The atmosphere of the place was almost tangible

Now the evenings are light until 9pm I often make little excursions on my way home.  One day during the week I went to look round a village in the south west corner of the county.  It wasn't much out of my way, and saved me going back there at the weekend.















Above:  the Ordnance Survey map shows evidence of crusader activity to the north of the village, and this is supported by records and archaeological excavations.  Note the way the bulge of the hill overlooks a little valley.  Also the plentiful supply of water.

Above:  the village itself has an enclosed, slightly claustrophobic aspect, with terraces of stone cottages arranged in narrow little streets.

Above:  I had to ask for the church to be opened (the church is dedicated to John the Baptist, often associated with Templar sites).  The door was decorated with medieval heads and flowers.  On either side of the door (not immediately apparent) are obscene carvings of the male and female genitals. 

Above:  inside there were a number of clues that suggested a Templar presence.   The building was small, but had transepts which indicate the existence of chapels for guilds and confraternities (useful in raising money and recruits for crusading activity).  The font has carvings of lilies, which are a Judean symbol of Jerusalem (as well as a symbol of the Virgin Mary).

Above:  most interesting of all is this huge grave stone behind the organ, surrounded by clutter.  The crusader cross is unmistakeable.  At the top of the stone there is a very crude portrait of a head (the head of John the Baptist, supposedly one of the Templar symbols?). 

Above:  a display board had details of the excavations on Temple Hill, which took place in the 1960s.  As you can see, the site included its own chapel.  Why the name "Temple" Hill - was this supposed to imitate the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?

Above:  I drove out into the countryside to the north of the village.  I was able to easily identify the site by the location of the streams.  It was about 7 o'clock, the evening beautiful, the air humid.

Above:  you can see my car parked down by the stream.  I walked back up the hill looking for a gap in the hedge.  Lush wild flowers covered the roadside verge.

Above:  dog roses in the thick hedge.  The exertion of walking up the hill in the humid air made me feel enervated.  Eventually I got into the field by climbing over a gate.

Above:  the field was completely overgrown with weeds and undergrowth.  I had been hoping to see the outline of the site in the ground, but this was not possible.  The atmosphere of the place was almost tangible - secretive, sagacious, presentimental.

Above:  later at home I reread Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith's article on Confraternities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.  Much work still needs to be done in this area.  For instance, there are thousands of medieval wills that have not been published, and I am sure that they some of them will show donations to confraternities supporting crusader activity.

We discussed various problems - the past week at work

Monday

My deputy Meryl seemed sullen this morning.  Office junior Leo was co-operative.  I have given up trying to understand their moods.

What did I do all day?  Looking back, it is hard to identify anything specific.  I briefed a designer.  Then I endured a presentation from a sales rep for a commercial radio station.  I talked to Research manager Felix about the art of writing e-mails copied to everyone in the NGO (he claims this is an effective means of personal PR).

PR Officer Josie (who is having an affair with Operations Director Ryan M) was in a strange mood and made a number of bitter comments ("Sometimes I hate working in this place... it's such a complicated hostile organisation... I never really know who my friends are...").  I suppose if I were truly her friend I would tell her not behave so stupidly over someone who is never going to leave his wife.  But if I did that she would not forgive me.

The working day drew to a close and I stepped out of the office into the late afternoon sunshine.  Rather than listen to PM (on Radio 4) I put on the commercial radio station I had been discussing earlier.  Karen Carpenter was singing Goodbye To Love. 

Tuesday

Communications Director Tom D has gone away for two weeks, leaving Felix and myself in charge (which in the NGO is called "acting up" - we are equal grade).  We sat in Tom's office discussing opportunities to do things while Tom is away.  Change things, influence things, perhaps even cancel things.   

The documentary about the NGO was filmed today, with the film crew wandering around the building interviewing people.  This project started as a series of radio documentaries, and has grown into an eleven-episode film series (five minutes per episode).  I had given Josie the task of minding the film crew, and she flapped about, getting annoyed when people were not ready for their spots.

Because the NGO Board was being filmed in the evening I had to stay late (just in case something went wrong).  I used the time to catch up on some outstanding work.  I talked to Ryan M about the National Awards he has asked me to organise.  When I told him to expect a call from a journalist he said to me brazenly: "The thing is, is she nice - is she a goer?"  I avoided answering the question and we talked jokily for a few minutes before he disappeared.  When I went up to check the filming was going smoothly he was at his usual place at the Board table, talking seriously to the other directors, a glass of orange juice in his hand.

Wednesday

Today I finally came to the conclusion that I did not like working at the NGO and would not apply for a permanent position.  I have decided this in the past and then changed my mind, but this time I was determined there would be no more second thoughts.  Talking to Felix did not help as he is so fatalistic about everything. 

Thursday

The weather has changed again so that it is now chilly and damp. 

