A decree published in Russia on 18th December 1917 (old style) made divorce legal.
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Year-on-year inflation
UK CPI year-on-year inflation hit 3.1% in November, and is predicted to be at a similar level for December. Part of an EU trend no doubt? Well no, as you might have guessed from the BBC's omitting comparative figures from its reports earlier this month. I extracted these figures for 2017 from http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/
Month CPI inflation in France Estonia Italy UK
January 1.34% 2.76% 1.00% 1.91%
February 1.21% 3.41% 1.61% 2.30%
March 1.15% 2.82% 1.41% 2.30%
April 1.17% 3.18% 1.91% 2.69%
May 0.81% 3.33% 1.40% 2.89%
June 0.69% 2.91% 1.20% 2.68%
July 0.72% 3.57% 1.18% 2.58%
August 0.90% 3.93% 1.20% 2.87%
September 0.99% 3.67% 1.10% 2.97%
October 1.06% 3.78% 1.00% 2.96%
November 1.20% 4.24% 0.90% 3.16%
Italy has a similar economic mix to the UK. France by some measures has just overtaken UK in the table of richest nations. I have included Estonia as the only other EU nation where CPI was consistently above Britain's. However, it should be pointed out that this is a small and still fast-growing economy, exceeding 4% GDP growth in each quarter so far in 2017. UK did not reach 1% in any of those quarters.
Month CPI inflation in France Estonia Italy UK
January 1.34% 2.76% 1.00% 1.91%
February 1.21% 3.41% 1.61% 2.30%
March 1.15% 2.82% 1.41% 2.30%
April 1.17% 3.18% 1.91% 2.69%
May 0.81% 3.33% 1.40% 2.89%
June 0.69% 2.91% 1.20% 2.68%
July 0.72% 3.57% 1.18% 2.58%
August 0.90% 3.93% 1.20% 2.87%
September 0.99% 3.67% 1.10% 2.97%
October 1.06% 3.78% 1.00% 2.96%
November 1.20% 4.24% 0.90% 3.16%
Italy has a similar economic mix to the UK. France by some measures has just overtaken UK in the table of richest nations. I have included Estonia as the only other EU nation where CPI was consistently above Britain's. However, it should be pointed out that this is a small and still fast-growing economy, exceeding 4% GDP growth in each quarter so far in 2017. UK did not reach 1% in any of those quarters.
Taxes and honours
William Wallace makes a compelling case for bringing the UK into line with comparable democracies in relation to tax fairness: https://www.libdemvoice.org/we-need-to-talk-about-tax-56219.html He concludes:
The IMF urges the UK to narrow the tax gap between employed and self-employed, to shift property taxation from sales to values, and to reduce tax allowances on corporate debt. Above all, it calls for higher taxes, to invest in public services while shrinking long-term debt, and to cope with the increasing proportion of elderly. Liberals and social democrats should grasp the argument that an open, democratic society rests on a sense of common citizenship, shared community and social justice, and that redistributive taxation is an essential element in building and maintaining that sense.
There is justification for going beyond the tax rates proposed while we have the additional burden of sharing the cost of nuclear weapons with the USA, which none of our competitors have. I resent having to borrow money to pay for armaments over which an increasingly bellicose and isolationist US has ultimate control.
Looked at objectively, the award of a knighthood to Nick Clegg is unexceptionable. Many men who have contributed less to public life have been so honoured. However, the Conservative government must have known that it would stir up old animosities within the Lib Dems at a time when the party is regrouping under new leaders in Westminster and Wales.
I repeat my own view that Nick is an instinctive liberal, and that if he had wanted to join the Conservatives he could easily have done so, and would have had a successful career as a Tory MP, maybe even as a junior minister, to this day. He was handicapped by his sheltered experience of life, never having to worry about where the next pound was coming from, and by the fact that, though he led the party, he was never of the party.
An honour for Jo Swinson was long overdue. It is "only" a CBE this time round, but she is young yet and a damehood will surely come with leadership of the party.
More here: https://www.libdemvoice.org/swinson-and-clegg-honoured-56239.html
The IMF urges the UK to narrow the tax gap between employed and self-employed, to shift property taxation from sales to values, and to reduce tax allowances on corporate debt. Above all, it calls for higher taxes, to invest in public services while shrinking long-term debt, and to cope with the increasing proportion of elderly. Liberals and social democrats should grasp the argument that an open, democratic society rests on a sense of common citizenship, shared community and social justice, and that redistributive taxation is an essential element in building and maintaining that sense.
