LIFE'S PLEASURES

 

LIFE’S PLEASURES

We get a bucketful of misery from so many aspects of our existence that it is worth remembering that our lives are enriched too by a catalogue of delights, many of which are free. I set out a small list below which reflects my no doubt old-fashioned personal tastes – make your own list, it will cheer you up!

1.      Scotland

I had the good fortune to be born in handsome Aberdeen and educated in lovely, if chilly, Edinburgh. Away from the Central Belt, Scotland is the sparsely populated playground of Europe.

Oh for the crags that are wild and majestic

The steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar (Byron)

We rejoice in the beautiful Road to the Isles – Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go – and no visitor should miss Mull and sacred Iona, among whose ruins your piety will grow warmer, according to Dr Johnson. You can trek, climb, golf, drink, fish, sail or philosophise. Whatever, Scotland punches well above her weight.

2.      Hollywood

My father’s family business included a local chain of 12 cinemas and in the interval between school and going home I sat in in a cinema watching every second feature in the 1946-50 era – Abbott and Costello, The Bowery Boys, Francis the talking mule, Roy Rodgers or Gene Autrey Westerns. Later, as my tastes changed, my celluloid education took in Doris Day, Judy Garland, Howard Keel, Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly musicals and blossomed with Humphrey Bogart classics and Bette Davis dramas.

I spent many happy hours of my life watching films. I do not agree with everything America does but Hollywood for me was a great civilising engine.

3.      Buildings to die for

From my European standpoint there are a handful of buildings which have the “wow-factor”, rooting you to the spot, yet easily enough accessible.

 I first nominate La Sainte Chapelle, Paris, the rayonnant chapel built by Louis IX in about 1350 to house

 

his Passion Collection including the purported Crown of Thorns. Its Upper Level has the most stunning display of medieval stained glass in the world.

 

Then there is Ottobeuren Abbey in Bavaria, fabulously Rococo, exuding rapt devotion, with a riotous profusion of plaster saints in joyful ecstasy.

 

Rococo is not much seen in the UK, but I find this dynamically flamboyant style irresistible.

My other wow-factor building is Amiens Cathedral, surely the finest Gothic cathedral in Europe. It is the largest cathedral in France, double the size of Notre Dame de Paris. Mainly dating from the 13^th Century, its sculpture and carvings are admirable, and its proportions give it majestic solemnity. A 19^th Century restoration overseen by Viollet-le-Duc was a triumph.

                                      

                                                                      Amiens Cathedral

4.      English “Laugh out Loud” Writing.

Beneath a thin layer of reserve the English are a boisterous race given to joking, tomfoolery and farce. Tudor and Jacobean writers were notably unfunny (sadly including Shakespeare) but 18^th century novelists could easily raise a titter and by the first half of the 19th century we were experiencing the irrepressible genius of Charles Dickens where a tumult of  rich characters like Pickwick, Mr Micawber, Sarah Gamp, Sam Weller, Mr Bumble, Uriah Heep and Ebeneezer Scrooge make his pages dance before our eyes.  But Dickens was a crusader and few of his novels are flawless – convoluted plots, unconvincing female characters, sentimentality and regular dull patches.

The 20th century produced 2 brilliant comic writers in the UK, P.G. Wodehouse and Arthur Marshall. Wodehouse created his own fictional world populated by imperious Aunts, absent minded aristocrats like Lord Emsworth, Mr Mulliner’s unique anecdotal vignettes, worldly manservants like Jeeves, fairly brainless men about town in the Bertie Wooster mould, and an enormous hilarious oeuvre, recording his creations’ madcap activities - be they gossiping at the Drones Club, playing golf or having adventures chasing determined young ladies around stately homes. PGW is incomparable.  

My other favourite is Arthur Marshall (1910-89), frustrated actor, schoolmaster at Oundle, post-war radio turn as Nurse Dugdale, reviewer, columnist, TV personality on Call my Bluff. Arthur perfected the acute short piece deriving high comedy from ordinary matters, British Rail, Devon resorts, puddings, the West End theatre, (where his acquaintance was matchless). In later life on TV, chins a-wobble, emanating good humour and sunshine, Arthur revealed his true worth – a blessed National Treasure.

