"The rôle of the Speaker ... is not working as well as it should"

This was part of the contribution by Conservative Maria Miller to the Commons debate on parliamentary standards last night. She was speaking in the context of Dame Laura Cox's report on the bullying and harassment of parliamentary staff, but she might well have been discussing the conduct of parliamentary business overall. As the deputy speaker Eleanor Laing remonstrated, when she reluctantly had to close the debate:

My decision and my ruling from the Chair this evening has been that my reading of this Chamber was that the vast majority of Members in this Chamber wanted to have a decision on this matter this evening. I agreed with the right hon. Gentleman earlier that it is a great pity that today we had urgent questions lasting for some two hours and eight minutes that were somewhat repetitive, and that we then had statements lasting for three hours and two minutes that were also rather repetitive. As I said to the right hon. Gentleman [Sir Desmond Swayne, who had been prevented from speaking by the closure] in answer to his point of order earlier this evening, these matters are in the hands of Members. If Members insist on having their voice heard again and again, making the same point on the same matter, we will be in a position whereby an important debate such as the one that has just concluded has not had nearly enough time, but these matters are in the hands of Members.

This is more than a procedural quibble. Important debates are truncated or even postponed because of the promiscuous scheduling of Urgent Questions and the reluctance of the usual suspects to forgo a contribution if their point has already been made by another honourable member. The constant banal repetition must put off even those voters interested in current affairs from watching Parliament in action. Thus important matters are missed along with the party political dross.

Speaker Bercow, who has been a reformer in other respects, is alleged to be a bully behind the scenes. A debate on the Cox report could have been expected to produce further criticisms of his personal  conduct, particularly if the debate had started before the evening TV news bulletins and if it had run its natural course. It was therefore helpful to him that two government ministers made lengthy statements (about the "long-term plan" for the English NHS and government policy on drones). But was it necessary to accept an Urgent Question on Brexit which predictably went over well-trodden ground? And, serious though Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's plight is, could the FO usefully say anything new, considering the delicacy of diplomatic negotiations?

A taut little thriller, with a bit more

Last night, Radio 3 repeated Sarah Wooley's dramatisation of the making of Victim. As the BBC blurb says, this was the first British film to address homosexuality seriously. Released in the UK (the makers apparently had resigned themselves to the more conservative US distributors not taking it) in 1961, the film starred matinee idol Dirk Bogarde. In the gamble of his career, he played a married barrister whose career was on the rise but under threat because a blackmail ring had obtained photographs of an embrace with a younger man. The opening sequence of Victim, following the desperate flight from the police of Barrett, the young man in question, grabs the attention and it is a tribute to the writing that the tension rarely lets up. Barrister Farr takes the brave decision to take on the blackmailers, aided by fellow-victims whom Farr persuades to act in solidarity. The film is often credited with helping to change public attitudes to homosexuality.

Hammering home the latter point is the only big flaw in Wooley's treatment in my opinion. The scenes in Parliament recreating key stages in the passage of reforming legislation, tacked on at the end, distracted from the personal dramas of the makers of the film and could have been summarised in a couple of sentences of narrative.

A minor quibble is that the difficulty of casting was not completely addressed. Although the initial feature of the drama was Bogarde's motivation in taking the lead part, after every major actor in his age range and above had shied away from it, there was no explanation of how the important supporting roles were filled, especially those of the fellow victims. There must have been as much resistance among the cadre of British character actors to being associated with a "queer" movie as among the stars. A few may have feared that "lavender marriages" would have come under closer attention from the press. One assumes that a major star like Bogarde coming on board the project may have made casting easier, but it would have been satisfying to know whether this was the case. For instance, would Dennis Price, the star of Kind Hearts and Coronets and leading support in the hit Alan Hackney adaptations, have risked his sexuality coming under question, if a star name had not already been attached to the project?

