Mozart and all that jazz...

Lenin was once asked what he thought about music.
He replied simply:Music is dangerous.

How right he was.

He could never have realised that merely forty five years after making that remark a cheeky pipsqueek in Liverpool with bizarrely the same sounding name would plant the seed that would grow and crack the seemingly eternal concrete monolith of American cultural dominance,that would thereby cause the Soviet Communist Empire to drop its guard and then collapse and usher in an age politically dominated by a terrifying woman revolutionary,not declaiming from some bloodstained balcony but speaking in the precise prissy tones of the British middle classes...

All that from music-?

Visiting one of my more intellectual friends ,I once asked him what had been his greatest musical experience .We were sitting in his flat overlooking the Danube talking about some recent musical pleasures: a fine performance of Parsival ,an early Handel oratorio ...

He was a typical Central European , a big bald domed head, rimless glasses,long sensitive face.Fluent in half a dozen languages ,he had moved effortlessly from being a Communist apparatchik and probably KGB agent to an important governmental position connected with the EU and medicine.
We sat in the study of his flat, its walls from floor to sixteen foot ceilings completely covered with books crowding rather menacing black teak shelves,newer additions were scattered about on tables with his latest cds-a Bach Partita collection ,some early Monteverdi ...His daughter was in another room studying for her medical exams -there was no piano but if there had been, one could imagine her practising Schubert impromptus...
At my question his sensitive face assumed a deep intensity of thought:leaning forward frowning, he slowly topped up my glass with one of the unblended scotches he was so proud of..
I think ...I think it must have been in nineteen sixty six ,his Bronofskian voice intoned...I had tuned to the BBC World Service and suddenly heard for the first time..the Rolling Stones...it changed my life forever....

It was easy for the Russians to block out American popular culture.They didnt really need to use electronic jamming .From Playboy to Presley its essential glossy cheapness was vulgar-despite Presleys energy and charm.It was essentially a false concoction, knocked up in backrooms by paunchy middle aged gentlemen not entirely unlike my European intellectual-it needed little effort to despise it
Britains cultural explosion of the sixties ,however many millionaires it produced ,was at least at heart genuine. It had its roots in centuries of class anger and struggle, little different from the racial struggles of the blacks who had been its inspirers
Those in the east who had found nothing of value in the cultural systems of the west now had something genuine to hold on to .Tentacles of a real free life began pulsing across the divide..
.
And yet it has always seemed to me that ironically the origins of the entire Thatcher philosophy that has so seduced the world-or at least large parts of it- can be traced to the British pop phenomenon

I like to imagine her being driven by Denis past Wembley Stadium after some concert or other
Mrs Thatcher is expressing her disgust.'We must do something Denis, these communists or whatever cant be allowed to subvert our young as they are doing by providing these free pop concerts .It must cost a fortune alone to rent Wembley.'Actually my dear youve got it wrong,these concerts arent free in fact I'm told tickets are quite expensive.
But thats impossible surely ,that would mean these musician fellows would all be millionaires.Well they are millionaires dear ,everyone of the buggers .But I dont understand-they always seem to be angry working class revolutionaries-at least thats what they look and sound like,dressed in scruffy jeans and fishermens jackets.Are you saying that these young people dress up like revolutionaries to go to see millionaires dressed up like workers? Exactly.
But that means-that means that these young people dont object in principle to the rich ?True darling
They are only really pretending to have working class socialist principles?I suppose so .
But if they dont object to their musician heroes being millionaires I dont see they can object to anyone being a millionaire.You know Denis Ive always assumed that my ideas about a really free market system would founder because of the weight of anti wealth predudice against it -but it seems to me now looking at these young people -that isnt really true-its all a huge pretence-what the Americans call phoney.I think Denis the time is ripe for my ideas after all .
If you ever get into power darling...

And of course it is both true and phoney .In a consumer oriented society you cant angrily throw an empty can of Coca cola at a rich man in a Rolls Royce if hes the chairman of Coca Cola and is only rich because hes persuaded you to buy Coca Cola -a rather unneccessary drink...

Yet undoubtedly the tensions about wealth are still there They quietly bubble just beneath the complacent surface of even the most capitalistic of societies.And intense social tensions are created because-if we are honest, no one really knows what to do!Even out wealth! pull out the rug from the fat cats-and maybe the whole thing will come tumblimg down-But thats great! Thats just what we want!- Until we look for our 24-hour supermarket,multi screen cinemas, the corner Blockbuster video store -all gone. We have been here before....For all the immense social power structures sustaining it,the dynamic-capitalist-profit motive system-call it what you like -that modern societies operate on, are suprisingly sensitive-stock markets crash over night,entrepeneurs pull in their horns,the lights go out, the shutters come down...


The huge switch in Western political philosophies from an underlying apparently inevitable march towards social equality to a largely unrestrained free market system would have seemed inconceivable merely thirty years ago.Its progress has gone hand in hand with what must be called the liberating forces of rock music and its descendants.

It could of course be argued that this movement was not entirely new.There is almost nothing so liberating ,so exultant in the sense of freedom that it conveys than a piece of lively New Orleans jazz-music created by freed slaves . The technique of ensemble playing ,then each instrumentalist performing their piece, then coming together with an orgasmic sense of togetherness has never been equaled (except ironically in Bach) though the interlacing of the individual and the group is obviously found throughout classical music

It is interesting to discuss music and its forms in societal terms though as everyone admits ,its a thankless task,nothing can actually be proved regarding its effects ,only interpolated.Its easy to see the societal freedoms of the jazz age twenties changing to more integrated smooth swing manipulated rythyms of the thirties and forties as huge numbers of people were conscripted and controlled in dictatorships or wartime conditions-does anything epitomise the sense of people working together for a single common purpose than Glenn Miller?

And yet a tiny chink of light ,a gleam as from a distant new found star has recently emerged to open up a whole can of musical and cultural worms.Not perhaps entirely recent as the idea has been around for some time but new experiments have been more decisive in analysing its effects...
The effect being that listening to Mozart increases ones intelligence and awareness .