                                                               Arthur Marshall

5.      Human Genius

My catalogue of uplifting pleasures is endless – we humans have created so much beauty and culture that this conclusion is inevitable. High Art is our proud achievement. The poetry of Wordsworth and Keats, the paintings of Rembrandt and Tiepolo, the music of Purcell, Charpentier, Beethoven and Mozart or the 26 ancient Anglican Cathedrals. I will receive criticism that my taste is pale, male and stale, but it would not be a surprise if the old favourites are in fact the best. Drink in the achievements of our forebears -they invigorate and sustain us!

 

SMD

26.5.25

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2025

A Winter's Tale

 

Winter has arrived rather decisively, mellow Autumn is a vanished visitor, Summer a fading memory and Spring a distant hope. Meanwhile, we tackle cold, dark and wet British weather with as much spirit as we can muster. Some, alas, sink into debilitating Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise “SAD”, the bringer of a host of depressing afflictions caused, it is said, by lack of sunlight and deficiencies (or is it surpluses?) of melatonin and serotonin. They shiver “in their Stygian cave forlorn”.

Others adopt a more robust attitude, taking brisk walks, hunting, shooting, skiing, even indulging in those crazy ice-breaking swims but winter is surely best enjoyed indoors at home or in a friendly pub where you can play shove-ha’penny, darts, drink beer copiously from Toby Jugs and disparage the smart-ass political tribe. At home things are even cosier, as you can play whist, eat crumpets and whisper sweet seductive nothings into the tingling ear of your beloved as a preliminary gambit in the oldest indoor game known to Man.

   

      Venus, Mars and Cupid by Rubens                                A Doulton Toby Jug     

        (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 

Yet keeping warm and amused is only half the story this Winter. We must also keep sane in a world descending into madness. The election of Donald Trump to a second term is a hugely disruptive event, as he is a proven liar and felon, unfit for high office. His cabinet appointments are eye-popping as several are simply “disruptors” like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Such people can be useful in challenging the prevailing orthodoxy but can cause chaos if they have no experience of running a government department. The unconfirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is conventional in his economic views but, by UK standards, wildly unconventional in his private life as he is openly gay with a husband and 2 kids. Vice President J D Vance is a one-time Democrat and erstwhile arch critic of Trumpism who saw the light in 2020 and who has all the ardour of a convert. Many others in the Trump team are above all loyalists, swallowing all MAGA policies, like tariff wars with Europe and China, mass deportation of illegal Mexican migrants, and the imposition of a peace treaty on Ukraine. All these policies are difficult and controversial, and a bumpy political road is unavoidable.

 

    J D Vance                                                  Scott Bessent          and                Robert F Kennedy Jr

The UK’s new government has had a rocky first 100 days and it has largely lost the momentum its sweeping electoral victory initially provided. Sir Keir Starmer is a wooden performer, with a very unsure political touch, and he has allowed his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to introduce a class-war budget, taxing the private sector, sparing the public one and needlessly offending the farming community. Naturally he blames the previous Tory government for any financial stresses, but that alibi will not last long. The extreme Leftists seem to have plenty of influence and the front bench looks exceptionally weak, a rum crew of misfits and preening fanatics with the Monstrous Regiment over-represented. Much international hobnobbing and feasting also disillusions many electors who are beginning to revise their enthusiasm for Labour.

Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper

 Despite her huge wealth, I venture to guess that life next year will be more pleasant in the gloomy UK than in Trumpland, when native mania is finally allowed to run riot. Both countries are paying for the complacent neglect of many years of resource management, of public services, of basic budgeting and of confused international alliances. We are more used to such setbacks than our American cousins and our skins are thicker.

We will all emerge one Spring soon to a more rational and happier world.

 

SMD

29.11.24

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

 

THE IDEAL OF A HOSPITAL

 

THE IDEAL OF A HOSPITAL

I have had the good fortune to enjoy robust health most of my life and apart from minor episodes have been a stranger to inpatient stays at hospital. Recently a 2-week stay, involving a bowel cancer op, has opened my eyes to the many admirable things in the NHS system in general and my excellent local hospital in particular. I unreservedly withdraw all the critical shafts I may have directed at such organisations in the past, in my profound ignorance.

