Like Pliable, I believe that the level of spending by the BBC on real music is about right. However, he does a public service with his continuing campaign against the slice of the budget going to star performers (and of course the fees going to their powerful agents). He cites in particular the passing over at this year's Proms of a high-quality home-grown production of Wagner in favour of an expensive import.
But I would go further. In this bicentenary year of both Wagner and Verdi, why is the Proms programme so weighted in favour of the former, when it seems that performances of The Ring cycle have been everywhere in the last few years? Giuseppe Verdi is represented only by The Force of Destiny towards the end of the season and one chorus on the last night. I cannot believe the excuse offered by the organiser, that there are too few Italian tenors available. Presumably there is a glut of Wagner singers.
It is ironic that in this period of revolutions around the Mediterranean, Verdi, who became the artistic figurehead for revolt against the Hapsburgs and also wrote an Egypt-based opera, has been passed over in favour of an apostle for the Reich. (Though Richard Wagner was a socialist firebrand in the earlier year of revolutions, 1848, something he conveniently forgot in later years.)
Would it not have been better if the Proms, traditionally a combination of the popular and the unfamiliar, had introduced some of the lesser-known works of Wagner instead of The Ring and, if there really is such a shortage of appropriate singers in the Italian tradition, performances of Verdi's (admittedly slim) chamber music catalogue?
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Ten per cent is not enough
HM Treasury has been seduced by the success of the recent flotation of the Belgian Post Office into pushing for the short-term gain of a ninety per cent sell-off of Royal Mail, according to leaks. The long-term benefit to the organisation and customers alike of real co-ownership (no doubt pressed by Vince Cable and Jo Swinson) is being down-played. I note that the minister in his statement today has still not committed to the proportion of the shares which will be floated on the market, except that it will be a majority.
There will be a future for the Mail, as parcel deliveries are buoyant, making up for the decline in personal letters. Vince Cable restated the government's commitment to the Universal Postal Service.
Post Office Limited, which was separated from the Mail some time ago, may well be mutualised in the future.
There will be a future for the Mail, as parcel deliveries are buoyant, making up for the decline in personal letters. Vince Cable restated the government's commitment to the Universal Postal Service.
Post Office Limited, which was separated from the Mail some time ago, may well be mutualised in the future.
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Uniqlo in Bangladesh
The discreet sponsor's badge on Novak Djokovic's shirt throughout his Wimbledon campaign intrigued me. I discovered a few days after the final that it was that of a Japanese manufacturer of casual wear, and one with an interesting relationship with Bangladesh. Uniqlo did not sign up to the safety pact drawn up by most other clothing companies with factories there after the Dhaka collapse, but is the first of the big international chains to open stores in Dhaka.
Sunday, 7 July 2013
The Robert King website
Long overdue, an invaluable resource may be with us soon: http://www.spanglefish.com/neathguardian/news.asp?intent=viewstory&newsid=54156
The bank that empowers poor women is under threat
According to this report, the Bangladesh government last week took the decision to seize majority control of the Grameen Bank. According to the Indian Express, the United States government has publicly expressed disquiet over the moves, but the UK, a fellow-member of the Commonwealth, has not made any public protest. Even more surprising, I can find no record of a parliamentary question on the subject to International Development Minister Justine Greening.
I support the Jubilee campaign, but even more effective than forgiving third-world government debt is incenting people to improve their circumstances by their own efforts. Grameen was doubly effective in that it also empowered women in a Muslim nation. (The bank lends mainly to women. This was as much a pragmatic as a liberal decision; if I recall correctly, founder Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus learned early on that women were much more reliable in their repayments than men.) It would be a major setback for Bangladesh if Grameen were to be neutered - or worse, looted by corrupt ministers and government officials.
I support the Jubilee campaign, but even more effective than forgiving third-world government debt is incenting people to improve their circumstances by their own efforts. Grameen was doubly effective in that it also empowered women in a Muslim nation. (The bank lends mainly to women. This was as much a pragmatic as a liberal decision; if I recall correctly, founder Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus learned early on that women were much more reliable in their repayments than men.) It would be a major setback for Bangladesh if Grameen were to be neutered - or worse, looted by corrupt ministers and government officials.
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Confused Labour
Owen Jones, the Dave Spart de nos jours, wrote in the Indy yesterday:
George Osborne’s political career should be lying face down, lifeless, bobbing in the Thames. His statement last week should have been rebranded “The Comprehensive Review of the Failure of Austerity”. The Tories’ central pledge at the last election, after all, was that the deficit would be erased, wiped out, vanished over the course of this Parliament: there should have been no alleged need for further cuts after 2015.
Either deliberately or out of ignorance Jones fails to point out that the coalition abandoned the Conservatives deficit reduction schedule in favour of a less stringent programme in line with the Liberal Democrat manifesto (and with slightly less front-loading than Alistair Darling's Labour plans). In other words, the government is doing just what the opposition says it should be doing. Of course, the PM and Chancellor cannot admit to this, because it involves increasing debt until the deficit is eliminated. They do not want to give any more ammunition to the "dries" behind them on the Conservative benches.
As to the 2012/13 borrowing, it should be remembered that the 2011/12 figures have been revised downwards, so that the 2012/13 provisionals look particularly bad by comparison.
Another factor which Jones does not mention is the unexpected severity of the attack on the eurozone from 2010 on, which depressed economic activity on the continent, in turn reducing UK exports and thence tax take.
However, there are limits to what governments can achieve. They cannot provide the dynamic to drive the economy. That comes from entrepreneurs and companies.
George Osborne’s political career should be lying face down, lifeless, bobbing in the Thames. His statement last week should have been rebranded “The Comprehensive Review of the Failure of Austerity”. The Tories’ central pledge at the last election, after all, was that the deficit would be erased, wiped out, vanished over the course of this Parliament: there should have been no alleged need for further cuts after 2015.
Either deliberately or out of ignorance Jones fails to point out that the coalition abandoned the Conservatives deficit reduction schedule in favour of a less stringent programme in line with the Liberal Democrat manifesto (and with slightly less front-loading than Alistair Darling's Labour plans). In other words, the government is doing just what the opposition says it should be doing. Of course, the PM and Chancellor cannot admit to this, because it involves increasing debt until the deficit is eliminated. They do not want to give any more ammunition to the "dries" behind them on the Conservative benches.
As to the 2012/13 borrowing, it should be remembered that the 2011/12 figures have been revised downwards, so that the 2012/13 provisionals look particularly bad by comparison.
Another factor which Jones does not mention is the unexpected severity of the attack on the eurozone from 2010 on, which depressed economic activity on the continent, in turn reducing UK exports and thence tax take.
However, there are limits to what governments can achieve. They cannot provide the dynamic to drive the economy. That comes from entrepreneurs and companies.
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Another event we forgot
Twenty years ago, there was a missile strike on Iraq. The target was Saddam's intelligence HQ, but there were as always civilian casualties. Among them was the artist Layla al-Attar and her husband.
It was not a gung-ho Republican who authorised the attack, but Democrat Bill Clinton in his first year of office.
It was not a gung-ho Republican who authorised the attack, but Democrat Bill Clinton in his first year of office.
The last pink triangle
Today is the one hundredth anniversary of Rudolf Brazda. Until his death in August 2011, he was a reminder that not only Jews, but also Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and homosexuals had to be exterminated in order to create the master race under the Nazis' warped philosophy.
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