It is interesting to see how these latest reports have been presented .It is natural for any new scientific idea to be treated with skepticism yet I note a particular wariness about this suggestion.
And not unaturally. Social attitudes have followed as I have suggested , the pattern laid down forty years previously .The mass of people are stimulated by popular music into thinking they are freer and more equal than ever before while in fact social inequality and class differences actually increase at alarming rates and increasingly become more rigid than before.

The realisation that music is really a powerful mind conditioner -that people may be as it were -tricked by their musical preferences is a potentially dangerous discovery.It leads to many other strange and dangerous paths...
If some music can improve your intelligence it is reasonable to suppose that other music can limit or restrict your intelligence...
Even that is not all ,for if musical harmonies can produce these effects then other art forms may also act in the same way.Perhaps eating ones sandwiches in the National Gallery may not be such a bad idea after all

There is no doubt that what can be called high culture is usually a required need and desire of those who operate at a mentally high powered level -it is not merely a social attribute.
Music that emphasises its beat essentially emphasises the here and now -the immediate quality of life ,something that has been naturally appealing to many young people thoughout history .
So called 'Classical music' undoubtedly opens up the mind ,induces an almost drug like effect in which rationality of whatever kind becomes enhanced.Such rationality may not always be to the human good-it may produce ideas about building gas chambers or dropping napalm etc but these are the unfortunate by products of the thinking mind-the unthinking mind may of course avoid these rationally induced horrors -but then may quite suddenly decide to chop your arms off...

The analysis of music and other cultural forms in their relationship to intelligence and awareness is something that is going to continue. The results in relation to the whole structure of culture and society may be quite shattering-indeed so powerful and surprising that it may be in these areas that attempts may be made to suppress them.

Now theres an idea for a film producer!

When Will Blair Go(To Be Continued And Continued-Yawn)

The British press have now got themselves firmly in the When Will He Resign mode-even the BBC uses the loaded word resign,partly no doubt because of the simple illiteracy of their pimply ' juvenile 'uni' educated recruits ,but also out of undisguised contempt. Blair will not of course 'resign'.He will hand over power in a calm orderly fashion-the question is -when.
The current drooling hysteria in the anti Blair press is natural seeing that they feel the fox is in sight but I think its largely misplaced

As I said in a previous article, within a year or two things in Britain will have changed considerably.The new Wembley stadium will have opened spreading pop concerts across the world , the high speed raillink and huge Eurostar development will be up and running,Iraq security forces will have allowed America and Britain to make huge cuts in their troops- and of course,Blairs ill omened star Bush will be in histories dustbin.

Could not a new President herald a new invigorated and ascendent Blair?-think of it -the smiling experienced oldtimer patting the new Presidential arrival condescendingly on the back just before he too enters the history books -but on a golden page-and ascendeth into Heaven?...
If all this is possible then why -the question must be asked -did Blair make the most stupid mistake of declaring he would hand over power before the next election .Instead of clearing up any confusion he has merely added to it.

Every oracle in the business has tried to fathom this one out.There are however surely several quite simple answers. First,nothing concentrates the mind like the thought that you are going to be hung next week.The British populace may resent Blair bitterly-just indeed as they resented Mrs Thatcher but similarly,they know he like she, has kept Britain at the forefront of the world and in Blairs case produced unrivalled prosperity.The thought that daddy will be leaving home for good might well concentrate peoples minds-but for what purpose you ask?.
Well ,it might just be spite-one can see Cheries Antionettish hand behind it-Why not tell them your LEAVING -THAT would make them sit up and think-without you they would still be eating bread-the ungrateful wretches!
Then however there is the fact that saying he is leaving relatively early does allow other aspiring leaders to prepare to throw their hat in the ring and challenge Brown ,something Blair may want.

I have always believed that the so called war between Blair and Brown is overwhelmingly childish media fabrication, who are quite brazen in this kind of area.After all, one can still read apparently serious occasional articles in the British press headed' Charles is Desperate to Become King.' Really? Charles is desperate ,as a reflective, philosophical minded person aged fifty seven, an age when most men are looking forward to more time in the garden to talk to the flowers , have a few friends round for drinks and a laugh-is desperate to take on a position with responsibility but absolutely no power and even more duties than he has now? And being someone who,having met many thousands of people, many of whom have died ,who lives with the daily thought of Dianas death and the death of his grandmother ,is supposed to be looking forward urgently to the death of his mother...Come off it please!

Gordon Brown is in many ways in a more established position of authority than Blair. For nine years he has been the most important person in the government.All eyes turn on him in the cabinet. No decision,about going to war, about giving aid can be taken without his curt Yes ,we can or No,its impossible.When he looks out of the windows of the Treasury ,the Britain he sees is for good or ill,of his making
He is regarded as Britains and the worlds most successful finance minister,he knows how every government department works and is run: for nine years he has been meeting and outlasting nearly all world leaders,yet we are told Blair mustl hand over power to him soon,because he will apparently need time ' to bed himself in as Prime Minister' As he already lives in Number ten-(Blair prefers the bigger next door house),he wont even have the bother of moving
I suspect that in fact Blair will hand over power to Brown merely six months before the next election-which will not be before 2010.Brown will be a youthful but experienced fifty eight Please note this statement! Lord Truth is seldom wrong!

But that still has not answered the question-Why did Blair make that decision about leaving?
Could there be a simple down to earth reason,... Unlike cabinet ministers who often disappear into some kind of nether world, a Prime Minister of Blairs reKnown knows there is a most enjoyable life out there beyond the grave of retirement-and even that may not be complete as Blair may well feel he is cut out for a kind of Super Carter role -as an international mediator and peace broker once he is free from political restraints at home.

Nevertherless,despite the possibilities of endless freeloading ,weeks on Steve Allens yacht and at Bill Gates ranch,some money is needed,if only for Cheries hairdresser.Where to come from? A PUBLISHERS ADVANCE-Yes ! Of Course!Thats how that house in Little Kuwait,just off the Edgeware Road was bought ,and there should be about twenty million left over in the bank unless I'm mistaken ,but people dont lend you that kind of money unless they are certain you actually will get down to writing the stuff,which in turn means retirement from British politics....
So a deal was reached
Heres the cheque..as we agreed finally..I think its quite generous...everything will be kept completely confidential of course but I'm sure you realise there will have to be a clear public statement of your deliberate intention to retire as is written into the contract here ,our bankers are demanding it ,after all, if you decided to stay and the memoirs couldnt be written...I'm sure you understand their position...
So there it is...it was all a sordid matter of money...