Our local hospital in Ashford is dedicated to the name of William Harvey (1578-1657), who was a native of Folkestone. Harvey achieved immortality through his vital discoveries and insights surrounding the circulation of the blood, following his studies at Padua University and he was an honoured ornament of the corps of medical men at the London City Hospital of St Bartholemew the Great, still going strong.

                                                                                     

                              William Harvey

In later life, Harvey lost favour and preferment, being identified as a Royalist, but he was not a political person and he died peacefully in his bed in turbulent times. Schools and institutes in Kent have long been named after him and the fine Hospital in Ashford opened in 1977 is a wholly deserved tribute.

The William Harvey is a thoroughly modern institution. We live in a multi-cultural society and as a patient, I was humbled by the ethos of the place. Whatever the background of the professional staff, they are firmly wedded to Western medicine with its rigorous standards. More than that, the Hospital treats the whole patient, and one does not leave it without effort being made not just to treat the principal ailment but also any other you may be carrying too. Several emotionally challenged or disruptive patients were sat with, comforted and calmed by charming nurses and if they had a sore elbow too, that also would be ministered to.

All the nursing and support staff were mutually supportive, helping each other out in their various duties, and easily radiating kindness and optimism. This hugely lightened the atmosphere in a place which inevitably possesses a degree of sadness and anxiety. There were many English nurses, often of the no-nonsense, jolly type pursuing outside interests passionately. Others, for example came from Nigeria, Poland and Ireland. There was a particularly attractive group of nurses from Nepal, poised, delicate and aspirational. All had family connections with Gurkha veterans. Long esteemed in Britain, it is a joy to see these good people enjoying full residence rights and opportunities in the country their ancestors served with such courage and devotion. Poignantly many of the nurses spoke of their nostalgia for “home” however remote that might be or unlikely their return.  

Before getting too dewy-eyed, it is well established that the NHS faces huge management challenges, which successive governments have failed to solve or contain. It is an idealistic experiment but that brings its own nobility. Ramsay Macdonald said in the 1920s “The watchword of socialism is not class-consciousness, it is community-consciousness.” The William Harvey is a shining beacon of community-consciousness, and we can only hope its spirit can thrive anew amid the rough political seas before us.

 

SMD

28.06.24

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

TWILIGHT, MOONLIGHT AND DAWN

 

As I never sleep through the night (a fact of life for the aged!) I am often lying in bed at say 4am and being surprised at how light the day is, as I try to snooze again. Twilight has become moonlight and now dawn is not far away. I am tempted to burst into song with some appropriate ditty – like those listed below – and I invite my kind readers to tune up their tonsils, get whistling and make the window-panes rattle!

1.       It’s Twilight Time by The Platters

Great favourites in the 1950s, the Platters somehow squeezed in as crooning gave way to rock ‘n roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0kprJ30_HU&ab_channel=ThePlatters%C2%AE

2.       Love’s Old Sweet Song (Just a song at Twilight) by John McCormack

A very popular Irish-composed Victorian “parlour song” – I am not normally a fan of John McCormack but his lyric tenor voice is admirable in this 1927 recording.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viW5rT2duoc

3.       Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven

A timeless piece, evocative in so many ways to so many people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VmQNKaOeEw&ab_channel=AnastasiaHuppmann

4.       By the Light of the Silvery Moon sung by Doris Day and Gordon MacRae

A feel-good American classic sung by great stars of the 1950-60s. Dig those perfect teeth!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td7lCCO9aaQ&ab_channel=HyakuShiki.

5.       Au Claire de la Lune

This traditional French nursery song has stuck in my memory ever since it was sung in a House Singing Competition at my Edinburgh school in about 1958. It was sung as a duet and one singer was “Speedy” Young, later a Highlands hotelier! He won!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=au+claire+de+la+lune#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5fc0a989,vid:CynKwMmxhNo,st:0

6.       Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy

Once reckoned the epitome of French music in the good old days when the French were justly proud of their cuisine, wines and cheeses and chic fashions. Less heard now in a world of gilets jaunes, urban terrorism and Anglophobia, alas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY&ab_channel=CHANNEL3YOUTUBE

7.       Give me the Moonlight, Give me the Girl by Frankie Vaughan

This was the signature tune of good-natured Frankie Vaughan, never a big star but a stalwart of the variety theatre circuit. Many a teeny-bopper fan screamed in ecstasy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilo83LRCJrE&ab_channel=NottsUK

 

8.       Welcome, welcome Glorious Morn by Henry Purcell

This Welcome Song by Purcell, welcomes the Dawn and was a birthday ode for Mary II in 1691. It is a typical piece by England’s finest composer.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=welcome+glorious+morn+by+purcell#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ec6ae7f3,vid:iSnV6IXBIQ4,st:0

 

I hope some of this entertains you all this Bank Holiday. Enjoy!

