy about performers like André Rieu, who took pieces of popular classical music out of context and played them in a lush orchestral setting. But as usual, I was entirely wrong. There is a similar musical tradition in Britain, exemplified by the historic careers of Max Jaffa with his Palm Court Orchestra and Mantovani of “cascading strings” fame. Okay, they were never edgy or fashionable but they served up well-loved popular classics to a loyal and appreciative audience. André Rieu, the hero of Maastricht, in the Limburg province of the Netherlands is more ambitious and he is a ubiquitous presence on European TV.

                              André gets their feet tapping

André (now 73) has prospered mightily since his version of The Second Waltz by Shostakovich became a Dutch hit in 1994. His Johann Strauss Orchestra and singers have expanded in numbers and he gives lavish concerts globally and to audiences of 8,000 + in the town square of Maastricht (the Vrijthof) and its surrounding cafes. His concert stock in trade there is an entry to the strains of 76 Trombones, a selection of familiar Viennese waltzes, the stirring Limburg provincial anthem, operatic “lollipops”, as Beecham described them, often by Puccini, jokey business with the orchestra members, many guest performers displaying singing or instrumental talents and an extended finale with its rousing Adieu, meiner Kleiner Gardeoffizier ending the evening.

Multilingual André tours to, for example, Chile, Australia, Romania and Britain adjusting his programme to the native audience (he was recently in my home town of Aberdeen to the delight of my venerable brother aged 86, a great fan, who naturally attended). André is a flamboyant showman and I have to admit his polyglot entourage is a great advertisement for European unity and solidarity. He is one of the world’s life-enhancers and should be warmly cherished.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=681186609354946 You’ll never walk alone

 

(3)    Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel, the mistress of historical fiction, passed away only a few weeks ago at the age of 70. She produced a wide range of novels but her greatest claim to fame was the Wolf Hall Trilogy, three novels (the first two won the prestigious Booker Prize) following the rise and fall of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell was at least partly responsible for the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the execution of Anne Boleyn, the protection of Lollards, the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace and Henry VIII’s disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves. He paid with his head in 1540

Thomas Cromwell

                                                    Hilary Mantel                                                               

Hilary well deserves the accolades heaped upon her and few would disagree with the Observer verdict: The Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century. Fascinating, meticulously researched, intelligently written to be sure, but Hilary, they were just too long!

Wolf Hall                                             482 pages

Bring up the Bodies                              650 pages

The Mirror and the Light                       875 pages

I am presently on page 205 of the 3^rd title and am not even a quarter nearer the finishing line! As a decrepit 80-year-old I do not read quickly any more. I want a handy book, not a door-stopper. I think there should be a heavy tax on books over 300 pages – maybe that would help us all, Liz Truss!

 

SMD

13.10.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

JUST HANGING ON

 

Theresa May (remember her?) championed those who were “just coping”. Doughty Liz Truss, her Tory successor but one, appears to be “just hanging on”, an unenviable position for a newly elected Leader and Prime Minister of a government facing many difficult challenges, though normally able to rely on a united parliamentary party to support it. Sad for a Tory like me to relate, the Conservatives have instead fractured into several contrarian groups, each riding their own hobby-horse, not caring much about party solidarity nor the toxic effect they are having on the opinions of their electorate. Can the Tory spirit survive?

                               Liz Truss sets out her stall for her Tory government

Liz Truss won the convoluted leadership contest (7 July to 5 September and far too long) and one consequence was a group of disappointed candidates – Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt et al, egged on by mischief-making Michael Gove, became unhelpful critics of parts of her programme. Much damage was done by over-confident Kwasi Kwarteng (dubbed wittily as “Kamikwazi”), who had not adequately prepared the gilts market for his proposed tax cuts, nor involved the OBR. Sterling fell sharply and interest rates soared disproportionately. The Bank had to intervene and panicky, spineless Tory members feared for their seats as the polls projected disaster. A large slice of parliamentary confidence in Truss disappeared in this collective hysteria..

The fickle media were full of dire predictions, auguries and prophecies which would do credit to Cassandra or to our entrail-gazing primitive forebears. Most of these predictions will prove to be wildly over-stated, but that is no help presently. For example, the National Grid said a certain scenario of gas shortages could lead to daily blackouts in the winter. The Press presented this as an unavoidable fact not as a theoretical prediction. Although Truss is not (yet) a practiced orator, her actual conference speech was a lucid and rational résumé of Conservative principles.

