Hello, Goodbye exhibition

Above:  on impulse I went into the Lethaby gallery of the Central St Martins School of Art to see the Hello, Goodbye exhibition.  It is (was, since it closes today) a sort of valedictory display of work from various past alumni before the college moves to a new location in Kings Cross.  On the whole I thought the exhibition was a bit of a mish mash (but perhaps that was the point?).  Many many years since I knew anyone at the college - not since my own student days when I knew Jane Embleton and her friend (whose name I have forgotten).  The building had a dejected atmosphere as if it were already dying.  An oppressive experience going to the basement loos.
 

Above:  also on impulse I went up to Kings Cross to look at the new premises of Central St Martins.  It will be housed in a massive warehouse in the heart of the former goods yard.  I can remember walking past these buildings when the area was smothered with luxuriant vegetation including towering purple buddlias, and signs warned you that the roofs could collapse at any time (but I walked under them anyway).

I can see how the move to Kings Cross will allow the college room to expand.  It is already one of the world's most prestigious colleges of art and design.  It had outgrown the previous site.

Above:  looking at the warehouse and then looking across at the new Guardian building (Kings Place) I realised that one building had probably inspired the other.  Kings Place has a false facade immediately in front of it made of tinted glass.  Presumably this is to deflect sunlight, but it gives the structure a slightly sinister appearance, as if the building was wearing dark glasses.

Above:  my heart sank when I saw these buildings overlooking the Regents Canal.  The nearest section was the old Railway Mission where I was once invited to a Christmas Carol concert (with Stan and John).  Now destined to be yuppified and colonised with "knowledge workers".

The St Martins newspaper predicts that even the Lincoln Arms pub in York Way will become a student haven.

They have created a desolation and called it progress, to paraphrase Tacitus.

More:  http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/63485.htm

A large percentage of people like to be told what to do

Above:  advertisement for Greene King.  The message is for the forthcoming bank holiday weekend.  It is telling people (men especially) to forget about DIY (home improvements) and drink beer instead.

In my opinion this is a very effective ad.

But why is it so effective?  The style and creative form is derived from a government poster from the Second World War.  It is giving you permission for something you probably want to do anyway. 

Above (screen print):  the original poster from the second world war.  The image has become hugely popular over the last few years.  The reason government campaigns like this were effective is because they addressed the anxiety that most people felt most of the time during the second world war. 

What should I do when my home is bombed / my son is missing in action / the enemy are threatening to invade?  Keep calm and carry on is what you should do.  Interestingly this kind of advertising works even in circumstances far removed from a national emergency.

A large percentage of people like to be told what to do.  They find choice debilitating, even stressful.  They are also looking for meaning in their lives, and often find this in "following" (following people, following fashions, following political movements etc).

I wish it were otherwise.  I wish everyone would exercise control over their lives and reject most of the rubbishy ideas / suggestions / products that are peddled to them.  I wish they would work out what they really want from life and pursue the important goals even when they are hard and difficult.

But unfortunately a large percentage of people like to be told what to do.

Ambush on the Today programme this morning

Very effective ambush on the Today programme this morning on BBC Radio 4.  Alex Salmond came on thinking he was going to talk about a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer but interviewer John Humphries threw a number of questions at him about the Sunday Herald (based in Glasgow) ignoring an injunction in the courts.  Although Alex Salmond later recovered his composure, for a few minutes he was floundering and looked a galoot.

I walked the length of the drive

After lunch a drive to the north of the county and a village once dominated by a great mansion, pulled down in the 1930s.  The day was generally sunny, but while I was in the village the clouds rolled over and it became gloomy.  Very slight shower of rain, lasting about four minutes and hardly making the ground wet.



Above:  all that remains of the great estate is this avenue of lime trees that used to lead from the road up to the Hall.  Although the air was warm, a terrific wind was blowing which created an alarming racket as I walked the length of the drive.  Intense fresh smell from the trees, although the blossom will not be out for some weeks.

Above:  all the farmhouses in the area are large and substantial.  I have noticed that in areas once belonging to a former estate, after the house and family have gone the local farming families seem to inherit (or perhaps imbibe would be a better word) the squirearchical manners of the landed gentry.  Not in a pretentious or deliberate way - it's more as if they have been involuntarily moved forward to fill the social vacuum.

