An article in today's Financial Times refers to "...corporate oligarchies, poor governance and a lack of focus on productivity, innovation and global competitiveness".
The article was not, however, referring to major parts of the British economy and public services - although it might have been - but to "countries in Latin America and elsewhere" unable to rise "to the ranks of the developed nations" due to the above problems. However, we in the UK should pay heed to these and related issues.
Thus whilst some of measures announced by the British Government under the umbrella of "Building Britain's Future", including a re-allocation of funds withing the Homes and Communities Agency to enable the construction of more "social" housing, are to be welcomed, present and future administrations must fully acknowledge underlying structural problems.
The founding Chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, Sir Stuart Lipton - himself a highly successful property developer - has been one of the most perceptive observers of the strengths and, equally important, structural weaknesses of the British house-building and construction sectors.
These structural weaknesses have been thrown into relief by the current economic cycle and need to be rectified as a matter of urgency in the interests of "Building Britain's Future". However, there is little indication as yet that either the present Government or the leadership of the other main political parties is up to this task.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Problem of House-building Advocacy Gravy Train
In my post of 4 June on the need for some new enlightenment on housing issues, I referred to the ineffectiveness of the government-funded house-building advocacy sector and the need for this particular gravy train to be shunted into the sidings.
News that former housing minister Nick Raynsford MP earns a comfortable £148 000 on top of his parliamentary salary (and expenses) "from six private sector posts - mostly connected to housing" in today's Metro newspaper is the other side of this particular coin, of course.
News that former housing minister Nick Raynsford MP earns a comfortable £148 000 on top of his parliamentary salary (and expenses) "from six private sector posts - mostly connected to housing" in today's Metro newspaper is the other side of this particular coin, of course.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
THE TRAIN TO STOKE-ON-TRENT.....
In the light of recent posts (see below), this is the real and metaphorical journey that I would recommend to British planning policy makers, and, for that matter, cultural commentators.
Please see also :
http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com & http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com on related themes.
Please see also :
http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com & http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com on related themes.
America's Shrinking Cities & Unsustainable Settlements
The United States, following in the tradition of Britain, has been a globaliser of the dubious enterprise, long before the latest sub-prime mortgage fiasco wreaked havoc on the world's financial markets and plunged international economies into a truly global recession.
Thus I listened with some alarm to an item on BBC Radio 4 this morning about "Shrinking America's Cities", a "plan", I fear, which will find new enthusiasts in this country and elsewhere.
It is well known that many older industrial cities in the United States have experienced a massive flight of people both to suburban areas, and to other parts of the country. This flight, incidentally, has been largely, but by no means exclusively, of white middle class people to more desirable neighbourhoods and states, or so they thought.
In fact, the flight has brought unsustainable population growth to precisely those parts of the United States most vulnerable to natural disasters and, therefore, climate change, such as California and Florida. Moreover, the State of California now has its own economic woes comparable to those of the so-called "Rust Belt".
It is the cities of this "Rust Belt", mainly to the north and east of the country, which are the main targets for the latest "Shrinking Plan", notwithstanding that many are well-situated and have good basic infrastructure : unlike many of the apparently desirable suburbs and new settlements of Florida, for instance.
So what does shrinking actually entail ?: essentially knocking down abandoned homes, retail centres and former employment areas and not replacing these with new development; or "rationalising the physical layout of the city", according to one exponent of the plan.
It should come as no surprise, of course, that an earlier recruit to the "Shrinking City Plan" - and who has himself subsequently revealed a need for the services of a "Shrink" (ie psychological counsellor) with regard to a personal eating disorder - was none other than former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott*.
This brings me in turn to the subject of food, and why urban abandonment** should not be encouraged by policy makers, particularly in our rather smaller country than the United States : excessive suburbanisation and new settlement growth generally consume agricultural land, if not natural areas, which may well be required to sustain future populations.
* Some readers may feel that I've been unfair in highlighting Mr Prescott's condition. However, I would suggest that daft ideas are always waiting to seed themselves in the political psyche, and this should serve as warning to the next generation of politicians Over Here and, indeed, Over There.