One of the great advantages of Tom D being away is that I can park in his parking space.

The national directory distribution got under way today and I visited the mailing house to make sure it was going out as specified.  I am more confident about the success of this project.  The opposition to it was at times daunting.

Friday

A call from a business magazine asking for an interview.  The only director available was Ryan M so after a brief explanation I put him through.  When I asked Kate, who works in his team, how the interview had gone she said he had been awful.

Lunchtime I went to the Red Lion with Felix, and over pints of beer we discussed various problems.  The Meryl problem.  The Carmel problem.  And again and again we returned to the Tom problem.  How he was disorganised, did not communicate, openly lied about things.  We were there about two hours, and when we returned to the office I felt in no condition to do any work. 

Leaflet from MBNA

Above:  normally I resent getting mailings from financial institutions.  Usually I just throw them away unread.  With a slight worry that there might be something in the small print that is going to cost me money at some point in the future.

But this leaflet from MBNA immediately caught my attention. It says: See inside to find out how this benefits you. I actually wanted to open it up and read it!

Marketing is not just about the big expensive campaigns - sometimes just changing a few words is the best thing you can do.

Cuckoo

I heard a cuckoo this morning.  First time I have heard this call for many years.  In 2009 the cuckoo was added to the RSPB's list of endangered birds.

UEFA Under-21 Championship

Given the importance of sport to the functioning of a well-balanced society, it's disappointing that the Under 21 Championship is not available free on terrestrial television.  Disadvantaged homes cannot afford Sky television, and it is not good to encourage young people to go into pubs to watch matches (which they can't do anyway until they are aged 16).  The department of Media Culture and Sport needs to intervene.

Coverage in the printed media has been poor.

Portillo on Salmond on BBC2

Michael Portillo's documentary on Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond, broadcast last night on BBC2, was almost entirely empty of any real insights, analysis or explanations.

I was no wiser after the programme than I was before.

For instance, when addressing Alex Salmond's motivation in adopting nationalism as his chosen political philosophy Michael Portillo showed us a view of Linlithgow Palace and thought "perhaps" Alex Salmond had been affected by some kind of affinity with Mary Queen of Scots.  This is crass, lazy and misleading.  Why didn't he simply ASK Alex Salmond what his motivation was?

Michael Portillo attempted a Kitty Kelly deconstruction of the Alex Salmond biography by assembling various people who have known the Scottish nationalist over the years.  But there were not enough of them to make the exercise credible.  And they didn't really say anything revealing.

In the sequences when we saw Michael Portillo actually talking to Alex Salmond they simply exchanged Westminster-type joshing comments.

You can see it:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0116snp/Portillo_on_Salmond/

Lecture

After work I went to a village on the western border of the county.  Torrential downpours of rain, so violent that I had to stop the car and wait for the deluge to ease.  Then just as suddenly the rain stopped, about a mile away from my destination.

At the manor a garden party was being held for the county's architectural society (of which I am a member).  I was a little late, and felt apprehensive as I walked down the drive, seeing the guests walking about on the lawns to the left of the house.  The manor-house itself was like a large doll's house, swathed in roses and bordered in lavender.

The was a little bar under an awning where I got myself a glass of white wine (very good wine, but not really chilled properly).  I walked around the garden nodding to people I sort-of knew.  Although it was nearly 8pm the heat of the day continued, unbearable in its intensity.

A set of ornamental lakes, placid horses standing in a meadow, secretive walks leading to flowered arbours.

I felt a few spots of rain falling, and suspecting what might come next I walked hurridly back to the main lawn.  I warned people that it might be about to rain, but they seemed unconcerned.  More spots fell so that I hurried on to the gate in the garden wall that led into the churchyard and went into the church where the lecture was to be held.

A couple of minutes later the storm broke, the rain falling down on the roof with shocking ferocity.  The noise was incredible.  In through the north door the other members of the architectural society rushed, all of them completely drenched.

After a short introduction the wet speaker, a professor from a midlands university, climbed up into the Jacobean pulpit.  The subject for his talk was scholarly clergymen from the Victorian period.  He talked for about an hour and then took questions.

 "The gentleman scholarly cleric was a type of parson that hardly exists today...  probably they had failed to get a university fellowship and went into the Church as a second choice...  they would have a grand rectory, servants, and retire into their books and documents - to them Sunday services were an interruption to their researches...

"The meeting point for these clerics was the county's architectural society...  they discussed restoring churches to their gothic purity...  a standardised approach to writing church guidebooks was developed...

"They worked on the Victoria County History with a team of young female historians who had studied at universities but in that era were unable to take their degrees...  they published uninteresting books from original sources...  vast quantities of their work has never been published..."

The meeting came to an end.  There was a vote of thanks and we all applauded.  Various people were presented with bunches of flowers and bottles of wine.