 

SMD

26.05.24

Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2024

THE GIFTS OF LIFE

We are lucky beyond words! Every time I start feeling sorry for myself, wallowing in doleful self-pity, I give myself a metaphorical kick up the back-side and proclaim – Forget it, our First World complaints are wholly redundant, we are living a life of cushioned comfort and protection - our generation must be the happiest in the millennium!

Yes, it is true, the post-war generation in the West has been particularly blest. Just to put it at its most basic, in 1945 average life expectancy in the UK was 64 and is now in 2024, 81 years. Better healthcare, cleaner air, better food, child vaccination, better working conditions and more leisure – all contribute to remarkably positive outcomes. Our material world has improved beyond recognition, better housing, easier transport, mobile phones with global coverage, laptop computers, TV, regular food deliveries, accessible cars, music and entertainment from diverse media, all on a plate.

The trap of Materialism

And yet…it is well said that Man does not live by bread alone. Our lives are a journey, much enhanced by beautiful experiences or beautiful objects. We need this stimulus to warm and comfort us. Our journey inevitably comes to an end and all mankind needs to make some sense of that conclusion. There are thousands of cults, religions and philosophies competing to provide an answer. Personally, I am not attracted to transcendental devotion, much as I respect the artistic contribution great religions have made and I am basically rationalist and humanistic. I have however, in an ecumenical spirit, recently bought the well-received A Monk’s Guide to Happiness by the Buddhist Gelong Thubten, promoting the value of Meditation. He is an engaging and up-to-date writer, but I doubt if I have the stamina to obey his precepts!

I am more attracted to the wisdom of the Ancient World and in particular the Stoic philosophy of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 AD). Stoicism was founded by Zeno, a Phoenician born in Cyprus who taught in Athens (flourishing c.300 BC). In a memorable passage the historian Gibbon paid grandiloquent tribute to the Antonine Emperors who presided over a Golden Age of relative peace and prosperity, first the efficient Antoninus Pius and then his adopted son Marcus Aurelius: -

 

 

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years, he embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent. His Meditations, composed in the tumult of a camp, are still extant; and he even condescended to give lessons on philosophy, in a more public manner than was perhaps consistent with the modesty of a sage or the dignity of an emperor. But his life was the noblest commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was severe to himself, indulgent to the imperfection of others, just and beneficent to all mankind.

    Emperor Marcus Aurelius 

Zeno the Stoic

                                           The Stoics set high standards, which I try feebly to observe.

Moving on from mind-addling philosophy, I am sure that all people benefit from contact with beautiful objects and beautiful places and I give a few examples to my taste.

                                        Chiswick House, London by Lord Burlington

The most civilised public amenity in London thought Sir David Piper

                                Majolica Plate of Women Bathing, made in Urbino c 1530

From the Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London.

The Skating Minister by Sir Henry Raeburn

from The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

 

I have written much guff in the past about UK politics and taken positions with partisan relish. I now turn my back on the so-called political elite, Tony Blair Gordon Brown, Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak et al. In judgment, I echo the immortal words of gap-toothed favourite Terry-Thomas who would snarl: - “You’re a shower, an absolute shower!

                                                              Critic Terry-Thomas

To revert to life-affirming matters, one of life’s great gifts is the Gift of Friendship. I was on the receiving end a week or so ago, when 5 old friends, knowing of my immobility, came down to the Kent coast to visit me and have lunch. Although not all of us were hale, we certainly were hearty and reminisced, bantered and chatted the day away – as we had over the past 50 years. For me it was one of the happiest days and made me glad to be still going strong and blest by the Gifts of Life.