Incidentally regarding Cheries hair,some years ago I was standing in a tiny ,hot room waiting tense and nervous for a decision in a case I had conducted myself and felt very strongly about.A reporter asked me about my case and angrily I replied pointedly adding I had brought it on principles, I was not like the thin faced kind of vicious looking legal bitch earning five hundred an hour.Cherie Blair was standing next to me with two of her male acolytes.Slowly and menacingly she turned and faced me bringing her slim body against me and her face looking up directly to mine,I was taller but I am sure our noses actually touched .I can still feel the heat from her eyes and I'm sure the careful tangles of her hair became writhing snakes but perhaps I was just tired.Unfortunately the untimate effect was lost because living abroad I had temporarily lost touch with British politics, Blair was not PM ,so I did not know who she was.

I believe she got her client fifty thousand pounds-I suffered one of the most appalling pieces of predidice in legal historyIronically when I had finally obtained at a later ,higher hearing , a written judgement connected with the case praising my claims and saying I should pursue them I phoned Cherie -who I still did not know politically (oh foolish me) who hearing the details told me my written judgement was 'gold dust'.When I finally took it to court myself, the judge (who retired almost immediately afterwards) and the other sides lawyers not only threw my claim out but ordered me to pay a few thousand in damages.Of course I should have appealed but after being gone over by the Gestapo I suppose you learn your lesson .The case still has considerable legal resonance -is so to speak still unfinished.Oh Cherie Cherie,if only I had put everything in your hands...sometimes I call your name in the night....

Since I am clearly in a meandering frame of mind I feel I must mention before leaving a recent blog by Lord Rees Mogg in the Times online who indicated some kind of support for fixed term parliaments and Prime Ministerships.Now LRM is a person with some clout and I was pleased that various people all universally disapproved of the idea.Since these ideas can gather steam I must join the protesters.

Is there anything ,anything more mind numblingly ,suicidally boringthan recalling the flat, foot odour voice of dear old Alistair Cooke intoning yet again the same words 'In Washington evryone is getting ready for the mid term primaries 'or whatever they are called....Oneof the most ghastly things about living in America must be having to go through,ceaselessly year after year, the whole empty ritual of the American electoral system with all its gargoyle like charades...
Fixed term parliaments and the rest are the most constipating of political structures.
People in Britain are bored enough by politics ,afixed term system would put them to sleep completely......ah butperhaps thats the idea..I think we should keep an eye open about this suggestion....

Clarksons Follies

If a week is a long time in politics it is an eternity in the world of political commentators ,whose hysteria over some crisis or other is within a day passed over and forgotten as the world moves on.
But even foreign readers may have had percolating down to them the latest from the Blair regimen which has produced something like genuine outrage among the British public

There have in fact been three incidents this week that have given Blair a nasty turn and although two might seem to be easily dismissed there may be something behind even those that reflect a deep unease

First,the Minister for Health,a woman,attended a nurses conference to present yet more wonderful money laden plans for the NHS.These ladies ,who labour so dutifully with only NHS hospital humour to keep them going-Good heavens!- You're over sixtyfive !-what are you doing here ?-you should be in the undertakers down the road!--Hoar! Hoar!Dont worry though-a few days in this ward and we'll soon get you there!-were not in good humour that morning and so badly heckled the Minister-one of Blairs most advanced pieces of female electoral ordnance, that she had to retire wounded

The second problem concerned John Prescott the Deputy Prime Minister who was caught in a typically British sex scandal when the tabloids revealed he had been(apparently) having an affair with his secretary.
Prescott, totally unknown to the world generally, is the large,heavy bodied, John Bull figure who is always sitting or slumping just behind Blair when the PM speaks in the Commons .
Eyelids propped open by invisible high tec devices,'Anti-Snore' activated ,he would appear to be-just- alive ,though only in an axolotle kind of way.Apparently however, even axolotles like sex and he has been apparently having lots of it with his secretary- tabloid photos proving it.
Only in Britain could the extra-marital couplings of a sixty seven year old barrel of lard and a fortythree year old woman possibly arouse any interest,though to the British tabloids, in sex scandals, any female under fifty is always classed as juvenile jail-bait (any over fifty are of course glamorous grandmothers)

Despite his title no one actually knows what Prescott really does.In fact in the commons his slumped lifeless posture resembles those giant rag dolls that eight year olds like to cuddle when upset and its possible that the presence ofPrescott somehow gives Blair the same sense of comforting security, particularly as he is known,as other embarrassing well photographed incidents have shown, to still possess a hefty right punch ,which could come in useful if the Conservative opposition eventually sensibly decide that the only way they are going to ever get power again in Britain is by crossing the floor en masse and literally seizing it by force...

Prescott is of course famously recognised as representing 'old labour' having been a seaman who climbed out of the bowels of Britains merchant service -and believe me,in those days they were some bowels-and with the gift of the gab and a handy fist made it up the union ladder to nearly the top of the greasy pole
His mien is really however more old conservative than new labour: having made himself 'comfortable' with his country estate and two Jaguar cars,his good hearted socialist ideology probably boils down to telling the butler to throw a few buckets of pennies over the railings when the unemployed are getting too restless.

I did in fact once meet Prescott, who I have always liked ,as he lurched wildly about, coat flapping, around the restaurant at the top of the Tate Modern.I asked him if he had been there before and he replied he hadnt with a suggestion that it wasnt his cup of tea with which I would have concurred.We chatted for a while and after much fumbling, he produced from a cluttered disorganised wallet full of dubious bits of Prescottiana a card showing he was indeed The Second Most Powerful Man In The Kingdom..

He did ,I must say look terrible: the bags under his eyes bright scarlet.....he must surely use make up on all his public appearances ....Politics can be a wearying, unhealthy game. I do hope whoever has any kind of influence over him has been able to get him into better physical shape Yes ,I like old Prescott.Take no notice of em John!Keep punching!