Above:  in the church was this interesting tablet demonstrating that even quite ordinary families thought of themselves in dynastic terms.  Note the quotation from Exodus that relates both honour and land to the reverence of ancestors.  Why was this emphasis upon continuity in one place so important?

Above:  looking up into the murky shadows by the chancel arch I saw this hatchment.  The arms include three sprigs of vegetation - I think they are oak leaves.  I am fascinated by the origins of heraldry, particularly the way in which individuals and families choose to symbolise themselves.

"Where are all your papers?" - the past week at work

Monday

As I expected, there was a terrible mess on my desk when I got to the office.  I took all the papers and just put them in a pile so they at least looked neat.  The rest of the day, off and on, I tried to get them into order.

Annoyed that of the five things I had given office junior Leo to do he had only done one.  I made him do the others immediately.  My deputy Meryl was subdued; the Information Team (six people) were working flat out; PR Officer Josie was exuberant.

An odd meeting with my boss Communications Director Tom D and some consultants.  We talked about a projected Membership Scheme for the NGO.  I suspect it will be another fiasco.

Later I talked to Tom D alone and he continued to behave oddly, as if he were suspicious of me.  I asked about the Senior Management meeting last week and he said: "we talked at some length about you as your contract is due for renewal" (I am on a six-month fixed contract).  Although previously I thought I didn't care whether my contract was renewed or not, at that moment I couldn't help wanting to be kept on.  I suppose my ego wanted to be wanted.  I asked him what the result was, and he said: "As you know, the NGO is cutting budget's across the board and it looked as if we could not justify your post.  But Ryan found the money from his budget" (Ryan M is the Operations Director, and has recently started an affair with Josie in my department). 

He paused and looked at me, as if expecting me to say something.  I said nothing.  The meeting came to an end.

Lunchtime and two trainers, who are to deliver a training course for the NGO's management team, bought me lunch at a local motel.  Smoked salmon sandwiches and strong cold lager.  When I went out into the sun again the heat was oppressive so that I felt giddy (or perhaps it was the drink).

Boring afternoon.

Tuesday

Unhurried drive to a Midlands city for a conference on European legislation.  The speakers were all dry as dust except for one young lawyer who had some interesting things to say.  Awful MEP droning on and on.

Wednesday

Although it is only May the weather is like high summer.  Cabbage pickers in the field as I went out to my car.  Listened to Radio 1 on the drive to work (I am not keen on Evan Davis on Radio 4).

Arriving at the NGO I parked in Tom D's place as he was away for the day.  The heap of paper on my desk is becoming intimidating.  During the morning I felt as if I were losing control of things (people coming up to me to ask things, telephone calls being put through, e-mails pinging onto my screen).

Ryan D telephoned and I went up to his little office (which he shares with several of his team, wanting to be "democratic").  It was the first proper conversation we had had since he started the "affair" with Josie S.  He seemed very bashful, more like a boy than a man of thirty.

I looked at his clear desk and the sight niggled me.  "Where are all your papers?" I asked him, "...where are all your files?"  It didn't seem fair that I was drowning in paper whereas he seemed free.

We talked about a national award he had asked me to promote (and which I privately think is a ridiculous exercise in self-aggrandisement - celebrity host, a dinner, speeches of mutual praise etc).  The campaign we did to encourage entries had been lacklustre, but he was full of thanks and praise and encouragement.  So much so that I could not take him seriously.

When I got down to the ground floor again I found that my deputy Meryl had been arguing again with PR Officer Josie.  Mindful of following the correct procedures, I talked to each of them separately and told them to behave, writing everything down.  Meryl was evasive about what they had been arguing about, Josie just said "she thinks she can order me about" (which strictly speaking is correct).

A meeting with a civil servant in the first part of the afternoon.

A meeting with a different civil servant in the second part of the afternoon.

At the end of the working day I talked to Felix S who runs the Research section (within the Marketing department - he is equal grade to myself).  He discussed plans to recruit a Research Officer, and told me that the funding for the post was now in doubt as it was certain my contract was going to be renewed.  This would explain Tom D's odd attitude on Monday - he had wanted my salary to fund the new Research post.

Thursday

Things seemed more manageable today. 

In the morning a meeting with a rep from a commercial radio network, and afterwards I took the script up to Ryan M for him to approve (this was for the national award scheme). 