 

SMD

22.5.24

Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2024

DESPERATELY SEEKING CELEBRITY

 

As one reaches certainly the Sixth and quite possibly the Seventh Age of Man, I find myself scratching around in a desperate search for something to add distinction to the name Sidney D - my ancestors, my native town or my achievements. Alas, I have drawn a blank – no Sidney D charged heroically at Waterloo, nor made the serene streets of stolid Aberdeen tremble with excitement and my modest achievements do not echo and resound through the years. I stretched a point and researched what momentous events coincided with my Birthday -31 July – and even there the pickings are pretty thin. But I will have to make the best with what history records!

1.       31 July 1689. The relief of besieged Londonderry by the forces of William of Orange against those of James II.

2.       31 July 1956. Jim Laker spins out Australia 10 for 53 in the second innings of the Test match. His deceptive bowling completely bamboozled the visiting Aussies.

3.       31 July 1959. Cliff Richard’s song Living Doll gives him his first UK Top of the Pops.

4.       31 July 1970. Black Tot Day. The Royal Navy ends the daily rum ration for sailors, a custom operating since 1740.

The Relief of Derry 1689 

1.       The Relief of Derry, as described in a memorable passage by Macaulay, with the Apprentice Boys and so on, is a seminal event for Protestant Ireland and the subsequent Ascendancy. Modern Ireland, both North and South, have since taken some astonishing turns. The South can hardly be proud of de Valera, Haughey or Leo Varadkar, irrelevant grandstanders of world events while the stiff-backed Leaders of the old Northern Ireland, Carson, Craigavon and Brookeborough, have given way to more dubious figures like Faulkner, Ian Paisley and the newly disgraced Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. The much-vaunted Good Friday Agreement and the devolved Stormont are not working well with Sinn Fein and its often-revered gunmen steadily gaining ground.

Mind you, devolution is not working well anywhere. In Scotland, the sinisterly secretive SNP regime imploded with the 2023 departure under a financial cloud of Nicola Sturgeon only to be succeeded by clueless Humza Yousaf, keen to donate Scottish taxpayers’ treasure to help his ancestors in Gaza. Humza’s brother-in-law has recently been charged with extortion, and his alleged victim died in a defenestration in Dundee, normally a Czech or Russian speciality to my dystopian mind. The poor Scots are stuck with SNP rule until new Assembly elections in May 2026. Send an aid convoy pronto!

                         Scotland’s heavy Handicap: Hamza Yousaf

2.       Turning now to Jim Laker, he was a low-profile cricketer of the old school. His off-spinning achievements in that remarkable test series in 1956 ensure his place in sporting history. In those days, with players like Denis Compton, Godfrey Evans or later Ted Dexter, flamboyance was tolerated but not encouraged, but consistent performances were cherished. Sportsmen have moved on since then – they are now “celebrities” and we are told more than we need to know about their wealth, lifestyle, dark pasts, wives, girlfriends and political views. We are in the world of sport as showbiz, maniacally following the lives of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Tiger Woods, David Beckham or Novak Djokovic although sadly some fall off the high-wire like Oscar Pretorius, Boris Becker and O J Simpson. I do wish we could revert to the earlier order and simply give warm thanks if England won the Ashes, Arsenal won the League and Scotland won the 6 Nations!

                                                      Remember Jim Laker spinning his magic

3.       Cliff Richard is still going strong at age 83. His Living Doll was a catchy ditty but no more and generally his output is rather bland and middle-ranking. His long career has been remarkably successful. He is moreover a personable fellow, a born-again Christian, respectable and conservative in his attitudes, atypical of most in the pop world. Some record companies and DJs have shunned him and ridiculed him openly as being too old-fashioned.

Cliff has competed in Eurovision (he came 3rd) and the contrast is stark with 2024’s UK representative Olly Alexander, a tattooed militant LGBT+ campaigner and noisy critic of Israel. Alexander is a recognised actor and pop singer. I predict the dreaded “nul points” for him

           

Conforming Cliff Richard

 

                                                   Olly Alexander – “Woke” personified

4.       Black Tot Day was indeed a black day for the Royal Navy. What, no rum ration? Is nothing sacred? Alas, since 1970 quite a few traditional customs and institutions have changed. Oxbridge is now run by left-wingers, determined to pin opprobrium upon the great universities as supporters of Slavery; violent louts roam our streets untouched by the feeble Metropolitan Police paid to defend our citizens; our schools and hospitals are wracked by strikes, when once they were led by dedicated professional staff; our armed forces are cut back, no longer dependably capable of deterring our many enemies; Parliament itself is wracked by scandal after scandal as members on all sides loot their constituents and betray all trust.