Moreover, the spatial distribution of populations within countries and internationally, along with food production and consumption, will be amongst the most important issues facing nation states and the global community in the present century.
** Except where environmental factors make this necessary.
Thus I listened with some alarm to an item on BBC Radio 4 this morning about "Shrinking America's Cities", a "plan", I fear, which will find new enthusiasts in this country and elsewhere.
It is well known that many older industrial cities in the United States have experienced a massive flight of people both to suburban areas, and to other parts of the country. This flight, incidentally, has been largely, but by no means exclusively, of white middle class people to more desirable neighbourhoods and states, or so they thought.
In fact, the flight has brought unsustainable population growth to precisely those parts of the United States most vulnerable to natural disasters and, therefore, climate change, such as California and Florida. Moreover, the State of California now has its own economic woes comparable to those of the so-called "Rust Belt".
It is the cities of this "Rust Belt", mainly to the north and east of the country, which are the main targets for the latest "Shrinking Plan", notwithstanding that many are well-situated and have good basic infrastructure : unlike many of the apparently desirable suburbs and new settlements of Florida, for instance.
So what does shrinking actually entail ?: essentially knocking down abandoned homes, retail centres and former employment areas and not replacing these with new development; or "rationalising the physical layout of the city", according to one exponent of the plan.
It should come as no surprise, of course, that an earlier recruit to the "Shrinking City Plan" - and who has himself subsequently revealed a need for the services of a "Shrink" (ie psychological counsellor) with regard to a personal eating disorder - was none other than former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott*.
This brings me in turn to the subject of food, and why urban abandonment** should not be encouraged by policy makers, particularly in our rather smaller country than the United States : excessive suburbanisation and new settlement growth generally consume agricultural land, if not natural areas, which may well be required to sustain future populations.
* Some readers may feel that I've been unfair in highlighting Mr Prescott's condition. However, I would suggest that daft ideas are always waiting to seed themselves in the political psyche, and this should serve as warning to the next generation of politicians Over Here and, indeed, Over There.
Moreover, the spatial distribution of populations within countries and internationally, along with food production and consumption, will be amongst the most important issues facing nation states and the global community in the present century.
** Except where environmental factors make this necessary.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The New Road to Milton Keynes.....
I returned again yesterday to my reading of John Brannigan's* excellent book on "Literature in England, 1945-2000", sub-titled "Orwell to the Present" (well not quite the present, the book was published in 2003).
Nevertheless, Brannigan's choice of post-war English literary subjects is remarkably prescient. By way of illustration, early on he quotes from Richard Goodwin's poem "Return to England" which refers to none other than :
"the headline bankers, the spinners of captions,
the millionaires -"
This sounds rather familiar ! However, it is on the opening of the later chapter entitled "English Journeys" that I want to focus today.
In this, Brannigan returns to "the summer of 1983" when the novelist "Beryl Bainbridge joined a BBC television crew in a journey around England" :
"Bainbridge retraced the journey undertaken by J B Priestley fifty years earlier....'English Journey, or The Road to Milton Keynes' pays homage to Priestley, and, as its sub-title suggests, also to Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937)".
Eventually arriving at Milton Keynes, Bainbridge finds :
"....'a cathedral dedicated to the worship of the credit card, a place where people could come and pay their respects to the consumer society'"
She also finds : "...it's housing estates empty, its shopping arcades derelict, and an architectural planner who tells her that 'no one had foreseen a recession and unemployment.'"
Once again, this sounds all too familiar : please see below my post of yesterday.
* I have also referred to this work @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/ in a post of 3 June 2009.
Nevertheless, Brannigan's choice of post-war English literary subjects is remarkably prescient. By way of illustration, early on he quotes from Richard Goodwin's poem "Return to England" which refers to none other than :
"the headline bankers, the spinners of captions,
the millionaires -"
This sounds rather familiar ! However, it is on the opening of the later chapter entitled "English Journeys" that I want to focus today.
In this, Brannigan returns to "the summer of 1983" when the novelist "Beryl Bainbridge joined a BBC television crew in a journey around England" :
"Bainbridge retraced the journey undertaken by J B Priestley fifty years earlier....'English Journey, or The Road to Milton Keynes' pays homage to Priestley, and, as its sub-title suggests, also to Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937)".