The national directory being produced by the Marketing department is going extremely well.  The project had been opposed by several managers in the NGO and I had been struggling to get it done without much support (apart from the Information Team who have worked excellently).  I know the directory is now regarded as a potential success as Tom D has started trying to steal the credit for it, writing a Foreward which is to be illustrated with his photo.

Lunchtime a meeting with Tom D and Felix S to discuss the recruitment of the Research Officer (which still doesn't have any funding).  We had ham rolls, cake and pots of fruit yoghurt.  I wondered how the food had been paid for.

Late afternoon Ryan M came to sit opposite, talking about the national award.  Unbidden, Josie came to join us, sitting next to him.  Ryan talked a great deal, and at one stage yawned while talking ("I'm even making myself bored"). 

At the end of the impromptu meeting Ryan and Josie left together, presumably to go up to his office.

When they had left Meryl said archly: "I see Ryan has acquired a little helper".

"She's his lover" said office junior Leo.

"She's his mistress" said Margaret in the Information Team.

"She's his tart" said Meryl.

Friday

When I got to my desk this morning I found a small note from Ryan approving the radio campaign.  The note had been written on the back of a disco ticket for the local football club he plays for.  I threw it into the bin, but had to retrieve it when later in the day he asked if I was going (I quickly invented an excuse why not).

"Stake-holder" and Baptist Minister Caleb arrived unexpectedly, making his usual amount of noise.  Information Assistant Gerry went off to one of the NGO's outstations, scooping up a couple of box files that had been open on his desk.  After he had gone Caleb began panicking that he couldn't find his car keys, and said that Gerry must have taken them accidentally with the box files (which Caleb had been rudely looking through).  Information Assistant Margaret went off in pursuit of Gerry to get them back.  Caleb fussed about, talking loudly and completely disrupting the department so that I wanted to throw him out.  Then he found his keys in his jacket pocket and sheepishly left.

Three meetings in the afternoon, one of them with a PSB broadcaster that wants to make a documentary about the NGO (twelve progammes).

On the way home I stopped to go into a supermarket.  Unexpected torrential shower of rain so that I had to run for my car when I came out of the store.  Then the rain stopped and the heat resumed.

Once the commuting stops

Above:  screen print of Grant McCracken's blogpost of 17th January (which can be read: http://cultureby.com/2011/01/will-new-york-city-go-the-way-of-the-newspaper.html ).

I have been thinking for some time about the future of the urban, suburban and rural areas of the United Kingdom and the way they interact with each other. 

In part this was sparked by Grant McCracken's post about New York, which helped me articulate in my own mind thoughts I had been collecting about this topic (in a sense reminding me of things I didn't know I knew, if that doesn't sound too Rumsfeldonian).

Particularly I am interested in turning Grant's post on its head and not looking at the city, but at the implications for non-urban areas.  What is going to happen to towns and villages once the commuting stops (or slows down, since people will still want to experience city culture, network with people in person, attend large-scale sporting events etc).  Also how is this re-shaping of society going to affect government policy?

These are a few developments I can envisage:

The working day will probably increase in length.  Instead of working from nine to five, individuals will probably work a longer overall day (but incorporating breaks when required).  Consequently it will become less easy to "switch off" in the evenings).

Financial - with more high-salary professionals spending the majority of their time in the immediate area where they live, more money is likely to be retained locally which should make local shops, schools, post offices, pubs, general services, institutions etc more viable (I see this happening through an increase in discretionary spending and the levying of local taxes; spending via the internet will continue to increase).

Employment opportunities in rural areas will improve, with less pressure on young people to move away.


Property prices should even out across the country as it will be just as easy to work in Knutsford as in Camden (but with a consequent fall in property prices in urban areas some families may choose to have a city property as well as their main property and move between the two - a democratisation of a pattern that already exists for the very rich).

Health will continue to become more localised.  Already many hospital stays are of very short duration, with on-going care taking place in a patient's home.  With the decanting of the cities, medical teams may be required to become more mobile, perhaps travelling between a circuit of treatment centres.

Care for the elderly.  With more people at home more often, one would hope that the loneliness and isolation felt by large numbers of elderly people will come to an end.  The expected increase in demand for long-term care for the elderly could well be absorbed by more people working at home and simultaneously caring for an elderly relative.

Policing.  The trend for policing services to be based in urban areas will almost certainly have to be reversed as concentrated populations continue to disperse.  Already several parishes have experimented by paying for extra localised police support (though it is not clear why they should pay extra - the funding should follow the population).