On the lunatic fringes, some advocated yet another leadership contest, others an interim Leader appointed by MPs only, and the names of Ben Wallace and Kit Malthouse (who’s he?) were bandied about. The LibDems’ answer to all our problems is a fantasy involving rejoining the EU! It is said that in the 20^th and 21^st centuries few parties stay in office for more than about 14 years. Certainly, my Tories look rather tired and maybe need to recharge their batteries but even a brief spell of Keir Starmer’s shambolic Labour in office is the stuff of nightmares – God save us!

 

Things may not be quite as desperate as some fear. The promised recession has not come. The supply side measures yet to be announced may alter sentiment. Kwasi’s tax measures may well stimulate sustainable growth. Overseas, a rapprochement with the EU on the N I Protocol may be attainable. Putin may have to retreat from or even quit Ukraine. In time, Russian energy may become available again. Luck may even bring us two relatively mild winters in Europe.

·         Perhaps Liz Truss has the courage of Marshal Foch; My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, excellent situation, I am attacking.

·         Or maybe Kwazi Kwarteng can emulate Manchester City’s phenomenal Erling Haaland and score a financial hat-trick or three to transform our fortunes.

  

                          

Foch
                 

                                        Haaland

Liz and Kwazi – your country needs you!

 

SMD
7.10.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

FANCY FINANCIAL FOOTWORK

 

Very quickly, amid great national turmoil, Liz Truss has had to get her government together, decide on her priorities and make an impression on financial and political markets.

Truss and Kwarteng (in prudently protective gear!)

 A comprehensive Energy Protection package for businesses of all kinds was announced on 21 September, organized by Jacob Rees-Mogg.. The “fiscal event”, not a budget, was duly unveiled on 23 September by the new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. It was intended to:

(1)    Reinstate some promises Boris and Rishi Sunak had broken (e.g. abolition of the 45% top rate of tax, halting a rise in corporation tax),

(2)    Open up the UK economy from ingrained restrictions, sacrificing some equality for incentives to business and workers (removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses, reforming IR35, easing of planning restrictions, reducing income tax)

(3)    Reassure UK and overseas markets that the UK was an attractive business-friendly place to invest in and make profits.

Although delivered with some aplomb and confidence, the reception of this package was hostile and questioning, the exchange rate nosedived and gilt yields rocketed. Partly this was a revival of historic bad memories – the Tory “dash for growth” by Anthony Barber in 1970 under Heath ended in dust and ashes. Many worried that there were contradictions in the package – how could large tax cuts be made, which would be inflationary, when inflation was already alarmingly high? Where were the revenue rises or spending cuts to pay for it all? Short and long-term issues were being confused.

Unluckily for the government, this brouhaha arose as the Labour Party was ending its annual Conference and every loony Leftie in the land was in insurrectionary Liverpool, hogging the cameras of a compliant media. Keir Starmer put on his responsible face and claimed Liz Truss had “lost control” and he was the man to sort it out. (The world knows that Labour could not run a whelk-stall.) Somehow Conference was persuaded to sing God save the King at the start (unconvincingly) but was much surer when singing The Red Flag at the end. Of course, once a Commie…………

The venal British media joined the noisy chorus. All the doom-mongers, all those with a grudge against Truss, all the residual Remoaners, all the half-baked “experts” crawled from under their stones and spat out their bile. Even my Telegraph descended into incoherence in describing the dilemma of the Bank of England as it rushed to buy long gilts:

The contagion risks of margin calls, caused by higher gilt yields, meant that a reflexive negative feedback loop into falling UK asset prices had become too high, risking a doom loop. (Is this plain English, editor?)

 

Anyhow, I gather this intervention steadied the market on 28 September and the Bank rather than the unrepentant Government blinked first. We do not need dramatics – we want expansionary policies introduced competently. Our political world calls out for bright new ideas, out-of-the-box thinking and above all the courage to face down the dead-beats of the establishment and the leaden weight of the past.

Go to it Liz, Kwasi and Jacob!

 

SMD

28.09.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

REASONS TO BE PROUD

 

After the magnificent State Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, a time for reflection and a time for pride. We were moved and our hearts swelled with pride at the historic rituals, the seamless transition to a new kingdom, and the rich legacy bestowed upon us by a beloved monarch.

Her journey from Balmoral and the looming mountain of Lochnagar made me particularly proud.