A rather unlikely physical appearance haunts the other spectre at this feast,the Home Secretary Clarke-or Minister of the Interior as they are known elsewhere-I will not describe it ,it would be rude, but his visage has certainly been a gift to the cartoonists.
Now however he is right in the soup and may not even last -despite a show of bravado-until the cheese and biscuits.
Apparently a large proportion of Britains large prison population consist of 'foreigners' who when they finish their sentences are 'available '( having in many cases been given orders)to be deported to their countries.It is typical in modern Britain however that I have deliberately used the vague word available because in a legally complex world
there is no certainty that they will be sent back,these matters having to be 'decided'by the Home Offfice which in turn may run up against claims for asylum ,and other things etc
Obviously bored with hanging on to these prisoners when they have finished their sentences and not knowing what to do with them while these decisions are pending ,several thousand have simply been released onto the streets to presumably rob rape and murder once again No record seems to have been kept of them and no controls put in in place.....

The British public is genuinely shocked at this incompetence and irresponsibility. Nervous at Britains violent teenage'yob'culture and concerned at increasing flows of immigrants -this time from Eastern Europe they are in no mood for more evidence of Britains sloppy tolerance of every kind of 'foreigner' or indeed criminality .

I summed up my concerns about this in a letter published on Lord Rees-Moggs Times web page in which I said:

This appalling example of criminal sloppiness and irresponsibiliy arises from the main and unique problem with Britain in that despite being prosperous and well run technically,at no levels is there the pride and patriotism that drives people at all levels to act in responsible ways that benefit the nation
Unlike France,the US and other advanced countries,Britain is a defeatist -not my business-nation.Only if people are proud of their nation will they always be on guard to protect its integrity
Britains foreign owned and operated media can be well pleased at their success in creating this tragic situation

I enjoy hitting the British media on the nose whenever possible but there are several other factors involved...Britains love affair with the free market for example....

The free market does seem to be roaring ahead in Britain in ways certainly unknown elsewhere.In the last few months America has blocked takeovers by the Chinese,the Dubai Arabs and even refused BA systems access to some of its military knowhow ,all on grounds of national security.The French and Spanish have prevented similar mergers.

Only the British have allowed some of their most famous companies to fall into foreign hands- Pilkington ,Pand O, even BAsytems has sold its prestigious twenty percent of Airbus to the Germans and French and soon no doubt the Americans will takeover the London Stock exchange.

These events produce a devastatingly pervasive sense that Britain does not really exist any more as any kind of proud national entity ,that everything is up for grabs and that 'nothing matters'

It is this kind of attitude that permeats Britain and allows civil servants at all levels to shrug their shoulders and let things slide. It is not helped by Britains obssessively politically correct attitude to racism that for example makes it apparently difficult for the Home office to ensure that immigrants to be automatically screened for TB even though there is clear evidence that they are a source of this disease

If foreigners can come in and roam about Britain buying it up,who cares if a few foreign murderers roam about as well....

The 'British' media continue their ceaseless search for ways to trash Britains image and demoralise the nation, using the usual derogatory terms -chaos and fiasco being always the most popular.These are presently being applied to the failure to complete the new Wembley football stadium on time-even though this is a privately funded project with loses only of real concern to the shareholders-and with the public knowing it will get ,in a year or so ,the finest stadium in the world, the whole project appears to have turned into ,well,a fiasco and collapsed into,well,chaos, all of which is cleverly presented as somehow something only the British seem able to produce

All this produces a sense of lack of firm control at the top,a sense of a complete lack of national pride and a sense of drift.
Prosperous as the country is and at the top of the tree as far as high tec adoption and innovation are, there is an unhealthy atmosphere in Britain today that many people feel emanates from Blair himself....Although this essentially reflects the malaise hanging over Europe and indeed America. It will be interesting to see what the next few years bring........

But wait...Why am I writing this febrile rubbish? I must have caught the defeatist bug myself...

The facts are (as Tony well knows) that in only a year or so the new Wembley WILL be built and blazing away,its gigantic searchlights visible from Berlin, the whole world under thirty, dreaming ,aching to stroll its vine hung marble terraces,a hundred thousand bare arms nightly raised and flashed round the globe swaying in that curious pop festival gesture,partly ectomorphic-whatever that means- and partly 'Please Sir I want to go to the toilet.....'-(no blacks one always notices)
And the huge Eurostar complex at Kings Cross WILL at last be finished and the new high speed rail link WILLl whisk new floods of tourists to Paris in only just over two hours with this previously run down area buzzing with life and vitality....
And if the Americans DO take over the London Stock Exchange it will be as everyone knows ,a poisoned chalice that will suck on what vital juices still remain in New York....
And if every other person in London does seem to be Asian Arab or East European ,well, the world is getting smaller all the time and it only shows that London is the centre of it...
And the new Iraq government will allow British and and American forces to be wound down...
And Tony WILL go out in a blaze of glory to take his place among the great Catholic saints( oh yes -hes got it all planned...)

No, you cant beat the pesky British who one way or another always manage to stay on top ...

The War Against The British Vol. 1 The Australian Front

Lord Truth ( Maj. Gen.R.A.R.) 23rd April 2006

If we are to examine this lengthy and exhausting war in any detail it may be well to start with the situation on the Australian front where only quite recently there has been a serious flare up (concerning the new edition of the Rough Guide To Britain)

The Rough Guide and Lonely Planet are two famous Australian bibles for the budget traveller. I have used both extensively in the past,indeed mention of their names brings back many exotic memories...Ringos Guest House for example.....Is it still there in that back alley next to the Air France office in Connaught in New Delhi...and the Atlanta on Soy 4 in Bangkok..do the pretty girl receptionists still sleep on the floor behind the desk,wrapped up like mummies....and the two day bus from Patna to Katmandu..does it still run up that precarious terrifying winding road that leads to Tibet,: we had to stop while they fished out the dead from the bus that had fallen in the river three days earlier:,white fat already oozing in patches through brown bodies lying on the grass :and how much nowadays is Beijing to Moscow second class on the Trans Siberian....? So many stories,so many adventures.....

RG and LP always provided clear direct straightforward information, keeping any comments to the minimum....".its not the cleanest but its good value" etc etc... They were highly recomendable......Except......Except .............Except, strangely, when it came to their British editions....
Then suddenly everything seems to go haywire...a strange mental convulsion occurs ...nearly every page has a hate filled -and usually meaningless, snide, sneery, "putting down "comment and we know- we are in the front line of- The War Against The British....