The atomisation of the cities.  Although a Detroit-style hollowing out of urban areas is unlikely, as more people work from home we will probably see an intensification of local communities.  It is a cliche to say London is a collection of villages, but we can probably predict an increase in the long-term identification of individuals with a specific place (with improved motivation to solve social issues, environmental issues, planning issues etc).

The Cranfordisation of society.  This final point is more difficult to express since it relates to the impact of a broadly static society upon individuals and families.  The last time the British national and cultural entity experienced relative stasis was in the early nineteenth-century, before the arrival of the railways (the era of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford), so perhaps that period offers clues as to what will happen when people stop moving around.

Sub-headings in blue:

Relocation for career reasons will largely come to an end.  People will still move house for a whole variety of reasons, but the main impetus to move every three or four years to develop a professional career will probably come to a stop.  As a consequence families will tend to remain in a particular area across several generations, allowing support mechanisms to develop across an extended family network.  Continuity (in all its varied social manifestations) will become a profound influence on society.  Corporate culture will also be affected, companies becoming focussed on a small core at the centre (and the centre may itself be located in a non-urban area).  However the ending of personnel relocation will have big implications for the housing market, and the way we store wealth in property.

Emotional and psychological impact.  Commuting tends to be stressful and tiring, so an increase in home-working can be expected to relieve that stress.  Also the proximity of nature (for those living in rural areas) has psychological benefits (according to studies).

A surveillance society.  With more people staying in one place the greater part of most days, there will be less opportunity for uninhibited behaviour.  Within marital and other relationships partners will watch each other more than they do now.  Parents will watch children more than they do now.  "Society" as a collective will watch individuals more than happens now.  Who knows what result this increase in surveillance will have.  Couples may stay together longer through a deeper sense of shared experience, or over-familiarity may split them apart as they grow sick of the sight of each other.  Families may be brought more closely together or they may explode with seething frustrations.  Introvert people in such a society may feel safer and more secure; extrovert people may feel crushed and claustrophobic.

Professor Welch's Merrie England.  I hesitated to write this section since I am not sure what I really want to say.  But the relatively enforced proximity of people within a fairly limited area is likely to result in more group activities and entertainments.

In-home entertainment will probably be the preferred choice of most people, and cities will remain the primary providers of high culture, but on a local level the ending of commuting will provide more time and opportunity for hobbies, clubs and societies.  Home-made pottery, recorder-playing recitals and Lynda Snell-style amateur theatricals may seem a nightmare to some sophisticates.  However Aldous Huxley wrote:

"The real value of folk art is psychological and social.  It is good that large numbers of people should be craftsmen, not because there is the smallest prospect of their producing a correspondingly large number of good works of art, but because craftsmanship is something which most men and women find psychologically satisfying.  Craftsmanship brings psychological fulfilment; a society of craftsmen is a society of satisfied individuals; and a society of satisfied individuals tends to be a stable society."

This is not a revolution.  These changes will not come about overnight, so there is no suggestion that this will be a swift revolution.  But each year sees an increase in the percentage of people working at home.  This change is happening everywhere.  It will affect everybody in one way or another.  Whether the result will be good or bad who can tell.

中国头IMF

In my view it is time for a Chinese head of the IMF.  "Europeans" (by which I mean the tired old self-perpetuating political elite) have hogged these institutions for too long.  It's time to see what China can do.

Social housing in London

I meant to add to my piece yesterday that there are strong indications that the lack of proper family homes (not flats or "units") is one of the major reasons we have seen a breakdown in family life.

Ossulston Road Estate

Above:  Saturday two weeks ago I watched the debate on Social Housing in London, repeated on the BBC Parliament Channel (it went on all afternoon, so I did other things as well).  Joan Ruddock MP talked of 16,000 people on the waiting list in Lewisham, an area I know well from visiting my cousins in Catford.  She probably means well but to talk of "affordable new units" is dehumanising language - these should be homes for people not units for producers/consumers. 

Later Angela Bray MP talked about "the need for family houses rather than flats" which sounded much better.