There is justification for going beyond the tax rates proposed while we have the additional burden of sharing the cost of nuclear weapons with the USA, which none of our competitors have. I resent having to borrow money to pay for armaments over which an increasingly bellicose and isolationist US has ultimate control.
Gongs
Looked at objectively, the award of a knighthood to Nick Clegg is unexceptionable. Many men who have contributed less to public life have been so honoured. However, the Conservative government must have known that it would stir up old animosities within the Lib Dems at a time when the party is regrouping under new leaders in Westminster and Wales.
I repeat my own view that Nick is an instinctive liberal, and that if he had wanted to join the Conservatives he could easily have done so, and would have had a successful career as a Tory MP, maybe even as a junior minister, to this day. He was handicapped by his sheltered experience of life, never having to worry about where the next pound was coming from, and by the fact that, though he led the party, he was never of the party.
An honour for Jo Swinson was long overdue. It is "only" a CBE this time round, but she is young yet and a damehood will surely come with leadership of the party.
More here: https://www.libdemvoice.org/swinson-and-clegg-honoured-56239.html
Friday, 29 December 2017
Whither the Welsh Liberal Democrats?
As may be obvious to regular readers, I have not produced much original material over Advent and the early Christmas holidays, either raiding my sock-drawer of previously discarded drafts or even leaving a blank page. The reason was a very heavy cold, which affected concentration on reading other people's blogs also. So I have only just got around to reading in full Peter Black's weighty piece from Christmas Eve.
One must bow to his analysis of what got us to here, though I wonder what he now thinks might have happened if the "rainbow alliance" had gone ahead. It is clear that if Welsh Liberal Democrats had been in government from 2007 on, the disastrous cuts to the NHS in Wales perpetrated by the "One Wales" government would not have been made. On the other hand, would we have achieved the local government gains in 2008 if Labour had been able to hit us early with the slogan "in bed with the Tories", or been so successful in Wales in the general election of 2010?
I agree with him that the party is in good hands both here in Wales (with Jane Dodds) and on the UK stage (Vince Cable). However, it is going to be an uphill struggle. Not just England and Wales, but also the whole Western world, seems to be going through an illiberal phase, and public opinion in Wales is dominated by the London media as Peter points out:
Our other problem is one of identity. Unlike Scotland, Wales does not have a national media to speak of. The Western Mail, the so-called national newspaper of Wales is outsold by its more regional sister papers, the South Wales Evening Post and the South Wales Echo. There is no one Welsh newspaper that can be bought anywhere in Wales, whilst much of rural Wales relies on weeklies for their news and gossip. One of the biggest selling papers in Montgomeryshire is the Shropshire Star.
Most people rely on UK newspapers and UK TV and radio channels for their news. As with the rest of the world, these traditional news outlets are declining in favour of internet-based media. That is an area which the Federal Party is still playing catch-up on, the Welsh Party are decades behind them.
Part of the trouble is the lack of money. In Westminster, the party - as the only one on the national stage supporting staying in the EU - has been receiving contributions from business and can expect more as the Brexit deadline date looms. In Wales we are living off scraps, and have to rely on ingenuity and much voluntary action.
I should like to see us make much more of the fact that Liberal Democrats are not bound by sectional interests, by financial speculators, the trade unions or narrow nationalism. We should not be a party favouring only those with sharp elbows, as we were seen to be under Nick Clegg. Perhaps more contentiously, I suggest that our desire through the EU for joint control of matters which no single nation can tackle alone is only a step towards greater international cooperation and away from the sort of isolationism espoused by Mrs May and the current president of the United States. It is worth restating the opening to the Liberal Democrat constitution, and perhaps some of our parliamentarians should re-read it:
The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives.
We look forward to a world in which all people share the same basic rights, in which they live together in peace and in which their different cultures will be able to develop freely. We believe that each generation is responsible for the fate of our planet and, by safeguarding the balance of nature and the environment, for the long term continuity of life in all its forms.
One must bow to his analysis of what got us to here, though I wonder what he now thinks might have happened if the "rainbow alliance" had gone ahead. It is clear that if Welsh Liberal Democrats had been in government from 2007 on, the disastrous cuts to the NHS in Wales perpetrated by the "One Wales" government would not have been made. On the other hand, would we have achieved the local government gains in 2008 if Labour had been able to hit us early with the slogan "in bed with the Tories", or been so successful in Wales in the general election of 2010?