Oh! for the crags that are wild and majestic,

⁠The steep, frowning glories of dark Lochnagar

(Byron)

Born and bred in Aberdeen, the heathery villages of Royal Deeside are very familiar to me; Ballater, Aboyne, Banchory, Peterculter, Bieldside and Cults into Aberdeen were the site of many a happy family excursion over two generations, and are forever part of me. Then Her Majesty’s hearse turned South to historic Dundee and Perth, before crossing the Forth Bridge and entering the majestic city of Edinburgh, capital of proud Scotland. A night at Holyrood Palace and then the procession accompanying the hearse up the Royal Mile, through Stuart and Hanoverian Edinburgh. Scottish soldiers and eagle-feathered members of the Company of Archers providing a body-guard to St Giles, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, a heart-warming sight.

The Edinburgh bearer party

Scotland did the late monarch proud and the ceremony heartened the many Scots who attended or watched it. I imagine it has set back the cause of independence for a generation. The royal family have strong connections with their beloved Scotland and those links will not wither. Proud Scotland salutes!

The scene moved to London and the 4-day lying-in-state in Westminster Hall, a place redolent of major events in the history of these islands. Some 250,000 people filed past to pay their respects, many ordinary, modest people who were moved. I was proud of them.

 

There were vigils too by the late Queen’s 3 sons and daughter and a later one by her grandchildren, all moving in their way and evoking our sympathy and common humanity.

Then on the 19^th the late Queen was carried in procession from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey, her Grenadier Guards bearer party, young recent recruits receiving general admiration for their precision and bearing. They made us all proud.

 

The Grenadier Guard bearer party

The Abbey looked resplendent, as ever, and was packed full of the great and the good. The funeral service itself was rather bland to my taste and the music somehow lacked zing. Much more engaging was the Committal Service at St George’s Chapel Windsor, a poignant farewell with a reverent atmosphere as the crown, orb and sceptre were removed, the Chamberlain snapped his rod of office, the sonorous words of the Book of Common Prayer and the coffin sank through the floor to the crypt below.

On the journey from London to Windsor we had a glimpse of the Britain left behind – much teeming suburbia, housing a diverse population, some green fields, a rural atmosphere on the road into Windsor, The Queens’ Shetland pony, lines of faithful retainers, some of the spirit of England. Soon a sad but proud day was over.

Our country has its peculiarities and is doubtless not perfect. But it fits most of our people like a glove. There is so much of which we can be joyfully proud, so much to cherish. As the Elizabethan Age ends, let us welcome the promising Age of Charles III.

SMD.

22.9.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

CHANGING THE GUARD

 

 

The moment we had all anticipated, but also dreaded, duly came on Thursday 8 September with the passing of H M Queen Elizabeth II at the grand age of 96 at her beloved Scottish home of Balmoral. The great bulk of her UK subjects will feel diminished by the end of her reassuring presence and will be hugely grateful for her dutiful and devoted service as their monarch for 70 years. Her son Charles succeeds as King Charles III and he has the support and goodwill of all the nation.

               

                                                 The Annigoni Portrait from 1955

            

              The final day’s duty: Liz Truss is invited by the Queen to form a government, 6.9.22

We are left with all manner of memories from the last 70 years. I believe the institution of monarchy is strongly entrenched in the sentiments of the people and will endure.

 

A new monarch and a new government have to find their feet. Liz Truss has risen to this extraordinary situation with a competent air. Her Cabinet is remarkably diverse (hopefully not too demoralisingly so for the 87% white majority!) and has a stiff agenda. Ideologically it is on the right wing but I am reminded of St Augustine of Hippo who prayed “to be blessed with Chastity, but not yet!”. For this right-wing government has unveiled a vast “temporary” Socialist programme (to cap energy costs for households and businesses at a cost of 130bn) which will blow a huge hole in the promise of smaller government, will delay the genesis of the free-market Utopia and will test the mettle of the new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, a clever Etonian of Ghanian parentage.

                              Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor and key member of the Truss team

The cost-of-living crisis has to be tackled comprehensively; public services must be restored on a viable footing, The financing of the NHS needs remodelling and national educational standards improved. Our commitment to the NATO shield in the West cannot falter. Inevitable obstruction from the Whitehall Blob should be eliminated ruthlessly.