As an aside, Don Strapzy's video for Out of the Blue is set in Lewisham:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJCINU7SXmI

Above:  Tom Brake MP said there was a waiting list of 4,000 people in the borough of Sutton.  He praised Centrepoint Outreach ("they sent a briefing out for today's debate").  Centrepoint Outreach is one of the charities I support.  You can donate here:  http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/  The briefing document is here:  http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/media/11155/wrb_committee_briefing_21st_march_2011.pdf

I am not sure about the proposals to end the right of tenure.  I know several people who would not be able to cope without state housing support.  They do not have organising skills to be able to privately rent or buy their own accommodation - by this I mean they do not have sufficient literacy skills, financial abilities, modest reserves of determination, emotional steadiness, motivation (their lives often seem meaningless to them), problem-solving skills etc and rather than cope with the pressures of private renting or buying they will probably give up and go under.

Clive Efford MP said that lack of supply was at the root cause of homelessness, but this cannot be the whole picture.  The increase in demand should also be addressed.  For instance 100,000 people from southern Ireland are expected to migrate to the United Kingdom because of the economic crisis - has any thought been given to where these people will live (it may be cheaper to pay them benefits to stay in Dublin).

Heidi Alexander MP referred to research by Family Mosaic http://www.familymosaic.co.uk/News/Which-direction-is-social-housing-travelling-in-

Frank Dobson MP referred to the social housing ordered by Neville Chamberlain in the 1920s (when Minister for Health).  This intrigued me since I am used to thinking of Neville Chamberlain as a weak and naive ditherer.  I decided to go and look at this housing, which is called the Ossulston Road Estate.

Above:  inside the Levita House on the Ossulston Road Estate.  Seven story building around a courtyard.  Simon Pepper, Professor of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, in an excellent article for the 20th Century Society said the architect of the estate (Topham Forrest) designed the buildings after being influenced by a visit to Vienna in 1927.  Standing inside the courtyard of Levita House I was immediately reminded of the courtyard castles of Austria (maybe Schloss Kornberg).

Above:  more of the courtyard at Levita House.  The enclosed balconies are a feature of the estate.  The flats were all-electric and had central heating.

Above:  the variegated roofline has been much praised.  Also not the slightly inward-sloping line of the nearest corner which is very pleasing to the eye and gives an organic feel to the building.  At street level there are shops, offices and pubs.

Above:  the entrance to Chamberlain House looking into the courtyard.  Simple but also beautiful.  Nothing brutalist here.

Above:  going into the courtyard of Chamberlain House the trees reminded me of another castle courtyard - Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.  This looks a genuinely nice place to live.  You could never say that about the Heygate Estate.

Above:  wonderful details such as this ironwork (jugendstil influence?).

Above:  pubs were incorporated into the design, a short walk down from the flats.

Above:  I really liked the look of the Golden Tulip caff and would have stopped for a cup of tea if I hadn't been in a rush.

Above:  multi-use sports area - possibly the lack of sports facilities is a criticism of the estate.

Above:  last building I looked at was Walker House, which was a real surprise - on the outside plain brick facades...

Above:  ...but on the inside this lush and intimate garden - it was like being in Campden Hill Square.

Above:  and on the corner of Walker House, reassuringly close, was a pub.

Raven

Baby raven fallen from its nest.  It sat there helpless, and seemed to be hyperventilating.  There didn't seem much I could do except leave it and hope the parent birds are nearby.

Smart black glossy plumage, massive bulk (comparatively), piercing gutteral cry.

Naturally extrovert birds.

Not pushy enough

Above:  visiting a village in the north west of the county I went first to the pub.  It was shut.  "He's very eccentric.  He inherited it from his father and just opens it when he wants to.  I think it's Saturday evenings by appointment, and most Sunday afternoons.  And darts night during the week."

Above:  we went up to a ridge to look over a little valley.  At this point it began to rain, huge drops.  I was sheltered under a tree, but still got fairly wet.  Originally the boundaries between two farms followed a meandering river through this valley.  In the eighteenth century a cut was made for the river which follows the hedge along the middle of the picture.  If you click to enlarge the image you can see the other farmhouse among the trees in the distance.

Above:  the church was nearby, a mixture of medieval and eighteenth century.  The roof was replaced about two hundred years ago, leaving the original roofline exposed against the tower.  You can see that the regular courses of cut stone change to rough in-fill.

Above:  three crusader tombstones had been built into the walls of the nave.

Above:  the alignment of the church is slightly off, although no-one can explain why.

Above:  the west window had been widened at some point in the past.  Together with the relignment this suggests that someone standing inside the church is meant to look in a certain direction.  Looking on Google maps I can trace the sight-line to a big farmhouse on a low hill about half a mile away.