I agree with him that the party is in good hands both here in Wales (with Jane Dodds) and on the UK stage (Vince Cable). However, it is going to be an uphill struggle. Not just England and Wales, but also the whole Western world, seems to be going through an illiberal phase, and public opinion in Wales is dominated by the London media as Peter points out:
Our other problem is one of identity. Unlike Scotland, Wales does not have a national media to speak of. The Western Mail, the so-called national newspaper of Wales is outsold by its more regional sister papers, the South Wales Evening Post and the South Wales Echo. There is no one Welsh newspaper that can be bought anywhere in Wales, whilst much of rural Wales relies on weeklies for their news and gossip. One of the biggest selling papers in Montgomeryshire is the Shropshire Star.
Most people rely on UK newspapers and UK TV and radio channels for their news. As with the rest of the world, these traditional news outlets are declining in favour of internet-based media. That is an area which the Federal Party is still playing catch-up on, the Welsh Party are decades behind them.
Part of the trouble is the lack of money. In Westminster, the party - as the only one on the national stage supporting staying in the EU - has been receiving contributions from business and can expect more as the Brexit deadline date looms. In Wales we are living off scraps, and have to rely on ingenuity and much voluntary action.
I should like to see us make much more of the fact that Liberal Democrats are not bound by sectional interests, by financial speculators, the trade unions or narrow nationalism. We should not be a party favouring only those with sharp elbows, as we were seen to be under Nick Clegg. Perhaps more contentiously, I suggest that our desire through the EU for joint control of matters which no single nation can tackle alone is only a step towards greater international cooperation and away from the sort of isolationism espoused by Mrs May and the current president of the United States. It is worth restating the opening to the Liberal Democrat constitution, and perhaps some of our parliamentarians should re-read it:
The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives.
We look forward to a world in which all people share the same basic rights, in which they live together in peace and in which their different cultures will be able to develop freely. We believe that each generation is responsible for the fate of our planet and, by safeguarding the balance of nature and the environment, for the long term continuity of life in all its forms.
Thursday, 28 December 2017
Cole Porter's lyrics
Perhaps Donald Macleod has been stretching the definition of "composer" in recent years in his regular Composer of the Week programme on Radio 3. Musicals are essentially a collaborative venture and one of the distinctions between them and opera is that there is always a professional orchestrator on hand to provide the scoring for the former, while the opera composer tends to be in sole charge. Kurt Weill, one of the few writers of both musicals and opera, was rather scornful of composers who could not score their own melodies. George Gershwin, aspiring for opera- and concert-hall respectability, though largely self-taught, orchestrated his latter works, including Porgy and Bess, himself. For me, Irving Berlin, who could do little more than pick out his tunes on a piano , was a step too far for CotW. However, there is much less doubt about the classically-trained Richard Rodgers who could certainly write a basic score, though he found it a chore, and this week's subject, Cole Porter, similarly qualified.
Rightly, Macleod has concentrated on Porter's music and its sources. However, I find the origins of his skill at word-setting equally interesting. Porter was fiercely protective of his lyrics, and would rather withdraw a song from a show than accede to a request to alter even a line. (The one person for whom he made an exception was his long-time friend, Ethel Merman.) He particularly objected to Sinatra's altering his words in performance, once firing off a telegram to the effect: "if you don't like my songs the way I wrote them, why do you sing them?". His favourite interpreter was Fred Astaire, who did not have the greatest voice but who stuck squarely to the sheet music.
Cole's father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, is described in the Wikipedia entry as "a shy and unassertive man", though one finds this difficult to square with the fact that, starting with a single drug-store, he built up a chain of stores. He was also rather more hands-on with his boy's education than Wikipedia suggests. A seemingly-frustrated poet himself, he drilled the young Cole in the works of English poets, especially Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets like Donne. One wonders whether his initial reluctance to tackle Kiss me, Kate was as much due to resentment at this early training as to diffidence at matching himself against the Bard.
Sadly, I can back little of the foregoing two paragraphs with URIs, reliant as I am of my memory of the first biography of Cole Porter by his friend George Eells. Because this (naturally, in view of the date of publication) side-stepped its subject's homosexuality - while not avoiding descriptions of Porter's camp life-style - it has been largely disregarded in favour of Charles Schwartz's later work.
However, I feel that the early influences should be given their due weight.