Sarah Wooley clearly had access to the archive of Janet Green, the screenwriter who had already made her mark with The Clouded Yellow and provided a hit for producer Michael Relph and director Basil Dearden with Sapphire. The radio play showed Ms Green as a strong-minded woman driven to address social problems in her work (Sapphire had centred on colour prejudice) whereas Relph and Dearden were more cautious.

Victim still stands up well as a thriller; indeed, as UK society appears to be growing more homophobic along with its other atavistic tendencies, its message has become relevant again. If you have not seen it yet, I would urge you to catch it when it next comes up on TV.

Bull Moose felled

On 6th January, 1919, Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, died at his estate overlooking Long Island Sound. He had made another run at the presidency in 1908 on behalf of a third party founded as the Progressive Party which became known as the Bull Moose Party named for the creature which Roosevelt liked to compare himself with.

Seeds of Nazism planted

From Wikipedia:

On 5 January 1919, the German Workers' Party (DAP) was founded in Munich in the hotel Fürstenfelder Hof by Anton Drexler, along with Dietrich Eckart, Gottfried Feder and Karl Harrer. It developed out of the Freier Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden (Free Workers' Committee for a Good Peace) league, a branch of which Drexler had founded in 1918. Thereafter in 1918, Harrer (a journalist and member of the Thule Society), convinced Drexler and several others to form the Politischer Arbeiterzirkel (Political Workers' Circle). The members met periodically for discussions with themes of nationalism and antisemitism directed against the Jews. Drexler was encouraged to form the DAP in December 1918 by his mentor, Dr. Paul Tafel. Tafel was a leader of the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-Germanist Union), a director of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg and a member of the Thule Society. Drexler's wish was for a political party which was both in touch with the masses and nationalist. With the DAP founding in January 1919, Drexler was elected chairman and Harrer was made Reich Chairman, an honorary title. On 17 May, only ten members were present at the meeting and a later meeting in August only noted 38 members attending.

It is best known as the vehicle which Adolf Hitler used to enter politics.

Twelfth Day

Down must come the decorations and the twinkling lights. The baubles have to go away for another year. Ridding ourselves of the Lords and Ladies of Misrule on either side of the Atlantic will take a little longer.

Transport for Wales commitments

As part of our commitment to Mid and South West Wales, we will:
* Replace the entire fleet of class 158s with new diesel multiple units (DMUs) on the Cambrian line during 2022, providing extra seats on the busiest services.
* Introduce new two and three-car DMUs on the Milford Haven to Manchester service by 2023.
* On the Heart of Wales line, introduce refurbished Class 170 two-car units by 2022.
* Retain local jobs at the depot in Machynlleth.
* Invest in Carmarthen and Machynlleth stations in 2021, and Llanelli Station in 2025.
* Recruit a new Community and Stakeholder Manager and six new Community Ambassadors and Apprentices by 2021.
* Introduce a new Community Rail Partnership for the West Wales Line.
* Transform sites across the region into community facilities, prioritising areas of high deprivation, and make space available to support local businesses.
* Introduce a pay-as-you-go facility for users of our app from April 2021, finding the lowest available fares.
* Provide ticket machines at more stations.

The backlog of maintenance of existing trains should not affect these plans, which largely depend on the production of new trains and independent refurbishments of trains from elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how the Community Rail Partnership develops.

Weltanschauung

At a time when the UK is turning inward, Germany is demonstrating its commitment to a concept which is something more than "world view". An area of Berlin has been renamed in honour of one of the greatest scientist/explorers in history who hardly anyone in Britain has heard of, apart from some of the many geographical features which have been named after him: Alexander von Humboldt. The Humboldt Forum "represents an approach that brings together diverse cultures and perspectives and seeks new insights into topical issues such as migration, religion and globalization."

Can it get any worse?

One always looks forward with hope having passed over the threshold into a new year. The signs for 2019 do not look great, but it can surely not be worse than 2018.

Incidentally, today is the centenary of J.D. Salinger's birth. It is also the twentieth anniversary of the euro (correct spelling) which was launched at the exchange value of 69p sterling.