Above:  in the chancel is this tomb of a knight.  The tomb is decorated with heraldry and other symbols, including several small heads.  Notice the spandrel designs. 

Above:  the carving on the monument is superbly detailed.

Above:  I think the spandrel designs must be associated with the Virgin Mary since they consist of a heart surrounded by lillies.  Probably they are the emblem of a confraternity the knight was associated with.  As well as funtioning as religious guilds confraternities raised money to send knights to the Holy Land.



Above:  I also met the owner of this farmhouse, which has a date of 1684 but may be considerably older.  The building was in a ruinous state before the present owner restored it ("the surveyer said it was basically verticle rubble").  Among the beams he had found a carved figure of an angel holding a shield.  The angel matched the angels carved on the tomb of the knight's wife.  I wanted to see this carving and I kept hoping the owner would ask me to look round the house.  He seemed on the verge of doing so, but in the end didn't. 

Perhaps I should have asked him outright.  It's the story of my life - I'm not pushy enough.  But perhaps I wouldn't like myself if I was too pushy.

An affair

Blogger has been down the last couple of days, so have been unable to post anything.

Today I have just got in and feel too tired to write much.

Saturday is usually when I write up my work diary.  I was on holiday the two weeks after Easter.  Then I returned to work last Monday.

I had only been back in the office an hour or so when I realised that things had changed.  My assistant Josie S (PR Officer) is having an affair with the Operations Director Ryan M.  Normally office romances don't bother me.  Who cares what people get up to so long as they leave me alone.  But there are three aspects of this affair that make me uneasy.

The first is a sort of moral issue.  She is nineteen and he is thirty.  She is still living with her parents, he is married.  She is one of the most junior members of staff in the NGO, he is a Director.  Should I try to warn her this is not a good situation for her to be in?  Or should I just let them get on with it? 

Second issue is that they are not discreet.  They openly carry on in the office (nothing lewd, just putting their arms round each other, holding hands, occasional chaste kisses etc).  This mostly happens in the marketing department which is fairly enclosed, but the area is my responsibility and I can tell the other staff are not happy about it (especially Meredith).

Third issue is a selfish one.  She is my subordinate, he is my senior (not my line manager, but he can still tell me what to do).  Where does that leave me?  I am supposed to supervise her work.  Give her things to do (some of them boring).  Tell her off when she gets things wrong.  There has been a smouldering feud for some time between Josie and my deputy Meryl P - how am I going to manage this next time they start arguing?

It's not use going to my line manager Tom D as he and Ryan M are old pals.

It's a mess.

Anatole Kaletsky in today's Times

Very interesting article by Anatole Kaletsky in today's Times about the way the European Union through the European Central Bank, through bailouts of debtor nations, is following a covert policy for political integration.

Anatole Kaletsky writes:  "The political motivation for tightening the debt yoke on Greece, Ireland and Portugal is even clearer.  By turning these countries into permanent debtors to the ECB and the various EU bailout funds, Brussels and Frankfurt are enormously increasing the power of centralised European institutions at the expense of nation states."

Are they using European taxpayers money to "buy" territory for their unitary state?  Perhaps like the USA purchased Alaska from a hard-up Russian tsar?  Or the Lousiana Purchase by cancelling French debts to the USA? 

Anatole Kaletsky is the author of Capitalism 4.0

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Capitalism-4-0-Birth-New-Economy/dp/1408807491

St Pancras Hotel

Above:  I had the green cocktail which was called Apothecary - it was so alcoholic that just the first glass nearly knocked me out (this was on an empty stomach).

Yesterday I went into the bar of the refurbished St Pancras Hotel (early evening).  The service was very good, attentive without being pushy.  The interior of the bar was spectacular - gilded Lombardic gothic.

Above:  afterwards we had a quick look around the ground floor of the hotel, including the famous staircase.  Gilbert Scott's building is slightly intimidating, but in a nice way.  Grand rather than comfortable, but the grandeur is stirring, so that after leaving the building you experience a strange ossillating state of motivation and relaxation (as if you have just attended a seminar by a self-help guru who has told you simultaneously to chill out and be all you wanna be).



Above:  St Pancras station (and the hotel) was saved from destruction by Sir John Betjeman (among others).  This book by Betjeman was published in 1972 and the front cover is a clever design using two colours.  Note the typeface, which I can't identify.  The designer was Craig Dodd.  Somehow you get the feeling that designers had to work a lot harder in the pre-digital era.  They had to do more with less.