Rightly, Macleod has concentrated on Porter's music and its sources. However, I find the origins of his skill at word-setting equally interesting. Porter was fiercely protective of his lyrics, and would rather withdraw a song from a show than accede to a request to alter even a line. (The one person for whom he made an exception was his long-time friend, Ethel Merman.) He particularly objected to Sinatra's altering his words in performance, once firing off a telegram to the effect: "if you don't like my songs the way I wrote them, why do you sing them?". His favourite interpreter was Fred Astaire, who did not have the greatest voice but who stuck squarely to the sheet music.
Cole's father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, is described in the Wikipedia entry as "a shy and unassertive man", though one finds this difficult to square with the fact that, starting with a single drug-store, he built up a chain of stores. He was also rather more hands-on with his boy's education than Wikipedia suggests. A seemingly-frustrated poet himself, he drilled the young Cole in the works of English poets, especially Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets like Donne. One wonders whether his initial reluctance to tackle Kiss me, Kate was as much due to resentment at this early training as to diffidence at matching himself against the Bard.
Sadly, I can back little of the foregoing two paragraphs with URIs, reliant as I am of my memory of the first biography of Cole Porter by his friend George Eells. Because this (naturally, in view of the date of publication) side-stepped its subject's homosexuality - while not avoiding descriptions of Porter's camp life-style - it has been largely disregarded in favour of Charles Schwartz's later work.
However, I feel that the early influences should be given their due weight.
Monday, 25 December 2017
Merry Christmas and a Good Yule
Happy Christmas, everyone, and, in the immortal words of Dave Allen, may your god go with you!
Friday, 22 December 2017
Conductors' personal standards, then and now
Jessica Duchen draws attention to charges of sexual misconduct against Charles Dutoit. This is one of the great orchestral conductors of any age, and his fall from grace would be significant.
Stellar orchestral conductors' careers threatened by sex scandals immediately called to mind the sad end of Sir Eugene Goossens'. I dimly remembered the reports of an Australian customs' seizure of pornography, but the full story emerged only within the last few years. The Sydney Morning Herald of July 2015 tells it: The brilliant career of conductor Sir Eugene Goossens came to an abrupt end in 1956 with a scandal over dirty photos. What the public didn't know was that his downfall was the result of his sexual obsession with a Pan-worshipping witch.
At the same time, the misuse of power as described by JD was doubtless going on. Goossens was a self-deluded man who, while his predilections remained private, did no harm to anyone. History will be less hard on him than any conductor who has blighted the life of a vulnerable performer or acolyte, and rightly so.
Stellar orchestral conductors' careers threatened by sex scandals immediately called to mind the sad end of Sir Eugene Goossens'. I dimly remembered the reports of an Australian customs' seizure of pornography, but the full story emerged only within the last few years. The Sydney Morning Herald of July 2015 tells it: The brilliant career of conductor Sir Eugene Goossens came to an abrupt end in 1956 with a scandal over dirty photos. What the public didn't know was that his downfall was the result of his sexual obsession with a Pan-worshipping witch.
At the same time, the misuse of power as described by JD was doubtless going on. Goossens was a self-deluded man who, while his predilections remained private, did no harm to anyone. History will be less hard on him than any conductor who has blighted the life of a vulnerable performer or acolyte, and rightly so.
Thursday, 21 December 2017
Paul Clement
I had gone to bed last night, having drafted the following for insertion on Saturday morning, before the match with Crystal Palace:
It is not enough to win today - given the Swans' record against the Eagles in recent years, the relative position of the two teams in the Premier League and the fact that the match is to be played at the Liberty, everyone expects a home win - the win must be an emphatic one. If Swans' strikers are not encouraged to express themselves to the extent of a margin of three goals or more, I see little hope for progression under the current management.
I woke up to the news that Paul Clement had been sacked. That has not changed my view of the match. Whoever is to take over at the Liberty - and it is unlikely that the American owners have taken this major step without having a replacement lined up - must ensure that performance levels rise.
I am sure Paul Clement will find greater success in the future. He did pretty well with Swansea City considering he had clearly little say over transfer policy.
It is not enough to win today - given the Swans' record against the Eagles in recent years, the relative position of the two teams in the Premier League and the fact that the match is to be played at the Liberty, everyone expects a home win - the win must be an emphatic one. If Swans' strikers are not encouraged to express themselves to the extent of a margin of three goals or more, I see little hope for progression under the current management.
I woke up to the news that Paul Clement had been sacked. That has not changed my view of the match. Whoever is to take over at the Liberty - and it is unlikely that the American owners have taken this major step without having a replacement lined up - must ensure that performance levels rise.
I am sure Paul Clement will find greater success in the future. He did pretty well with Swansea City considering he had clearly little say over transfer policy.
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