Looking at Ed Miliband from a PR point of view

Above:  interesting articles by Patrick Wintour and Michael White (in the Guardian) and Rachel Sylvester (in The Times) discussing Ed Miliband's failure to make an impact as Labour Party Leader.  In many ways this criticism is unfair.  There is a huge amount of work to be done before Labour can develop a programme of new ideas to put before the electorate.  All leaders aspiring to fundamental change have to go through this "wilderness" phase (Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle even Ayatollah Kohmeini).  During this phase the emphasis has to be on purgation of unhelpful elements and the development of an integrated programme that includes at least nine completely original policies (less than nine looks light-weight, more than nine and you start to lose people).

There is evidence that the Conservatives are already engaged on a programme of reinvention, even while they are in office ("we are already planning for the next term").

Above:  looking at Ed Miliband from a PR point of view, there is little he can currently do to create an impact as leader of the Opposition.  This is because the role of Opposition has become increasingly usurped by the Liberal Democrats from within the Coalition.  Thus arguments against Coalition policies can be played out by disgruntled Lib Dems (and sometimes Conservatives), a faux row played out for the benefit of the media, and the policy adjusted (but not too much) to suggest the government is listening and responding.

I am unsure whether this is just the way things are happening or (this may be too machiavellian to be true) is deliberately being choreographed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

"Where we are now" according to JP Morgan

Whitsun

Today is Whitsun or Pentecost.  Tomorrow, the second day of Whitsun, used to be a bank holiday until 1971 when it was rationalised out of existence.  France has recently restored Whit Monday as a national holiday, so perhaps we should do the same.

Earlier this evening I went to the 6.30 pm Holy Communion service.  Canticle from Ezekiel; hymn Breath On Me Breath of God; at the end of the service the paschal candle was extinguished.  All through June we are using the Authorised Version.

We also sang a completely new (to me) hymn Enemy of Apathy which is about the dove that is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Above:  Ronald Hutton gives several medieval examples of the representation of a dove being suspended above the altar (or even let down from a hole in the roof) during Whitsun.  This old custom was revived in High Anglican churches during the 19th century.  In The Hill Station by JG Farrell the introduction of a stuffed dove into the ritual of a church service causes a riot.

Above:  in a village in a very secluded part of the county I found that the medieval church had been filled with ornate Victorian woodwork.  The carvings included this wooden dove above the font.  It seems to be suspended on ropes and capable of ascending and descending.

A campaign has worked! - the past week at work

Monday

In the office everyone seemed to be wilting from the heat (we don't have air-conditioning, just individual fans around the place).  Elaine (Special Projects Officer) had obviously been lying in the sun over the weekend as her face looked boiled, bloated and red.  The car parking crisis is becoming more intense, with visitors having to park over half a mile away.

PR Officer Josie showed me a shirt she had bought for Operations Director Ryan M (with whom she is having an affair).  It seemed a bit young for him.  I wondered how he would explain it to his wife.

Lunchtime I went to Meryl's class on positive thinking (Meryl is my deputy).  Six people were there.  It was entirely harmless - we had to write down positive things about each other and then Meryl read them out (I was described as wise and tolerant).

Otherwise nothing much happened, and I actually felt in control of things for a change.

Tuesday

Because of the heat I couldn't sleep and got up at 5am.  I met the farmer in the lane and he complained about the drought.  The roads very clear on the drive to work.

A lot of the morning taken up with planning the series of "documentaries" being filmed about the NGO which will go straight onto YouTube (as well as the NGO's website).  I had been very doubtful about this series, thinking it could have a horrible advertorial feel, but Tom (Communications Director and my boss) has commissioned a psb organisation to make the films, and they will be written and produced to a high standard.  Whether anyone will watch them is another matter.

PR Officer Josie S spends almost all her time working on projects for the Operations department.  This means that I often have to do the PR myself for the other departments in the NGO.  It is impossible to complain to Josie as she is in another world completely.

Last part of the day was spent with the all-women ad agency the NGO uses to produce a quarterly magazine.  As usual there was a struggle to find enough items to put in it.  We were left with a page to fill, so I told them to put in a full page portrait of my boss Tom D (I mean this ironically, but he is such an egoist I know he will take it very seriously).

Wednesday

This morning the dummy copies of the NGO directory arrived.  Even in their imperfect state they looked impressive.  Tom D has insisted on writing the Foreward to the directory (with a picture of himself) and to lessen the effect of this (and so that he cannot claim the credit, since he has contributed nothing to the project) I have asked the NGO's CEO Alec Pressberg to also write an introduction and will put these two intros opposite each other.

Meeting with a journalist from the business section of a national magazine.  This was the very same journalist who had been highly critical of the NGO's Innovation department.  I called Preston (Innovation director) into the meeting to see if we could put a more positive image across.

Thursday

A campaign has worked!  It is quite rare to run a series of ads and immediately have the response we were hoping for.  Usually things are messier and require post-campaign rationalisation.