Eventually arriving at Milton Keynes, Bainbridge finds :
"....'a cathedral dedicated to the worship of the credit card, a place where people could come and pay their respects to the consumer society'"
She also finds : "...it's housing estates empty, its shopping arcades derelict, and an architectural planner who tells her that 'no one had foreseen a recession and unemployment.'"
Once again, this sounds all too familiar : please see below my post of yesterday.
* I have also referred to this work @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/ in a post of 3 June 2009.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Housing : From Growth Hotspot to Negative Equity
Yesterday's report in the Financial Times based on data released by credit agency FitchRatings made interesting reading. The top 10 cities and postcodes with the highest proportion of loans in negative equity (by % number of borrowers) was something of a revelation. As the article pointed out :
"The range of locations showing either a high percentage of borrowers in negative equity or a high proportion of loans under water is striking. In central Birmingham, 31.2% of borrowers, representing 37.4 % of loans by value, are in negative equity, while the countryside around Cambridge, where house prices rose sharply in recent years, has also suffered badly".
However, whilst house price falls in major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester - Salford Quays also has a high proportion of loans in negative equity - significantly reflect unsustainable levels of apartment-building, the situation in the East of England's "growth triangle" of Cambridge, Peterborough and Northampton is more surprising.
For it is in fact Northampton which is currently the UK's epicentre of negative equity, according to FitchRatings. All the more important, therefore, for housing policy-makers and planners to remind themselves - as memories are surprisingly short - that this part of England has been the focus for the development of "affordable housing" for so-called "Sustainable Communities".
"The range of locations showing either a high percentage of borrowers in negative equity or a high proportion of loans under water is striking. In central Birmingham, 31.2% of borrowers, representing 37.4 % of loans by value, are in negative equity, while the countryside around Cambridge, where house prices rose sharply in recent years, has also suffered badly".
However, whilst house price falls in major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester - Salford Quays also has a high proportion of loans in negative equity - significantly reflect unsustainable levels of apartment-building, the situation in the East of England's "growth triangle" of Cambridge, Peterborough and Northampton is more surprising.
For it is in fact Northampton which is currently the UK's epicentre of negative equity, according to FitchRatings. All the more important, therefore, for housing policy-makers and planners to remind themselves - as memories are surprisingly short - that this part of England has been the focus for the development of "affordable housing" for so-called "Sustainable Communities".
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
SPECULATION, SPECULATION, SPECULATION
Although it started out with the mantra "Education, Education, Education", and now offers the prospect of "Regulation, Regulation, Regulation", it is "Speculation, Speculation, Speculation" which has defined not only New Labour's time in government, but leadership of the Party itself.
Thus New Labour has presided over a period of unparalleled speculation in the UK economy, notably in the property and financial sectors, to the extent that even leading speculators such as hedge fund managers have suggested the country needs to refocus it's economy back to "making things" : to which advice should be added, "that employ British labour". It is precisely these real needs that should determine the future leadership of the Labour Party.
The question is who could fulfil this role : not, in my view - and present incumbent aside - Alan Johnson (or "Corporal Johnson" as a Staffordshire Labour Councillor recently called him), David Milliband, Ed Balls (Mr & Mrs) or Harriet Harman. That leaves some space for speculation.
Thus New Labour has presided over a period of unparalleled speculation in the UK economy, notably in the property and financial sectors, to the extent that even leading speculators such as hedge fund managers have suggested the country needs to refocus it's economy back to "making things" : to which advice should be added, "that employ British labour". It is precisely these real needs that should determine the future leadership of the Labour Party.
The question is who could fulfil this role : not, in my view - and present incumbent aside - Alan Johnson (or "Corporal Johnson" as a Staffordshire Labour Councillor recently called him), David Milliband, Ed Balls (Mr & Mrs) or Harriet Harman. That leaves some space for speculation.
Monday, June 08, 2009
UK Euro Elections - A Failure of Regional Policy
Having declared my vote as "Green" in both the County Council and European Parliament Elections, I shall now reflect upon the outcome of the latter.