Yet all is not lost. Our people have an abundance of talent supported by a glorious history. Our economy is on the mend. There are leaders of goodwill in all parties. Total Consensus is not possible, but a vigorous programme pursued by determined leaders can harness the national spirit in unity and shake off mediocrity and sloth. “Once more unto the breach, dear Friends!”

 

SMD

12.4.24

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

GIMME THAT OLD TIME RELIGION!

It finally came on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.  A video emanating from the Trump camp claimed that God had sent Trump as his “caretaker” to manage the nation and the world; Trump is now a fully equipped crackpot American politician with his monstrous deal-doing ego supplemented with a solemn Messianic mission - to the evangelicals he is obviously unbeatable. Praise the Lord!

We have seen it all before. In 1925, populist 3-times presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan denounced the teaching of evolution in the famous Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Bryan was badly mauled under cross-examination and died shortly after the trial. H L Mencken summed it all up with characteristic verve.:

W J Bryan

One day the defence lured Bryan into his astounding argument against the notion that man is a mammal. I am glad I heard it, for otherwise I’d never believe it. There stood a man who had been thrice a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, uttering stuff a boy of eight would laugh at….He came into life a hero, a Galahad, in bright and shining armour. He was passing out a poor mountebank.

May the same fate overwhelm Donald C Trump!

Religiosity (excessive religiousness) is one of the most off-putting facets in American life to the British and European cast of mind. We have mostly moved forward from defining our lives in religious terms, some generations ago.

Billy Graham (1918-2018) was a hugely successful US Southern Baptist evangelist who thrived mainly in the 1950s -70s. He filled stadia, ran crusades and preached cooperation. He was certainly a talented orator and he made friends with the good and the great. Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and maybe surprisingly Richard Nixon hung by his words and sought his counsel.  

Billy Graham

He was followed by a variety of black preachers, notably esteemed Martin Luther King, and Al Sharpton is still around, agitating at the first sign of trouble.

Britain has a tradition of sorts notably on the Celtic fringes, Ireland has long been a religious hotbed (some of this reflected in Joe Biden’s stubborn Anglophobia) and Ulster sported the anachronistic figure of the Rev Ian Paisley – ye shall hate idolators with an undying hate, he bellowed, although he mellowed later when he was forced to share power genially with “reformed” IRA gunman Martin MacGuinness. Scotland long had a bitter Protestant/Catholic divide but our current first minister Humza Yousaf seems most engrossed in the Palestinian cause. He is Scottish-born, raised as a Catholic but converted to Islam in 1977. His rival in the SNP, Kate Forbes, is a talented Gaelic-speaking 33-year-old, who has been finance minister. She is an adherent of the Wee Free Church, with only about 10,000 members, opposed to same-sex marriage and generally Puritanical and socially highly conservative. Karl Marx got much wrong but he was surely right in saying; Religion is the Opium of the People.

SNP's Kate Forbes

        

Moving on to terra firma from these ghostly matters, I have been puzzled by the differences between London attitudes and those of England more widely. Much of the difference derives from ethnic background. The London ethnic split according to the 2021 census is:

White British    36.8

Other White      17.0                 53.8%

Asian British    20.8

Black British     13.5

Mixed race       5.7

Other                 6.2                 46.2%

Note that White British are far from a majority even in their capital city.

Much more representative are the statistics for England and Wales from the same census.

White British    74.4

Other White      6.2                  80.6%

Asian British    9.3

Black British    4.0

Mixed race       2.9

Other               3.2                  19.4%

 

Viewed nationally, White British are in a substantial majority, as one might expect.

Last night I watched quiz night on BBC 2 (the BBC being reliably cutting edge on the betrayal of our country in my view). I enjoyed Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge compered skillfully by Clive Myrie, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Amol Rajan. These three are excellent and I am all for a meritocracy in broadcasting.

Yet I felt there was an elephant in the room. Let’s have Diversity but where are the Englishmen, the John Bull - Toby Jug- pub dartboard – Morris dancing Englishmen? Remember that statistic above, 74.4% no less. They may not be hugely talented in global terms but they deserve better in their own country than sink schools, useless public services, poor healthcare and crime-ridden streets. Let there be positive discrimination on their behalf, proper preparation for the world of work, a welcome to our better universities and their opportunities, the prospect of a decently paid career.