Friday

Meeting during the morning to discuss the Membership scheme our CEO Alec Pressberg wants to set up.  This is supposed to be a way of making the NGO more self-sufficient, since the funding from central government is being reduced.  I suppose it was flattering to be asked into the meeting, since everyone else was a director, but frankly I don't want to be involved in it.  I advised setting up a dedicated team to sell memberships, so that I don't have the task dumped on my department.  The main problem is that the NGO doesn't really do anything that people value.  A few functions are important, but most are just bureaucratic empire-building.

The week ended with a pleasant meeting with a journalist from a London regional paper.

The full quote from Tennyson

Here is the full quote from Tennyson, which has been in my mind since yesterday evening:

That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroy'd,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;

That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivell'd in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another's gain.

Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

Faking It by Digby Anderson and Peter Mullen

Recently I have been reading Faking It by Digby Anderson and Peter Mullen.  Published in 1998 by the Social Affairs Unit (a think tank), it is a collection of essays looking at the "sentimentalisation" of society.  On the whole I found it a disappointing book.

The themes of the book are medicine, social policy, education, the environmental movement, religion (specifically Anglicanism), modern literature, music, "civilised eating", media, Diana Princess of Wales and "the corruption of Christianity".  The writers argue that all of these formal and informal institutions have become corrupted by sentimentality so that they no longer function to the benefit of society.  There is a lot of evidence quoted, and some of it is convincing, but the central argument of the book is not proven (perhaps, dare I say it, is fake). 

The basic assumption is that there is a sort of objectivist standard of truth and morality that is independent of human perception. 

The difficulty with this argument is one of interpretation.  Who is going to interpret this objective truth and morality?  Are we to be led by elite experts (which is an argument for a fascist society) or are we to allow individuals to make up their own minds?

Historically we have relied on institutions to guide British society.  The book is right to say that institutions (many of them) have become corrupt.  But this is not because of sentimentalism. 

Medicine is corrupt because of its reliance on big pharmaceutical companies, which snuff out any suggestion that cheap alternatives might exist to expensive patented drugs (aspirin for instance was originally a herbal remedy - salix or the bark of the white willow).

Social policy has become corrupted because the Left wishes to keep a national constituency of "victims" and the Right refuses to recognise that not everyone has the potential to be self-supporting.

Education has become corrupted because teachers have security of tenure; teacher training colleges have followed a succession of modish fads; everyone is in denial (for reasons of vested political interest) that the comprehensive system doesn't work.

The environmental movement is not particularly corrupt in my judgement.  I agree with Tennyson that "nothing walks with aimless feet" and that animals and their habitats are worthy of protection.  Although I am not vegetarian myself, I think it is likely that future generations will consider the way we eat meat with the same horror as we regard slavery and cannibalism. 

The Anglican Church is not corrupt but I think it has been silly.  By trying to modernise (in the 1960s) they have created a "modern" liturgy that has itself become hopelessly dated.  But the Church of England still has considerable reserves of honesty, unselfishness, purity and love - more than any other institution.

Modern literature broadly reflects the market.  Personally I think Martin Amis writes garbage, but if people didn't want his books they wouldn't buy them.  If people didn't want "sentimentalism" they wouldn't buy it.

Same for music.

"Civilised eating" was a bizarre chapter.  There is so much wrong with the way food production works that it is beyond corruption.  The whole system is evil, mad and self-defeating.

The media is completely corrupt - everyone knows this.  Lies upon lies upon lies.  And even the most reputable newspapers depend on advertising revenue.

The death of Diana Princess of Wales is supposed to have shocked the writer because of the "un-English" reaction of the population.  However if you consider that the population of London in 1997 was about 30% BME, and that millions of foreign tourists were also in the capital at that time, is it reasonable to expect English-type behaviour from people who are not culturally English?  I remember September 1997 well, and there was no hysteria in the area where I live. 

Anyway, that is just a jumble of thoughts provoked by reading this book. 

"The sentimentalist is a person in denial, and what he avoids or denies is reality" - not proven I'm afraid.

There is no objective "reality" - our perception of the world is subject to cultural interpretations.  The issue is one of democracy.  If the will of the people is to live la vie en rose who are the elite scientists and “thinkers” to tell them they can’t have it?

Brazilian think-tank Instituto Liberdade

Interesting article by Brazilian think-tank Instituto Liberdade about preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016.

You can read it here: http://www.coha.org/brazils-golden-age-or-parade-of-white-elephants/

It is a very bleak view of crime (particularly drugs trafficking and human trafficking), poverty (lack of proper housing, education and heathcare), and state (especially police) oppression.

And yet Brazil is a country that has huge resources and sustained economic growth.

Possibly the issue is one of social organization rather than absolute poverty.