First of all, though, I have to confess that whilst I voted "Green" pretty much without hesitation in the local elections, and will probably do so again in the general, the long ballot paper for the Euro elections caught me contemplating other parties. Yes, I too considered the option of voting for UKIP, the English Democrats, and another party represented by Dave Nellist (See - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Nellist)
Why ? Because, like many people, I view the European Union - notwithstanding the fact that it does some excellent work, on the environment and planning, for instance - and its over-expensed politicians and bloated bureaucrats, with some suspicion. Yes, I too, like the Labour Party, have to confess to something of a political split-personality.
Returning to "That Party", for whom I have not only voted but also been a member (until the election of Tony Blair as leader, that is), and for whom the outcome of the Euro Elections is an unmitigated disaster, I have to say that "We were Warned !", but the election of 2 British National Party MEPS still came as something of a shock !
A shock but not a surprise ! For the fact is that there are significant parts of the Nation (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and sections of their populations, who are, in effect, in a "State" of managed decline. For sadly, much of UK regional policy - most particularly in England - is, to use the words of former Europe Minister Caroline Flint, a "window dressing".
Thus whilst it is the "Greens" who have displaced Labour in the "Growth" areas of the Southern England, it is the BNP who have done the same in areas of "Decline", typically the old industrial heartlands of the North of England. The result is that both parties now have two English MEPS.
In Scotland, for whom ownership of "The Land" (see below) has always been a key (perhaps "the key") issue, the Scottish National Party has fared rather better....than its banking sector
Euro-Election Results also @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/
First of all, though, I have to confess that whilst I voted "Green" pretty much without hesitation in the local elections, and will probably do so again in the general, the long ballot paper for the Euro elections caught me contemplating other parties. Yes, I too considered the option of voting for UKIP, the English Democrats, and another party represented by Dave Nellist (See - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Nellist)
Why ? Because, like many people, I view the European Union - notwithstanding the fact that it does some excellent work, on the environment and planning, for instance - and its over-expensed politicians and bloated bureaucrats, with some suspicion. Yes, I too, like the Labour Party, have to confess to something of a political split-personality.
Returning to "That Party", for whom I have not only voted but also been a member (until the election of Tony Blair as leader, that is), and for whom the outcome of the Euro Elections is an unmitigated disaster, I have to say that "We were Warned !", but the election of 2 British National Party MEPS still came as something of a shock !
A shock but not a surprise ! For the fact is that there are significant parts of the Nation (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and sections of their populations, who are, in effect, in a "State" of managed decline. For sadly, much of UK regional policy - most particularly in England - is, to use the words of former Europe Minister Caroline Flint, a "window dressing".
Thus whilst it is the "Greens" who have displaced Labour in the "Growth" areas of the Southern England, it is the BNP who have done the same in areas of "Decline", typically the old industrial heartlands of the North of England. The result is that both parties now have two English MEPS.
In Scotland, for whom ownership of "The Land" (see below) has always been a key (perhaps "the key") issue, the Scottish National Party has fared rather better....than its banking sector
Euro-Election Results also @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/
Friday, June 05, 2009
THE PROBLEM OF LAND BANKING
Whilst the problems of Iceland's Landesbanki* are in the news once again, it is the problem of land banking - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Banking - which I want to focus on here.
Land speculation is as much a challenge for regulators - if not more so - than other forms of financial speculation.
It is time for regulatory authorities in the UK, and elsewhere, to get to grips with the negative contribution of speculative land banking to dysfunctional property markets.
Until there is a proper understanding of this, housing issues of the kind referred to in my previous post cannot be resolved.
At the present time, UK government policies continue to encourage excessive speculation, and, therefore, exacerbate the very problems they seek to tackle.
See also my blog @ http://smartlimits2growth.wordpress.com/
* Landesbanki now own West Ham Football Club
Land speculation is as much a challenge for regulators - if not more so - than other forms of financial speculation.
It is time for regulatory authorities in the UK, and elsewhere, to get to grips with the negative contribution of speculative land banking to dysfunctional property markets.