The effect of the architecture stayed with me a long time afterwards.  It is unusual for a building to have this effect on me (that I am conscious of).  It made me wonder what effect the building has on others.

Aldous Huxley wrote:  Pointed arches seemed better than round ones, because they were the emblems of a certain way of life.  Ruskin persuasively rationalised this ethico-religious preference in terms of aesthetics; and on these aesthetic grounds ogival architecture was preferred to the Rennaissance and Baroque by whole classes of people, who would thoroughly have disapproved of the original reasons for the Gothic revival.

Self-determination

Over the weekend the media has been full of coverage of the success of the Scottish National Party in the elections in Scotland. It is puzzling that no interviewer has so far challenged SNP leader Alex Salmond to justify nationalism as an intellectual philosophy.  As nationalism, even in its most benign form, is a political cult of selfishness he will find it hard to do this (I am using the word "cult" as I do not think nationalism can have any rational economic or social basis).  Nationalism is always a mask for hatred, and it should be possible to record examples of this hatred and ask Alex Salmond to explain himself. Aldhus Huxley wrote:  "As well as hate, the other passion behind the theory and practice of nationalism is vanity.  The collective vanity manifested by each individual member of a group which he regards as superior to other groups and whose superiority he feels in himself.  Both hate and vanity are combined with, and derive an added strength from, that lust for sociability whose indugence yields such enormous psychological dividends to the individual of a gregorious species... hate is the actual or potential complement of vanity." Also, it is not clear how far self-determination is intended to go.  Is Alex Salmond willing to concede that some geographical areas of "Scotland" might want to remain in the United Kingdom? (for instance the border areas voted either Tory or Labour last Thursday, and Orkney and Shetland are not keen on the SNP).  Is Alex Salmond going to deny communities within Scotland the right to self-determination he is insisting on for the SNP? And if some Scottish counties and islands do not want to follow the SNP into a separate entity, will we see the creation of a "British Scotland" along the lines of Northern Ireland? The other question that comes to mind is the position of Scottish people living in the rest of the United Kingdom.  Are they going to be allowed a vote in deciding the future of their "homeland".  What is the intended criteria for this franchise?

Each in his narrow cell forever laid, the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep

I looked at this row of eighteenth-century graves and thought of Thomas Hardy:  "Each in his narrow cell forever laid, the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep".

Barbara Pym felt she spent too much time looking round old graveyards (but she couldn't help herself).

James Ralph P, quoting a saying of his parents, said we will spend enough time in the cemetary as it is, without making special advance journeys.

Lime Hawk-moth

The afternoon was absolutely still, the air hot and humid.

In the garden I found a Lime Hawk-moth.  I have never seen one of these before (normally they are found in the south of England).  It was a beautiful creature, and I was really pleased it had stopped by.

Also in the garden we have a bees' nest, and I was stung today for only the second time in my life.

Holiday

Have been on holiday for the last two weeks, joining up the days between the bank holidays with annual leave.

Most of the time I stayed at home.

Not looking forward to going back to work on Monday.

Iran

Normally each day I have a quick look at stats for this blog.   They don't tend to change much.   As you might expect, the majority of vistors are almost always from the United Kingdom, occasionally America tops the list.  Usually Germany is third, then Australia, and then a long list of other locations in no particular order.  But recently, over the last few weeks, the majority of visitors has sometimes been from Iran (once or twice a week).   Why Iran?   What possible interest can this blog have for Iranians?   If you are an Iranian reading this blog please declare yourself either by commenting or e-mailing me on andrewamesbury@live.co.uk

In the referendum I voted "No"

Above:  in the last few weeks I have received a number of approaches from political parties.

I have just voted in the local elections and in the national referendum on whether to change the voting system.

In the referendum I voted "No", mainly because the Yes Campaign seemed so unenthusiastic about the AV voting system.  Their main argument seemed to be:  we are not wild about AV but if we break the existing system we might get what we really want later on.  As a sales pitch this is crazy - the only thing that really sells (whether products, services or political ideas) is ENTHUSIASM. 

If you don't have enthusiasm you are never going to be able to convey that enthusiasm to others.  Conveying enthusiasm to others is the only practical way to sell.  No enthusiasm equals no sales (which is why successful sales people are so irritatingly confident, single-minded and unfeasibly "sincere").