A private dinner

Above:  Friday evening I drove across country to attend a private dinner.  The evening stayed light until very late.  The countryside was incredibly beautiful, which surprised me since we were close to the environs of a Midlands city. 




















Above:  It took me two hours to reach my destination, a country house hotel in one of the central counties. So exceptional was the house that Tennyson kept intruding into my mind (An English home, gray twilight pour'd; On dewey pastures, dewey trees; Softer than sleep, all things in order stored; A haunt of ancient peace... and all that).  The building is medieval with Tudor additions, and looked as if it had been carved from the living rock.

Central quadrangle, numerous little stairwells, long corridors with creaking floor boards and odd little steps.  Once in my room I washed, and changed my shirt, and then went down to meet the rest of the party - drinking Pol Roger at one of the tables in the courtyard.  I was made very welcome, they were a very friendly group.

Above:  my meal consisted of smoked salmon blinis, beef stroganoff, a chocolate cream pudding.  As well as champagne we had Pouilly Fume and a sauternes.  We talked about politics, culture, society.

Above:  there was a short presentation on economics, nothing too taxing:

"Historically the price of gold keeps pace with the price of oil.  One ounce of gold is usually matched by fifteen barrels of oil.  Therefore if you think oil is going up to $150 a barrel you can expect gold to rise to $2,250 an ounce."

"Experience of the internet over the last twenty years has been 75% US, 68% EU and only 8% China - which is a problem for the Chinese since much of the future of product innovation depends on the internet."

"Look at the global index of over-eaters.  If you accept the recommended daily intake of calories should be 2,245, in 1960 the West was over-consuming 1.3 of the daily amount of calories per person and China was on average under-consuming by 0.7 - effectively starving.  Now China is over-consuming on average 1.3 and the West is over-consuming by 1.7 - we are all heading for obesity."

Above:  we had our coffee in the great hall, which was lit by candles.  Games of chess.  A walk (past midnight) in the gardens. 

Above:  I left my curtains open so that the sunlight would wake me in the morning.  I had slept very well, despite the room being over warm.  View of lawns curving down to the lake, swifts flying around the cedar trees.

Cinnabar moth

Above:  I was walking in the lane early evening yesterday and I saw a brightly coloured insect flutter in front of me and settle on the hedge.  I had never seen this moth before.  Gently I caught it in my hands and took it into the house where I put it in a glass jar and photographed it (and set it free afterwards).

Above:  looking in the Guardian Guide To Moths (which I always have to hand) I identified it as a Cinnabar moth.  Apparently the moth is quite common although I have never seen one before.  The moth (actually the larvae) feeds voraciously off ragwort, which is good as ragwort is poisonous to many animals.

The rushing wind made you feel cold

Above:  close to the highest point in the county.  Cold fresh wind that never seems to stop.  Exhilerating views wherever you look.

Above:  no-one was about.  No cars on the roads.  The only other people I saw were this wedding party, driving along in the middle of nowhere.

Above:  from the evidence of the flowers this was the church where the couple had just got married.  Again no-one was about.  Despite the hot sun, the rushing wind made you feel cold.

Above:  inside were several of these gigantic pre-Raphaelite paintings.  The figures are life-size.  The thickness of the walls excluded all sound of the wind, so that the interior of the building was absolutely silent.

In the end I accepted - the past week at work

Monday

Bank holiday.

Tuesday

During the early part of the morning I held a mini-appraisal with PR Officer Josie.  Having such a large team means I always seem to be doing one of these appraisals.  They are fairly easy but time-consuming, and everything has to be written up afterwards.

During the appraisal I mentioned her mind didn't seem on her work recently.  She began talking about her relationship with Operations Director Ryan M, how it had taken over all her thoughts, how she was afraid it might all turn out to be a self-delusion - but then she said that even if it was an illusion it was better than nothing.  I was completely unprepared for this confessional, and was unable to give her any real guidance.

Later, when I was in the Marketing department on my own (lunchtime) Ryan M appeared with some papers and asked me which desk Josie sat at.  This was a ridiculous question, as he knew exactly where she sat.  Perhaps he just wanted an excuse to talk.  As we talked I looked at him closely and tried to work out what she saw in him.  Shorter than average height, and looking younger than his age (31).  Superficially good-looking, but not remarkably so.  His left eye shows a slight sign of exotropic strabismus, only apparent if you look directly at him.  Exuberant sense of humour, often very crude.  Extremely extrovert, but many people (including myself) find this irritating.

My deputy, Meryl P, told me she was applying for other internal jobs.  She said I ought to know, rather than find out from someone else.  She said she found it impossible to work in Tom's department (Tom is our boss and Communications Director of the NGO - he demoted Meryl at the end of 2010).

Wednesday

At my desk I took a very disciplined approach to my work, ignoring e-mails and only having on my desk the three most important projects I need to get done.  Even so, there was a lot of paper on my desk.  Meryl told me she felt so much happier now she has decided to leave the Marketing department.