Until there is a proper understanding of this, housing issues of the kind referred to in my previous post cannot be resolved.
At the present time, UK government policies continue to encourage excessive speculation, and, therefore, exacerbate the very problems they seek to tackle.
See also my blog @ http://smartlimits2growth.wordpress.com/
* Landesbanki now own West Ham Football Club
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Housing - Some New Elightenment Needed
The New Labour Government - and I blame the centralists and the localists equally for this - has created an enormous house-building advocacy sector, which has achieved remarkably little "on the ground" as the following article illustrates :
"Millennium Communities scheme set to fall far short of goals
Jamie Carpenter, Regen.net, 2 June 2009
A government programme to construct 6,000 environmentally-friendly homes in seven new communities between 1997 and 2010 has so far succeeded in building fewer than 2,000 homes, ministers have admitted.
Figures published in a written parliamentary answer by housing minister Margaret Beckett show that the Millennium Communities initiative has delivered 1,626 new homes.
The Greenwich Millennium Village in London was the first development to be announced under the scheme in 1997. The figures show that nearly 1,100 homes have been built on the site.
But only 14 homes have been completed at the Oakgrove Millennium Village at Milton Keynes and no homes have been constructed at the Hastings Millennium Community, spanning an area of 72ha across three sites in East Sussex, Beckett said.
In New Islington in Manchester, 179 homes have been constructed under the scheme, while 172 homes have been constructed at the Allerton Bywater Millennium Village near Leeds, the figures show.
At the South Lynn Millennium Community in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 109 homes have been built.
In 2007, the then housing minister Yvette Cooper revealed that public expenditure related to the Millennium Communities programme amounted to £131.6 million."
I have to say that all this comes as no surprise to me at all. The state-funded house-building advocacy sector is, I would suggest, a gravy train which has plunged well off the rails of common sense and the sooner someone shunts it into the sidings, the better !
"Millennium Communities scheme set to fall far short of goals
Jamie Carpenter, Regen.net, 2 June 2009
A government programme to construct 6,000 environmentally-friendly homes in seven new communities between 1997 and 2010 has so far succeeded in building fewer than 2,000 homes, ministers have admitted.
Figures published in a written parliamentary answer by housing minister Margaret Beckett show that the Millennium Communities initiative has delivered 1,626 new homes.
The Greenwich Millennium Village in London was the first development to be announced under the scheme in 1997. The figures show that nearly 1,100 homes have been built on the site.
But only 14 homes have been completed at the Oakgrove Millennium Village at Milton Keynes and no homes have been constructed at the Hastings Millennium Community, spanning an area of 72ha across three sites in East Sussex, Beckett said.
In New Islington in Manchester, 179 homes have been constructed under the scheme, while 172 homes have been constructed at the Allerton Bywater Millennium Village near Leeds, the figures show.
At the South Lynn Millennium Community in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 109 homes have been built.
In 2007, the then housing minister Yvette Cooper revealed that public expenditure related to the Millennium Communities programme amounted to £131.6 million."
I have to say that all this comes as no surprise to me at all. The state-funded house-building advocacy sector is, I would suggest, a gravy train which has plunged well off the rails of common sense and the sooner someone shunts it into the sidings, the better !
On Re-Naming the She-Shanty
Travelling back to Worcester from Birmingham on the train the other week, I fell into a conversation with two gentlemen, who reminded me a little of a couple of Bird and Fortune characters. After discussing the "Enlightenment Enterprise" of Matthew Boulton*, also called "The Father of Birmingham", our talk turned to contemporary politics.
One of the gentlemen was a lawyer, with an obviously keen interest in politics. He suggested to me that that New Labour has a "split-personality", with the key ideological fight taking place between the "Centralists", led by Ed Balls, and the "Localists", led by Hazel Blears.