In the last few weeks I have received a number of approaches from political parties, and have been impressed with the sophistication of the marketing.  For instance Ed Miliband sent me a card asking if I wanted to become involved in developing new policies for the Labour party.  David Cameron sent me an e-mail today with the arguments for the No Campaign.

I know Ed and Dave did not really send these communications, but the fact they knew my name and got it right impressed me all the same.  It goes to show that you can never be too personal in marketing campaigns.  Personal in this sense means researching your target audience really well - it does not mean adopting an over-familiar tone that is likely to annoy people.

The demise of bin Laden from a marketing perspective

Interesting conference at the Foreign Policy Institute this afternoon on the implications of the shooting of bin Laden.  Unfortunately it's in America (Philadelphia).  But it's an event I would like to have attended since it will be looking at a world-changing event in a sober and considered way. Almost every commentator is rushing forward to say "this is not the end of the war on terror". Personally I think it is.   Looking at the demise of bin Laden from a marketing perspective, I think it will be difficult for al Qaeda to recover from this set back without investing in a huge PR event, and it is unlikely they have the resources, imagination and leadership to do this. The 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre achieved for al Qaeda several key objectives in terms of communication - visual impact (with dramatic live television coverage); establishing the identity and perception of al Qaeda; recruiting followers worldwide etc. Despite the horror and human tragedy, the actual damage done to America as a collective whole was slight. The value to al Qaeda of the 2001 atrocity was in terms of publicity, and this was personalised in the figure of bin Laden. By shooting bin Laden this PR myth has been neutralised and al Qaeda has been branded "losers". Unlikely they will be able to recover from this. More about the conference:  http://www.fpri.org/

Cult of Beauty exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Recently I went to see the Cult of Beauty exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

I was a little bit disappointed with the show.  It had received very good reviews, and I was expecting something spectacular.  Individually some of the paintings were first rate, but there was a lot of what my father would call "old tat". 

High points included:

Gentle Spring by Frederick Sandys, which had all the clichés in it (rainbow, butterflies, prominent young woman's breasts etc) but somehow seemed to work.

Laus Veneris by Burne-Jones - the maiden second from left looks at you with very shrewd eyes; the seated figure exhibits a desolate melancholy so profound she seems exhausted by it; the knights in the background seem as indistinguishable one from another as a modern boyband.

The superb Nocturne blue and gold by Whistler (there was a lot of Whistler in the exhibition, not all of it to my liking). 

Chaste nudes by Albert Moore plus his languid Midsummer from the Russell-Cotes Museum.

Bath of Psyche by Frederick Leighton (plus his Countess Brownlow which I have seen at Belton House, at the Leighton exhibition some years ago, and now here).

Best of all a watercolour of St Marks in Venice by Ruskin.

All individually worth seeing, but as a whole the exhibition didn't hold together.  The theme of aestheticism wasn't really proven (which is not to say that it cannot be proved, just that this exhibition didn't really do the job).  Also the lighting was gloomy (not sure why this was, as it didn't add anything).

Castle

Strange sort of weather over the long weekend - a combination of hot sun and ferocious southerly wind (a warm wind, but still cooled things down if you stood out in it too long).

Above:  for the bank holiday weekend the remains of this castle were open to the public.  It is on private land and normally can only be seen from a distance.  Supposedly this tower was one of four (at the corners of the square castle) but Pevsner doesn't mention this, so who knows if it is true.  Long queue to go inside.  Not much to see, and you can only go up one storey.  The outline of the castle and moats (now dry) can be seen in the field.

Above:  between the tower and the manor house a mock medieval camp had been set up with metalworkers, falconry, shire horses etc.  I experienced a sense of inertia walking around, perhaps it was the wind that made me feel so tired.  The exhibits were fairly authentic so long as you didn't look too hard.

Above:  there was a display of sword fighting by a medieval re-enactment society, including king of the hill.  The weapons are accurate reproductions so presumably they have casualties from time to time.  Admittedly they didn't hit each other very hard.

Above:  there had also been archery earlier in the day, but this had finished by the time I got there.  Quite interested in archery.  Might go and see it at the Olympics next year (if the tickets are available).

Above:  I wandered over to the church but there were teas being served inside so I couldn't really look around.  Also an exhibition.  Some interesting truncated medieval carvings. 



Above:  walking back through the village there were long lines of canalboats in the river in a sort of regatta.