It is not too much to ask if we put our minds to it!

 

SMD

16.1.24

Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2024

LADIES FIRST

 

I tip-toe around this subject, as I have no wish to revive the battle of the sexes, and anyhow, half the world’s population is female and we all know how wonderful and talented most of them are.

From Cleopatra to the Hapsburg Empress Elizabeth (“Sissi”) and to Queen Victoria, ladies have enchanted and inspired us men, but it is only relatively recently that they have actually been in charge of affairs. We remember our past admiration for Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto and above all our revered idol Maggie Thatcher, who saved the UK

                         Romy Schneider as Sissi (1955)

But there has been a noticeable decline in wholly positive vibes in more recent years. Starting at the top in the UK, the esteemed Elizabeth II’s female successors include Charles’ Queen Camilla, Princess Kate and Andrew’s Duchess Fergie. All of them carry past baggage of varying weight and I cannot see the population warming to them easily.

 Some recent figures have been much more controversial. I am thinking of Angela Merkel (too tolerant of Russia), Liz Truss (a 30-day disaster), Hilary Clinton (losing even to Trump), Nicola Sturgeon (resigning as first Minister of Scotland in murky circumstances) and Jacinda Arden (New Zealand’s Queen of Woke). It is perhaps too early to take a dogmatic line - History will judge.

There are plenty aspiring ladies in the UK – Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch for the Tories, Angela Raynor and Rachel Reeves for Labour, not to mention US Presidential hopeful Nikki Hayley. But these people have not really been tested in very high office and only then can we judge their mettle.

The fact is that several high-flying ladies in the UK and US have come down with a bump recently:

1.       Alison Rose, Chief Executive of NatWest Bank. She broke her bank’s first requirement for client confidentiality by babbling to a reporter about the “de-banking” of right-wing politician Nigel Farage. Maybe her actions were animated by a compound of arrogance and political bias but Farage raised a stink and Rose lost her job.

 

2.       Paula Vennells, once head of the UK Post Office who presided over a grave miscarriage of justice affecting more than 700 employed as sub postmaster/postmistresses often in small town or village locations. The Post Office introduced in the late 1990s a new computer system bought from Fujitsu called Horizon. The cash would not balance in some cases, but the PO insisted there was nothing wrong and prosecuted many sub-postmasters with theft. Some suffered imprisonment, all lost their jobs and reputations. By 2010, it was discovered that Horizon had a computer glitch causing the imbalance. Quite when the PO management knew this, what they did about it, and how and when they advised ministers is not clear. Vennells has returned her CBE and apologised but that will hardly be enough. The luckless taxpayer will have to bear very high costs and the present Tory government has proposed a £600,000 compensation payment each to those affected. Senior PO officials and Fujitsu are being implicated, and in a delicious twist, LibDem leader, holier-than-thou Sir Ed Davey, is facing calls to resign. He was the Minister for Posts for 2 years and predictably did precisely nothing. Watch this space!

 

3.       Sharon White. Ended her term as chief executive of John Lewis, of department store and supermarket (Waitrose) fame. She is blamed for poor performance in an admittedly difficult sector, but critics say she drove a cherished brand into the ground with her misjudged policies.

 

4.       Claudine Gay. Appointed President of Harvard 5 months ago, she has been accused of several cases of academic plagiarism. Then she gave evasive evidence, along with the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, to a congressional committee about campus antisemitism. They refused to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jews, to public outrage. All 3 presidents have now had to resign. In her resignation statement, Gay airily stated she would return to her old academic duties at Harvard. The US has some peculiar rules about academic tenure and entitlement, but Gay has done serious damage to Harvard’s reputation.  I expect the new President of Harvard to throw her out on her ear.

 

What do these 4 cases prove? We may feel some unworthy Schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortune of others) but that is inappropriate. 

Alison Rose

    

                                                       Claudine Gay

These cases simply prove that Women are as prone to error and misjudgment as Men. To that extent we are all truly equal (at least in the West), which is the conclusion we want to proclaim.

Don’t worry, Ladies, we love you more than ever!

 

SMD

10.01.24