Ordinary people will have to navigate a difficult winter. The worst of potential horrors in terms of price rises seem unlikely to happen. But prices are rising and luxuries will need strict rationing – ham sandwiches rather than elaborate canapés, bitter rather than Prosecco, Marks & Sparks rather than Jermyn Street. No huge hardship but there are many less fortunate than I am. Travelling, a fairly basic activity, is made a misery by widespread strikes, most politically motivated. National morale is low and our leaders need to encourage and inspire – something Boris could do, when the spirit moved him, and before he descended into buffoonery. Michael Gove was also very eloquent before his bright star faded. Step forward, our new Cicero!

It is of course a huge Herculean Labour to get any modern democracy to support a government’s programme. The age of deference and weary acceptance is long gone. Our streets, conventional media and toxic social channels teem with malcontents, anarchists, doom-mongers, anti-vaxxers, nationalist irreconcilables and obsessed maniacs in profuse variety. They must be left to stew and the sensible remainder won over, or at least reconciled. Opinion moves with rapidity these days and government must win the information battle.

 

Our nation is ripe for renewal and we will again climb to great heights of achievement.  God save the King!

 

SMD

12.9.22

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

HOLIDAY GOSSIP

In August we all try to get away, certainly Boris did (but he was going anyway), probably Biden did too (but who would notice any difference?) and Putin may do us all a favour and do himself away by diving in his macho-fashion, head-first into a deadly radioactive pool at Zaporizhzhia (Yes, Vlad, jump!). Anyhow I feel no guilt being in Greece and finishing a week’s excursion to the enchanted Aegean island of Samos, and am joined at my hotel by a rich variety of sun-seeking Europeans.

                                                        Putin - Nobody’s Pin-Up

Travel has always broadened the mind and flattened the wallet but this year it has been unusually accident-prone. My delightful eldest son sought a celebratory rendezvous with his 80-year-old Dad but was frustrated by a heat-wave, then a flood, then by re-catching Covid and finally by an errant roofer who contrived to put his foot through his 4^th floor roof only to break his fall luckily on a high rafter with his crotch (Ouch!), Of course, at that point the London heavens opened, requiring a massive clear-up, and the attendance of the Fire Brigade. As somebody once said: Stuff Happens!

As for my European fellow-guests here, they are mainly well-behaved German-speakers, Swedes and Poles. I admit to being rather a conservative fellow and do not admire the tattoos on bellies, necks and backs of at least half the females. I can also see how far the obesity pandemic has gone. Once I had thought it was confined to the junk-food guzzling hordes of America, but no, certainly the female Aurochs is alive and well in Europe too, where colossal fatsos abound. I am far from svelte myself, but I am completely outclassed by these lumbering grotesques.

                                                                      The Aurochs

 The Tory leadership and hence prime ministerial contest in the UK has ground on too long but it looks like Liz Truss will win the prize. If she delivers what she promises (a big “if”), she is a good choice, being a no-nonsense Yorkshire woman with a Thatcherite streak. I understand the new government will challenge the entrenched orthodoxies of Whitehall, and not before time. What happened to the Bank of England, whose mission is to control inflation, but who failed to warn us of the inflationary tsunami engulfing us? Once the Governor’s eyebrows were eloquent; now Governor Bailey is all thumbs. Was Lockdown worth the damage it caused to the economy? Boris, and alas, Gove, both swallowed whole all the bad vibes from the now-knighted Patrick Vallance, Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van Tam. Sweden did not lockdown and suffered proportionately less damage. So, did we impoverish ourselves unnecessarily? What was the intellectual process?

The NHS has not performed well in the pandemic and it needs to be re-modelled. The outcome from many illnesses is far worse in the UK than in comparable European or first-world economies. The private sector must be incentivised to invest. Our secondary school system produces many pupils unfit for work in the modern world; this is an emergency – we cannot wait for a solution to “evolve”.

We do not have an embarrassment of talent in UK politics - I would regret Gove’s disappearance and hope Sunak will be given a useful post. I am heartened by the likely return of John Redwood (he has brains) and the mooted retention of Jacob Rees-Mogg, doggedly holding on to the best values of about 1910. No Tory worth his salt should fail to put the clock back! There are excellent people coming through – Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat, Ben Wallace spring to mind and may rise to new challenges.

I have no doubt we face a difficult winter but let that not spoil our high summer. We should face the future with a sprightly confidence, face down our enemies and assure ourselves that the lessons of the past will be well learnt and that all our families and friends will enjoy a glorious and prosperous future.