A telephone call from Ryan M wanting to discuss a new initiative he wants some marketing help with.  I went up to his office, and we talked about dogs for about ten minutes.  He has two schnauzers and described how they lick his feet ("You know what football's like, just when you think your feet are better someone treads on you and the stud starts the trouble up again, so when I come in from football I can't wait to get my socks off...").

After this inconsequential start we began talking about the new initiative, and he called his deputy Tony P into the meeting.  I made a few proposals off the top of my head, and they completely agreed with me (this never usually happens - usually I have to fight to get my ideas accepted).  Later when I was back at my desk Ryan rang me with elaborate thanks for all the help I was giving him, and said he had even gone to my boss Tom D to register his official thanks.

At the end of the afternoon a meeting with Tom D to discuss my contract.  I have come to the end of my six months fixed term contract and he said the NGO wanted to offer me another six months.  He was jabbing the desk with his finger, making all sorts of unreasonable conditions, so that briefly I thought about turning the offer down (it's not as if I am desperate for the job - I have plenty of freelance work).

But in the end I accepted.

Thursday

The working day started with a meeting with a rotund person from PSB radio (all the people I have met from that radio station have been rotund).

Then I joined a meeting where Elaine (deputy in the Special Projects department) was talking to Louise M who runs a specialised telemarketing company.  Elaine is an amiable sort of person, but quite limited in the way she looks at things and inclined to be stubborn.  Louise M is very forceful, and used to getting her way. 

In the evening to a city hotel where the NGO was holding a "public consultation" open meeting.  About a hundred people were at the meeting, but most of them were managers, staff or "stake holders".  Only about thirty genuine members of the public seemed to be there plus three journalists.  Josie stood on the door handing out NGO literature as people came in.  I supervised a photographer we had employed for the evening (the photographs would be proof that the NGO were consulting with the public).  The marketing department (seven of us were at the meeting) sat randomly in the audience and led the applause at prearranged moments.  The meeting itself was incredibly boring.  Midnight by the time I got home. 

Friday

A training course for directors and senior managers (plus me - I had been giving the task of organising the course and included myself on the list despite being temporary staff).  Possibly the most expensive training course I have attended, the training company had been recommended by our CEO Alec Pressberg.  The course was held in the seminar room on the top floor of the NGO's offices.

As the course began we each had to reveal a couple of things about ourselves that other people might not know.  My boss Tom D said he was a member of a choir, and sings countertenor.  Ryan M said he had been born in Stevenage, had been lead singer in a band for four years, owned two Lancias.

The training itself was very good, and told me things that were new.

Buffet lunch.

In the afternoon more of the training, finishing at four - when I went downstairs I found that all of my department had left early.

The latest furore over immigration

Newsnight yesterday looked at the latest furore over immigration, which has also been in most of the newspapers.   The Coalition government (like the last Labour government) is losing control of the issue, mainly due to opposition by a well-organised (but informal and cross-party) progressive lobby that is in favour of free migration.   At a party political level the issue seems to be philosophical.  The Conservative section of the Coalition seems to want to limit inward migration to a level where migrants can be integrated into the existing structure of British society.  The progressive lobby (which includes most Liberal Democrats) seems to want inward migration to be unrestricted as a way of achieving social change or (at the most radical level) achieving social revolution.   The conundrum for the Conservatives is how to continue to appear to be a progressive party while opposing the lobby for free inward migration.   Possibly they will side-step the issue by pushing the decision on "numbers" down to council level.  Allowing local councillors to fix the numbers of migrants who can work or study in a particular area will enable government ministers to claim they are simply following the democratic will of local communities.  This policy would also match a slightly similar proposal put forward by the Liberal Democrats at the election, which suggested regional work permits for migrants.

A celebration for Ascension Day on BBC Radio 4

Above:  listing in the Radio Times.

Today is Ascension Day.  At 8 o'clock I listened to a live broadcast of the Ascension Day service from St Martins in the Fields in Trafalgar Square.  Vaughan Williams psalm.  The Archbishop of Canterbury gave the sermon and talked about "the great truth".  The hymn Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (which is never heard - I can't remember when I last heard this hymn).  A life broadcast always seems much more significant than a recorded version.

Since the medieval period the three days before Ascension Day have been marked by Rogation processions or walks around the parish boundaries combined with blessing the crops and reading the Gospels in the open air.  The Rogation processions were fixed in England as far back as 747 (the Council of Cloveshoo) which makes the custom one of the most ancient ceremonies still surviving - a fragment of the Anglo-Saxon world.  Ronald Hutton records examples of refreshments being provided on the routes by farmers anxious for their crops to be blessed.