Many many years ago ,when I was very young ,an uncle of mine made a joke during Christmas dinner about how you could always tell Australians because of their limp.
It was greeted with silent, shocked horror to which he added by saying they also walked like this and he bent down one shoulder.NaturallyI was fascinated and only later after much pleading were the explanations whispered in my ear as if obscenities ,although the ball and chain and chip on the shoulder still didnt quite make sense
As this took place at a time when the Aussies were still ready to cheer literally in their millions for their British king and who only a few years before had been ready to die literally in their thousands in WW2 ,its clear, that an awareness of an Aussie inferiority complex has been around for quite a long time....

In the early sixties I knew quite a few Aussies.There were thousands of them living in London,usually around Earls Court, using Britain as a base to do the required one or two year grand European tour before settling down to becoming accountants or architects

The men universally had neat "Peri Como" haircuts,wore the trademark of young New Yorkers -grey flannel suits and button down shirts.Beards ,even sideburns were unknown....As befitted the young inheritors of the world, they were neat and almost excessively polite

These Aussies loved everything about Britain:were totally fascinated, almost hypnotised by it.
I remember once ,returning on a Channel ferry a group burst into singing Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Brittania as the White Cliffs came nearer......

Yet there was ,in all this adulation and respect a clear understated but always there premiss: that Britain was , in any real sense,totally, utterly, finished, as any kind of force or influence in the world.....
Britain had become simply a great glorious historic museum.Its history had come to an end.
The American atom bomb had blown its military power to bits,its economic position was pitiable,its people recently rationed ,deprived,its cities still full of empty weed growing bombsites....and its popular culture on the radio or musichall, dominated by comedians and singers with phony American accents imitating American styles and attitudes

Because of course that was where the present was and the future lay .In America.In New York and Hollywood. Nothing would ever ,could ever challenge those mighty skyscrapers again.That is where the future lay, forever and forever more,amen.
Australians felt themselves excited by this because this is what they had in their hearts always wanted.Although not American they knew they were also part of the New World.At last they could look down happily and comfortably at their heritage,enjoying it as one enjoys an old characterful relative who has had an interesting life and at whose internment one will weep genuine tears

The adulation of the now spent Britain reached its historic peak in 1963,when President Kennedy eulogised Winston Churchill ,at his presentation in absentia with honary American citizenship.Kennedys speech blazes with the cliched glories and bravery of British history and the British contribution to the world
Right up to that moment the British could know that for all their faults, they were respected and indeed loved as a great liberating force in the world ,always (usually)on the side of the right and the just,a people who had indeed sacrified themselves their wealth and their Empire for the sake of the world.At night the stillyoung Queen could sleep confident in the knowledge that everywhere in that world people would turn out in their hundreds of thousands to cheer her....

Yet it is dangerous to imagine that a great nation like Britain,at the very top of the world for three hundred and fifty years,tiny in size yet great in bravery,enterprise and creative imagination,can ever be wiped off the worlds stage for long...If it was humbled by Americas economic power its latent energy would only ballon out elsewhere....

Less than a year after Kennedys speech the Beatles arrived on the world scene.......

Now I have already in these pieces mentioned the impact of the Beatles and what followed and I am somewhat embarrassed to mention them again but the fact is that within a year British popular culture had smashed Americas culturalhegemony into the ground and despite the endless promotional energy of what may be called the American lying machine it has never fully recovered
Whether in music, style, cinema-some twentyfive of the fifty biggest international hits were made in Britain in the last forty years-(all ruthlessly marketed as American) and in recent years, in the new creative energies of TV innovation, the years since the Beatles have kept Britain at the top of the world in every lifestyle area

These developments came as a huge shock to Australia
America could grit its teeth and smile bravely and patronisingly at what was happening but Australia was faced with a problem that needed almost psychiatric help
Almost overnight the old country (Britain) had taken the crown of youth from the "new country" Australia.....It was almost a perverted reordering of the natural laws of nature

Now this is not intended to be a social history of the time so I will explain what followed briefly.
The new energies that were liberated after 1964 -often to an astonished British population -let alone the world, continued through the seventies and beyond.By 1980 this confidence had prepared the way for the liberation of the British economy by Mrs Thatcher and the return as the worlds leading financial centre of the City of London as the rest of Britain basked from 1997 onwards in a nation at the top of the world again economically and also in scientific and technological innovation-in relation to population.

One cloud however had arisen shortly after the emergence of the Beatles. This was the ongoing situation in Northern Ireland but even this had been effectively dealt with by the Good Friday Agreement.That real and bloody war had seen the British prevail.

All this should surely have been reflected indirectly in any travel guide to Britain as indeed it was in American and other publications.
Yet sadly not the Australian. It is quite amusing to actually read old editions of them and see the almost desperate attempts to put the boot in......The docklands Canary Wharf development is a good example. This building of a few tall modern buildings regenerating a run down area was always refererred to in terms of its financial problems in the early nineties"when the bubble burst" and docklands "Mrs Thatchers dream "collapsed....
This mantra was repeated for years in each new edition....
I have often wondered at how this actually went down with these guides readers who would have been very young when these events happened....

Hey Clive..You've got brains ..who the ---- is this Mrs Thatcher they keep mentioning?
Jeez man how the ----would I know..Kevin your grandpa was English ,who..?---- man I never heard of her maybe she was the prime ministers wife or sumthink...

In one edition the reporter faced with ever more developments stated confidently that however successful it might become it would never be a really lively part of London...Wrong most Definitely!! Docklands is now only briefly covered and very much in "sotto voce"

These guides often make critical comments which are really ridiculous as there are never any comparisons..Somewhere is -dirty or sqaulid -but compared to what or where?
Of course the sense of excitement that London produces by having essentially old buildings renovated to state of the art design levels can be depressing to those always seeking the not only the truly old but the crummy slummy old.
How refreshing to go to Paris then and read the hilarious giveaway sentence in the opening paragraph-"the thing you notice at once about Paris is its shabby!"
Oh the glorious glorious shabbiness of Paris!Now we can relax!Now at last we dont feel intimidated by Londons sense of wealth and power-where we ourselves -despite being true blue eyed blonde haired Aussie or L.A. backpackers feel as dirty and deprived as those third world people London is apparently so full of...