 

SMD

28.08.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022

IN PRAISE OF LIBRARIES

The great Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero surely got it right:

 If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

 I am currently ensconced in my home-library in Athens, surrounded by my most cherished books, which speak to me, some in a vociferously learned fashion, others in a light chatter of good-humoured fun. I love them all for the life-enhancing enchantment they generate.

                                        

                                                                   Heroic Cicero

I shall concentrate on libraries, as gardening was never my strong suit. I greatly admire a well-kept and appropriately-planted garden. Our home garden is too small but our delightful next-door neighbours, possessors of skilled green fingers, have an exquisitely beautiful English garden, an oasis of calm tranquillity, the venue of many an unforgettable barbecue. In truth gardens confer enormous pleasure.

My experience of libraries first dates from school. My Mearns prep-school had been donated volumes of the Times History of the Great War, lavishly illustrated. Other donations included Mein Kampf, less suitable for young minds and thankfully rambling and unreadable. There were strong sections of highly readable John Buchan and Edgar Allan Poe and much Arthur Ransome, which was not to my taste. We read the Famous Five books until they disintegrated. My Edinburgh public school library was more serious in tone and I devoured the volumes of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall and other histories.

 My mother read and was a member of a book club, whose monthly fiction offering was often something by A J Cronin or such-like. Her passion was Freud, Jung and Adler, and she loved to psycho-analyse family and friends, so she built up a library of her own. My father read less but he was presented at Christmas with beautifully bound almanacs, reference books and guides from commercial partners, all adding to the home library. I would be sent down to the Aberdeen main Boots store which had a very active lending library. The fare there was quite light – thrillers and show-biz biographies abounded – but there was much to amuse.

I was briefly a language student of French in Paris in 1961 and I pay homage to the British Council library there in the Quartier Latin. I was exiting a religious phase, but I recall enjoying Donne’s eloquent Sermons and even embarked on Law’s Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. The call went unheeded and instead I read Sophocles’ incomparable Plays.

At Oxford University, I did most of my academic reading at the austere New Bodleian, but for some history and politics the sources were found at the glorious Radcliffe Camera, masterpiece of Scots, nay, Aberdonian architect, James Gibbs. Gibbs is also remembered for his St Martins in the Fields in London’s Trafalgar Square, so much imitated in America, especially in Protestant New England.

                                Gibbs’s Radcliffe Camera, Oxford

Britain never did build the ecclesiastically dominated libraries seen widely in Baroque and Rococo Europe yet they were often intellectually mean and monkish places attached to reactionary monasteries. Britain knew that libraries were nothing if they were not beacons of enlightenment and the search for truth, and built accordingly, beside universities and civic centres, in an inclusive spirit.

My library is quite modest but to me it is full of goodies. Ancient history features Thucydides, Plutarch, Suetonius, Gibbon et al while Byzantium has a good showing with John Julius Norwich, Runciman and Ostrogorsky. Political biographies abound with fine volumes on Wellington, Disraeli, Asquith, Macmillan and Churchill and a fatally dated Van Loon’s Lives. Rather too much is from the bland and often uncritical Roy Jenkins. Memoirs, always to be approached with caution, include de Gaulle’s, Thatcher’s, Nigel Lawson’s and Harold Wilson’s (not to forget pariah Oswald Mosley’s) rewriting history to fortify their personal myth.

I love reading diaries and the Journals of James Boswell, the debauched Scotsman on the make, early inspired me. Apart from Boswell (and the only poncy thing about observant Pepys is his name) and maybe Alan Clark, it clearly helps to be gay to be a great diarist. They perhaps bear grudges more readily and have a feline characteristic like arch-snob James Lees-Milne, Chips Channon, Cecil Beaton, Noel Coward and Alan Bennett, but they give huge pleasure.

                     Lees-Milne in state

Of course, I have plenty classic novels, Dickens, Trollope and Dostoyevsky to the fore. Dotted about are unclassifiables like Patrick Leigh-Fermor’s travel volumes, anthologies or Betjeman on poetry or architecture. I do like controversialists, so H.L Mencken has a place of honour beside Christopher Hitchens, Tom Wolff, A. A. Gill and even our Boris.

I like to laugh and as I sit poolside next week, I will choose between the plot complexities and mad-cap schemes of P G Wodehouse or the wild imaginative leaps of Arthur Marshall. I will titter uncontrollably to the mystification of my Balkan fellow-tourists, frozen in my essential frivolity.

 

SMD

21.08.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022