You can listen to the broadcast on BBC iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio

 

















Above:  surprisingly the live broadcast was highlighted in The Times (admittedly a very small highlight - The Times prefers to sneer at the Church of England and employs as religious correspondent the pedestrian journalist Ruth Gledhill - formulaic contrarian style of simply disagreeing with whatever she is writing about, presumably on the grounds that this will make her controversial and daring - her Twitter account is http://twitter.com/#!/ruthiegledhill).

Recently there seems to be a pattern emerging of churches holding Ascension Day services on the tops of towers: 

St Johns College Cambridge http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/chapel_and_choir/chapel/ascension_day/

Southwark Cathedral http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/997

Exeter College Oxford http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/alumni/news/item?gid=1273846893

In the long run, looking as far as we can realistically see

Economics discussion in an upstairs room off Whitehall.  About forty people present.  As usual I took a seat near the back. The topic under discussion was the shift of global economic power from the West to the seven key emerging nations (China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Russia).   The speaker was a well-known (perhaps you could even say eminent) economist.  Aged about 55, desiccated-looking lined face, grey hair.  Wearing a light grey suit, darker grey shirt, grey striped tie - against the grey walls of the room he almost disappeared.  His speaking style was patrician.  He managed the meeting in a sober and unhurried way, ignoring raised hands ("I'll take questions at the end").  His one objective during the two hours was to churn out facts, facts, facts. "Chinese banks are huge now in asset terms and can buy up western banks.  This creates huge opportunities for the UK.  The Chinese are mad for gadgets, which so far the Japanese are producing..." The very large person sitting in front of me shifted in his seat, briefly eclipsing the top table. "...therefore in the long run, looking as far as we can realistically see, shares of the world economy will more or less correspond to shares of the world population.  But the populations of Russia and China are aging fast.  The younger-for-longer economies need to be considered properly..." The dry air in the room and the heat made me feel drowsy, the droning sound of the speaker had a soporific effect. "...demographics is one of the drivers of growth.  Percentage of population at working age is significant.  India will probably grow faster than China because of demographics..." I began to feel tired. "...Indonesia already has the fourth biggest economy population in the world..." A change of tone indicated the speaker was coming to the end of his address. "...within twenty years the seven larger emerging economies will be bigger than the G7 in both Purchasing Power Parity and Market Exchange Rate terms BUT income per capita will remain higher in the G7". Polite applause, sustained over two minutes.  Questions followed, including several statements masquerading as questions.  At an opportune moment I slipped out of the door at the back.

The National Trust is introducing "talking benches"

Above:  on the front page of today's Guardian (and all across the media) is a report that the National Trust is introducing "talking benches" in the gardens of historic properties managed by the Trust.  At first I thought this might be a spoof story, but it turns out to be true.  Which raises all sorts of questions.

Question one:  have they gone mad?  How on earth can they think that adding more electronic noise is somehow going to enhance the wild untouched beauty of Calke Abbey, or the tranquil peace of Petworth House?  And why celebrities?  Celebrities are already far too prominent in society.  And why THOSE celebrities?  Stephen Fry is far too over-exposed as it is - personally I am fed up with hearing his smug voice every commercial break on television.

Question two:  did they perhaps commission a third-party marketing agency, and this is what their creative department has come up with?  What was the agency's Planning department thinking of, and why didn't the Account Exec kill it stone dead?  And even if it got through to the pitch stage, what was the National Trust's marketing team thinking off, allowing such a turkey to go into production?

Question three:  is this some kind of sop to the political class?  Did someone from the Dept of Culture Media and Sport tell the National Trust that they were not "diverse" enough to continue to qualify for charitable status unless they made their properties more "accessible" to "disadvantaged" sections of society? (inverted commas indicate doublespeak).  That might also explain the series of lame and rather meaningless print ads the National Trust is running at the moment.

Above:  looking at the National Trust's website, they justify the benches on the basis of research.  I would like to know what this research is, and how it led to the idea of a talking bench with the voice of Stephen Fry.  "Aiding relaxation" indeed.  The idiots.

Bank Holiday

Today is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom, and effectively is a ritual day - for doing nothing. 

Above:  the expected rain ("it always rains on bank holidays") is a comforting reminder of the need to do nothing.  It's not even possible to spend time in the garden.  Roses in the rain is something of a cliche.

Above:  nothing to do after lunch except read the newspapers.  Interesting article by Tim Horton in the Guardian.  Interesting article by Josephine Moulds in the Business section of the Daily Telegraph about Kraft's arrogant and contemptuous CEO Irene Rosenfeld (when are the Kraft shareholders going to realise that this woman is a PR disaster?).

Above:  at hundreds of village fetes across the country the rain sends everyone running indoors, but the Teddy Bear's picnic still goes ahead to the delight of the children.

A completely unexplored area

A village in the far north east of the county.  A completely unexplored area for me.  Only seventy miles from my home, but I felt as if I had reached the margin of the mappa mundi, and that if I went much further I would fall off the edge of the earth. 