I recently sent an email to the editor of one of these guides pointing out the childish sneery trick of always referring to the London underground as the "oldest in the world-opened in 1896..."
Its a trick that could be used about anything "JFK Americas oldest airport,opened in 1918" and is completely meaningless in real terms.
The editor did in fact reply saying that Australians do in fact like London very much and Im sure this is true.Why then ,in a hate filled world make these pointless comments?

Of course this problem is not confined to travel guides-the Americans take care to keep the boot on the British neck but thats another story. Meanwhile anyone who wants a full dose of the Aussie inferiority complex regarding Britain should look at these guides which in fact disgrace two companies that in every other area do a very worthwhile job

Jenkins And The Jews

Lord Truth 13th April 2006


Simon Jenkins,the renowned British journalist, for many years provided considered , intelligent and humane analysis of the human condition in the pages of the Times......
He now writes for several other papers as well, churning out articles however,that now , as their rapid hysterical tone shows, indicates clearly that they have been thrown off in a couple of minutes and with their financial instigations being almost embarrassingly obvious.....

'Darling,the bill for the last installment of the conservatory has just arrived'..clickety clickety...
'Do you know, we've never been on a cruise to the South Pacific?'...clickety clickety...
'They may last a few years but I really think all this bridge work needs replacing'..clickety clicketyclickety.. etc..
And who can blame him?...a few minutes clicketing is a lot easier even than walking half a mile in the rain to the nearest ATM
And only a week or so ago his photo appeared in the Guardian:fully Botoxed,micro granulated, a most remarkably wholesome looking specimen, only the mouth,curling slyly and uncertainly, reminding us that living in Jenkins street we would stop leaving the milkmans pennies on the doorstep....

Yet a week or so ago one of his pieces did seriously catch my eye.It concerned his visit to a new exhibition of Modernism This visit produced a tirade of abuse against the entire movement...its Art ,architecture,design,the lot. In a thousand words or so,Jenkins argued that Modernism was directly responsible for all the horrors of the twentieth century from Fascism and Communism to sink estates.
It was an enjoyable diatribe and he deserves his new set of dentures, yet I could not help feeling a certain frisson while reading it.... Could it be...was it really essentially a huge concealed attack on Jews and what may be called Jewism .
After all , almost every name he mentioned was Jewish as were the institutions he named, To relate Jews and Fascism might seem to be going to extremes but although its true there was no political power base for this at that time ,anyone researching the methods and techniques of the great Hollywood film companies for example, all owned and run by tyrannical Jewish masters might find some disturbing authoritarian echoes .The huge welcoming celebratory party given in Hollywood by Louis B Mayer to all the German Nazi media a few months before the war -which by then seemed inevitable , might suggest a greater sympathy than one might imagine.

In todays world of course any overt form of what is immediately dubbed anti- Semitism'results in ones complete artistic or commercial obliteration or even a visit from Mossads stranglers ,yet I do find the relationship between the British writing elite and the Jews a fascinating area totally(naturally ) unexplored.

After all if one examines twentieth century British writing there is no shortage of anti jewish sentiment:,even in the forties Agatha Christies Moriartys were often 'yellow skinned Asiatic looking Semites and remarks about and against the Jews abound in many novelists work.All this has indeed been explored. But what of the post war situation ?

The power of the Jews in what we now call the media was considerable before the war,though kept largely undercover.After the war with the horrors of the Nazis fully revealed it rapdily consolidated itself.

Where then did this leave British writers? Their publishers publicists agents editors,virtually their whole world now revolved around Jews who a few years before they would not have hesitated to clearly categorise if not denigrate....
In post war British writing mention of the Jews vanished ,no character however sympathetic was ever Jewish....
The one exception to this -and I applaud her for this, was Iris Murdoch.Jews do appear in her novels some good some unpleasant. She does not try to pretend they dont exist in her literary cultured worlds.
Yet take that most British ofwriters ,KingsleyAmis.His extensive works cover the gamut of British society yet -I have not read all of them by any means-there is no trace of a Jew anywhere.Yet there is something about Amis that surely suggests he must have had some views about this.
Once walking towards Gower Street tube station,which then had an entrance to the lifts actually on Tottenham Court Road I saw Amis waiting-he saw me and appeared either terrified at my appearance -this was probably the early seventies and Iwas tall with long black hair or recognising a certain intellectuality about my face thought I was going to start up a conversation.At that time I was surprised at how tiny he was ,very short and thin with an extraordinary pretty face-later he became enormously fat.

I also sometime later saw Lord Wiedenfield as he stood drooling at the jewellery in the shop on the corner of Chancery Lane ,his chauffeur waiting by his stetched Volvo limo

It is interesting to wonder how these two caracters related to each other when they met as meet they must have. Was it the usual British hypocracy of face to face politeness laughter slaps on the back friendliness have another one before you go-followed -as the door closed and the footsteps died away by the equally British-God I need a stiff drink after that.Cant stand him or any Jew....

Now not for one moment am I suggesting that Amis might make such a remark only that all that traditional awareness reserve and one must admit dislike of Jews must have gone somewhere,it cannot have just vapourised-indeed I know it cant because I happen to look rather Jewish-although I am not-and attitudes to me are frequently unpleasant or critical-as I am often disliked by Jews also my position is somewhat difficult ,but thats another story

To return to Simon Jenkins (after all there are no new dentures in this piece for me and my clickety clickety gene is getting tired) it might be interesting if one day instead of the usual empty huffing and puffing Jenkins actually addressed this question.After all he sits or at least visits the home of Britains most Jewish newspaper the Guardian....But I doubt if it will happen,muddy waters are perhaps best left unstirred and it would require more than Simons usual ration of clicks to do the subject justice....

The Real Problems With Health in Britain

Lord Truth 12th April 2006



Not a day goes by without more problems for Britains famous National Health Service.
The Blair government, knowing that healthcare and education are the things by which it stands or falls have been throwing money at these areas like an insane lottery winner.
Is it doing any good?

Since I am often called upon to explain aspects of British society to many foreigners I will attempt to throw some light on this problem but in doing so I will have to widen my examination to include areas that may not at first sight be related to it and that are seldom if ever properly touched as being too sensitive

The brutal reality about life in Britain is that, just as nothing in America can ever be examined properly except through the lens of race and racism,in Britain its even more true that nothing can be properly explained unless looked at through the the lens of class and classism.


The eternal power of this phenomenen bewilders foreign visitors who are generally amazed by Britains leading position in taking up and using high tec technology-who are 'with it' in ways far advanced from other countries -including the US-yet who still are the most culturally and socially screwed up people in the universe-despite claims to the contrary

In no area is this more true than the NHS.
The NHS was created in 1949 to provide universal health care in a country socially united by shared wartime experiences and united by a shared sense both of difficulty in post war Britain and a sense of exhilaration as well in that the enduring problems of poverty were at last being dealt with by the Labour government

In a hospital ward right up to the late sixties you might find,side by side a middle aged local 'aristocrat' an unemployed tramp,a bus conductor, an orchestra conductor ,a priest,a teenage biker and a factory worker.All together ,all getting ,and expecting the same warm quality of care

All this had begun to change in the early sixties however as Conservative governments drove a wedge through the system by introducing tax breaks for people usually professionals signing up for 'private 'non profit health insurance schemes. These gradually incresed their membership so that today virtually all professionals ,their families and indeed huge swathes of middle class people now have access to private care.
The differences in this care and NHS is connected mainly with speed of consultation and examination results etc though other factors are involved-its doubtful if the 'private patient would be put in a ward where -a frequent complaint-the toilets were filthy and urine wasnt cleaned up for a day etcetc
In many areas however - as specialists -who work in both areas like to say- the differences may well be only in the quality of the china that you drink your tea from

The unfortunate fact is however that this separation between private and NHS has accompanied other social changes that are even more important.

The first is the creation in the last thirty years of an even more stratified class divided society than ever before. It is one thing to grow up in a society where one is discriminated against and where ones ability to progress is hindered-its quite another thing to know that with every opportunity offered one is still somehow at the bottom of the pile and perhaps worse of all to know that with the various entertainments of modern life available ,its not unpleasant down there. This can produce a huge level however of bitterness and resentment producing in turn a huge level of social aggression .
When this is coupled with the consumer power of the mass market and the democratically empowering effect of mobile phone ownership for example, a level of social confidence is produced which is expressed in various aggressive ways-some unique to the British.One strange phenomenen for example in recent years has been - the obssession with speaking with a 'cockney 'accent.
It almost impossible to find any actor or entertainer -unless their 'style'is fixed as upper class -who speaks publicly in anything other than cockney. The sight of the very expensively private educated putting on phony working class accents -and not being laughed at or treated with contempt - is one of the most bizarre aspects of contemporary British life.Yet it represents a startling fact.That there is an assunption that the prosperous working class have now taken over the nation.
Now this may well be a reasonable thing except that of course with differences in wealth and education levels greater than ever before it is completely untrue.Once again we have a circular situation that produces even more resentment and latent aggression.

Before attempting to link all this to the NHS there is yet another area of peculiarity that is unique to Britain.
Until 1964 or so ,Britain was a nation characterised by deference and repect to age. Pubs were filled overwhelmingly with the middle aged and elderly-the young were not not really wanted there-at work the young were regarded as grossly inferior to the old and experienced on the factory floor and at higher levels as 'young whipper snappers' with prospects in the far distant future.
All this changed with the social revolution produced by the Beattles.Now it may seem absurd to suggest that a great nation can have its ethos changed permanently by something as insubstantial as pop music and a cult of youth but there is no doubt that that happened and prevails today. London is a remarkable youthful city full of young energetic on the go people, there is a sense of youthfullness about Britain that is tangible -its everywhere ,it has never stopped.Britain has been swinging now for forty years.


How then does all this impinge on the health service?

First with private healthcare schemes mopping up the traditional middle classes the overwhelming bulk of NHS patients are definably working class

Secondly with an aging population many of these patients are elderly.

With this situation several problems arise
If working class patients are clearly working class they will be accepted as naturally deserving NHS patients.
But many apparently working class patients are in fact 'genteel' people who do not have definable working class characteristics-they may not speak with a working class accent- they may not be fat -dont swear etc. Such elderly people are immediately classed -this being Britain - as 'stuck up ' snooty' 'think themselves better than other people'
In any case being elderly classes them as being 'out of the loop' totally irrelevant in modern Britain-unable to connect to the nurses conversational world of all night raves, interacial sex and soft drugs.As such they are at best neglected -at worst almost killed off.

Indeed other factors add to this unhealthy situation.In Britain many people live unhealthy lifestyles -they are overweight smoke and drink ,eat unhealthy food.In America because such people are (usually) privately insured they are treated with respect. In Britain with its free service there is a palpable sense that these people dont really deserve the best and -if they get diseased and die that is their fault.


An even worse situation faces the real middle class patient who can find themselves in a world that is almost a horrific nightmare. Endless stories abound , my own personally concerns a friend who had a cancer operation. The treatment was excellent but the condition of the ward was appalling,the toilets filthy and urine left uncleaned all day.
Recently an elderly lady I know whose husband is a private school teacher had a cateract operation on the NHS. Surprisingly it went wrong and the follow up treatment was negligent-protests were met with the repeated statements that it was a NHS hospital with the clearimplication that these ,middle calss people should have used private healthcare

It may be that I have painted a too gloomy picture . My cancer operated friend did have excellent medical care despite the filthy toilets, the cateract operation problem was dealt with again with excellent care at another NHS hospital-all this completely free-and I repeat -with an excellent level of medical care-no discrination there. And visits to the doctor are still completely free with prescription charges very modest and completely free for the over 65s and unemployed and disadvantaged.

The NHS is still in my mind ,a wonder of the world but its problems do need to be tackled and they are problems of ETHOS of spirit more than of funding
There should be no more regarding the genteel or well spoken or middleclass as aliens in the NHS environment nor should the elderly equally be regarded as irrelevances on their way to the death house.
The NHS is not just an adjunt of sink estates , an East Enders lifestyle or teenagers recovering from street violence or underage car accidents

I believe Blairs government recognises these problems and is doing something to address them but it could and must do more even though they involve dealing with that most sensitive and explosive area of British life :Class attitudes

ACHTUNG BIGGLES!