Above:  the centre of the village has moved over the years, but I traced the probable genius loci to this bluestone boulder placed by a crossroads on the main road.  Bluestones are supposedly significant indicators of a prehistoric place of importance (the bluestones at Stonehenge for example).  As you can see, this bluestone is surrounded by nettles and close to a ditch - I would have been unaware of its existence had I not been alerted by a local historian.

Above:  the area was characterised by lush buttercup meadows.  This horse had a lugubrious expression, as if unconscious of the rural beauty all around (do animals recognise "beauty"?).  The afternoon was very warm but the sky was mostly overcast.

Above:  first glimpse of the church, which was a little way out of the village.  Note the line of almshouses which look modern but date from 1641.  The church fabric is mostly Norman, but there was originally a Saxon church on the site.

Above:  approaching the building there were dozens of molehills on the grass verge, and a thick belt of cow parsley that surrounded the churchyard.  Piercing bird calls.  Strong rosemary smell to the vegetation.
















Above:  the almshouses look modern, so thoroughly have they been renovated.  Originally six cottages, now made into four.  They are maintained by a Trust which gains its income from a bequest of land which is rented out.  

Above:  before renovation the almshouses were almost unchanged since the 17th century.  Each had one room and a big kitchen range.  Until the 1930s water was brought by buckets from the old Roman well.

Above:  entering the church I was struck by the dramatic lighting which was provided by about twenty of these brass candelabra (now converted to electric).  

Above:  unusually the war memorial is situated directly behind the high altar, which indicates the importance this remote community placed on the experience of the Great War.

Above:  the church contains a notable collection of monuments, including this immense multi-columned tomb (there were so many displays of flowers that I couldn't really get close enough to photograph it properly).  The lord and lady lie as if in a four-poster bed.  Various children surround them.

Above:  in the chancel is this reclining lady under a Corinthian arch.  Dated 1606.  The detail of the sculpture is very fine.

Above:  best of all is this knight of about 1300.  Considerable speculation about his identity.  Other mysteries related to the carving.

Above:  the Hall dates from 1550 but had a new facade added in 1750.  The staircase was originally dyed with ox-blood.  A Victorian photograph shows the house smothered in ivy.

Above:  old photograph showing harvest time at the Hall - this bucolic way of life is still continued in many respects, although modern machinery has mostly replaced the old agricultural processes.  I was shown a collection of old photographs as I had a cup of tea in the north aisle of the church (set with small tables covered in white tablecloths).  The people in the church couldn't have been more kind, replenishing my cup and offering me cakes while the local village historian talked me through the old images. 



Above:  after the tea I went for a walk along one of the many footpaths that traverse the area.  No-one else was about.  The sense of peace seemed almost overwhelming. 

The Prince and the Composer: A Film about Hubert Parry on BBC4

I watched The Prince and the Composer: A Film about Hubert Parry on BBC4 last night.  An hour and a half.  At the end I felt I had watched a really important cultural analysis - one that told me things I didn't know.  Not just about Sir Hubert Parry, but also about the way music is structured and why one note might be more important than another.  Also the understated nature of Parry's music.  At the end I felt I could immediately watch it through all over again.

I really appreciate programmes like this - ones that help my mind to grow.

Everything about it was good.

More:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011g941

Stewart M Patrick giving a CFR view of Barack Obama's visit

Of all the coverage of the American President's visit to the United Kingdom I think the most interesting article is by Stewart M Patrick giving a CFR view of Barack Obama's visit. You can ignore the Daily Mail's guff, you can try to interpret the Guardian's obliquely-coded enthusiasms, you can disregard the BBC's gushing.   But the Council for Foreign Relations should be taken seriously.   Stewart M Patrick said:   "United States still regards the transatlantic partnership as the central pillar of world order."   and then he said:   "Obama stressed the future importance of the alliance to global peace, prosperity and justice, just as it had been in the days of Churchill and FDR."   and then he gave five subsidiary reasons to develop the argument.   You can read it for yourself:  http://www.cfr.org/us-strategy-and-politics/obamas-timely-transatlantic-message/p25103

Students

In the forecourt of University College London I saw these two student lovers.  He has his hand on his heart as if he were declaiming his passion to the world.  She is fiddling with her text messages.  He is in jeans and Diesel t-shirt (but I am not sure about those flip-flops - somehow those flip-flops look uncool, whatever the precedent set by Ed Westwick).  She is neatly dressed and wearing white.  Despite the overcast sky it was hot and humid.

Recently I have been looking at the demographics of the student population in the United Kingdom.

There are c480,000 students pursuing degree courses at either university or colleges of higher education.  Where they are studying, what they are studying, how much they are paying - these are easy questions to answer.  Why are they studying (the real reasons), what they think about the experience, what they want from life - these are more difficult.

By the way, I didn't know that UCAS was a charity.