From Lord Truth 11th April 2006

Brief Notes....



Mike Turner!...Now theres a name that surely conjures up memories.....

'Mike Turner walked across the quad a frown on his normally cheery face.Dark clouds were piling up over Red House.That meant rain tomorrow and a sticky wicket..With Jenkins with a sprained ankle it looked certain that Mike would have to open the second elevens batting against St Dithers on Saturday....'

The DCM kicked open the never locked door of the mess hut.A bright shaft of Basra sunlight illuminated the interior where half a dozen pilots lounged in shabby armchairs reading out of date London newspapers.
'I know you chaps have had a busy week but the fact is the CGS was driving back fromNarjah from a bridge party with his lady wife last night when some of the brown boys took a pot at him.Hes hopping mad.Anyone like to do a little wog bashing?
Before he had finished speaking Mike Turner had flung his copy of Cricketers weekly to the ground and was on his feet his clear blue eyes flashing and full of mischief
Im in Sir ! Good job I just had my DH 12 re-pistoned ,I'm bursting to try her out!
The DCM replaced his pipe ,Good fellow Mike ! We can always count on you to do some British flag waving!

Well ,would you believe it dear old Mike is back in the news and hes still in the flying business!-Well not exactly because now hes Chairman of the bizarrely named BAESystems ,the company that has a twenty percent stake in Airbus .
However, far from waving the Union Jack, he's just firmly rammed it up Britains arse...
Last week Mike announced that BAE were going to sell their Airbus stake and finally bring down the curtain on Britains aerospace industry...

The reason given is that BAE wants to concentrate on acquiring US defence contractors, as its in defence -and the US in particular, that the real money lies and according to Mike ,that is where BAEs future lies .Apparently BAE may get 3.5 billion pounds for its Airbus stake which will be acquired by EADS the French German Spanish consortium who own the rest of Airbus.

Now I am not the worlds greatest expert on the US defence industry but I do know that 3.5 million will you get you only a packet of peanuts or at most a clapped out string of rusty gas stations in the US...furthermore as informed readers know the US government has just blocked the transfer of certain restricted technical information to BAE for 'security' reasons. Furthermore it is a given fact that British acquisitions in the states seldom if ever succeed.

As Airbus is about to finally burst triumphantly on the worlds stage with its A380 it would seem the most weird and stupid thing to do particularly at this time.

This decision has generally been welcomed by Britains own self destructive foreign operated press using the usual jokey patronising phrases -'must not be sentimental -etcetc.The actual reality is that this decision is appalling and disgusting but any suggestion of keeping a sense of national pride alive in Britain is doomed to fail...and with Gordon Brown criticising protectionist sentiment in Europe there is no hope there.

The statements that the 13000 British jobs( where the wings are made ) are in no danger maybe true for the moment, but I remember a curious moment when the EADS consortium was formed five years ago ,when the German and French heads at the televised ceremony actually said, laughing and excited-Now WE can decide where the wings will be made!. The future is not bright.

Incidentally ,does anyone know what Mr Turners REAL name is?

A First Touch Of Lunacy......

From Lord Truth 11th April 2006

I should be introducing this space with something stunning or riveting but in fact since my mind frequently turns to what I call -and I will be expounding this at length in the future- 'The War Against The British 'I will first mention the grotesque little absurdity that was involved in setting up this site.......

For one has first for some reason, to choose a 'time'setting.... and clicking on the setting one meets hundreds of the most bizarre, complex, bewildering, unheard of places and names and time settings imaginable....

Now why is this? The fact is that until after WW II ,the world used one international time:Greenwich Mean Time or GMT.After the war however,when the British Empire had begun to end, the Americans decided that they resented a place in London still being used as the centre for the worlds time and introduced Universal Time which was essentially GMT but with another name.

Now its true that there are some technical reasons important to scientists for not using GMT but in no way do they affect the millions of normal international time users.....

Using Universal Time immediately produces hilariously idiotical confusion.... 'If its Universal Time, why isnt it the same time in Paris as in New York? ..Well you see UT is six hours behind Paris...So time is measured from Paris? Well no ..But it must be MEASURED from somewhere!! Well it is ....From where ?Well from a place called Greenwhich actually...Wheres Greenwich...?Er..in London actually ..So why dont they call it Greenwhich Time and add or subtract hours from the time there? Well they do actually but we Americans feel upset that those pesky British still claim this time thing as coming from London...

Fortunately ,despite American efforts, GMT is still used by the world and broadcasters ,but anyone looking for a bit of lunacy should check out that 'time'listing...

But would you believe it thats not the only example of the American inferiority complex regarding things British, because you also have to make a choice of language.
Think thats easy if you speak good old English? Its true there is American and British English-though an enormous amount of nonsense is talked about their differences-perhaps a dozen words maybe that everyone knows...-lift = elevator,colour = color etc but the differences are in reality minimal...

But ,would you believe it, the list offered does not simply show American and British English (as all textbooks etc call them)
They show Canadian, Australian, NewZealand, United Kingdom,Irish and Indian English.!!! Curiously they do not show Nigerian ,Barbados,Bermudan or Singapore English,all places among dozens where English is also an official language...!!

The traditional inferiority complexes of Australians towards Britain are well known but do they go round saying they speak 'Australian English' and not British English?

Its true that Aussie slang is distinctly Aussie-a hundred different words for the penis alone I believe and the accent is distinctive -true true!...but the language ?---surely Aussies havent thrown out the word British to describe it?

But of course, and here this nonsense stops being a kind of joke and becomes something sickly, indeed menacing..images of Bosnia ,bombs in Northern Ireland,Spain ,New York, London,Paris, float across ones imagination....

Suddenly one realises that yes, there are people whose spite and screwed up sense of inferiority could make them reject the name of their own language......

Meanwhile,the Americans (I presume )who have compiled these loony lists could perhaps sort them out into something more normal....

Of course with the present ongoing demonstrations in the States concerning immigrants -mainly South American- few of whom bother to learn English of any kind , and with their soaring birthrate,in twenty years or so America will be a largely Spanish speaking nation... Now that will introduce an interesting situation.....