Returning to events of this week, and my post of yesterday, I wonder whether the "Nancy Lee" (see below) should be re-named the "Hazel Blears" or
On reflection, perhaps the ship,
After She who steers,
Should be re-named,
the "Hazel Blears",
"Rocking the Boat"**
With Her own waves :
"YouTube if you want to....***
....The Lady's not for turning"****
But then it all ends in tears !*****
* There is an excellent programme of events in Birmingham over the Summer to commemorate the bi-centenary of Boulton's death
* Hazel wore a brooch emblazoned with these words after her resignation from government
*** As Hazel said of Gordon and his gang : those of us who hail from the North West of England, never under-estimate the power of the Manchester Mafia to influence national events
**** As Margaret Thatcher told the men of her day
***** Hazel's subsequent recantation to the Manchester Evening News
Please see also http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ - Gender Politics & New Labour's Undressing
One of the gentlemen was a lawyer, with an obviously keen interest in politics. He suggested to me that that New Labour has a "split-personality", with the key ideological fight taking place between the "Centralists", led by Ed Balls, and the "Localists", led by Hazel Blears.
Returning to events of this week, and my post of yesterday, I wonder whether the "Nancy Lee" (see below) should be re-named the "Hazel Blears" or
On reflection, perhaps the ship,
After She who steers,
Should be re-named,
the "Hazel Blears",
"Rocking the Boat"**
With Her own waves :
"YouTube if you want to....***
....The Lady's not for turning"****
But then it all ends in tears !*****
* There is an excellent programme of events in Birmingham over the Summer to commemorate the bi-centenary of Boulton's death
* Hazel wore a brooch emblazoned with these words after her resignation from government
*** As Hazel said of Gordon and his gang : those of us who hail from the North West of England, never under-estimate the power of the Manchester Mafia to influence national events
**** As Margaret Thatcher told the men of her day
***** Hazel's subsequent recantation to the Manchester Evening News
Please see also http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ - Gender Politics & New Labour's Undressing
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
"The Capting" faces his "Ukulele Music"
Last October, in a post entitled "Deconstructing "Captain" Gordon Brown's Rhetoric", I quoted some lines from the sea shanty "Nancy Lee" :
"I sing you a tale of the Nancy Lee
A ship that got shipwrecked at sea
The bravest man was Captain Brown
Who played his ukulele as the ship went down
........All the crew were in despair
Some rushed here and others rushed there
But the Captain sat in the captain's chair
And he played the ukulele as the ship went down."
Today's national newspapers all suggest that it is time for the Prime Minister to face the music.
However, I want to reflect once again on the subject of my blog of yesterday, Tom Paulin's book "Minotaur : Poetry and the Nation State".
The concluding chapter of this book focuses on the work of the contemporary British poet, Peter Reading, and, in particular, his poem "Ukulele Music" and the figure of "The Capting". The poem poses the following question :
And shall it, now, be counted
as ye dignified defiance
in us towards our fateful
merciless element,
or gull naivete,
cousin to recklessness,
that, e'en in pitching Gulpward,
our salt kind brings forth chanteys ?
Paulin, in turn, offers the following reflection on this passage :
".... these lines carry a patriotic impulse as well as performing a kind of ritual absolution. In them we witness the the isolated, scarred and diminished soul of a great seafaring nation asking forgiveness after centuries of reckless imperialism. It's a hard request to answer and it perhaps betrays a sentimental softness for the imperial past*. We may be grateful, though, that the nation has found such a prolific laureate in Peter Reading. The imaginative risks he takes in confronting the state have a witty desperation and a strange but essentially confident poignancy that speaks in that phrase "our salt kind". It reminds me of Churchill's remark in May 1940 that the nation was as " sound as salt in the sea"".**
* A past unfortunately re-kindled in the imperialist foreign policy of the Blair Government and a UK banking system which swelled to leviathan proportions under "Capting" Brown's watch.
** The subjects of "soundness" (legal) and "SEA" (in this case "strategic environmental assessment") are tackled at my other blog : http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/
"I sing you a tale of the Nancy Lee
A ship that got shipwrecked at sea
The bravest man was Captain Brown
Who played his ukulele as the ship went down
........All the crew were in despair
Some rushed here and others rushed there
But the Captain sat in the captain's chair
And he played the ukulele as the ship went down."
Today's national newspapers all suggest that it is time for the Prime Minister to face the music.
However, I want to reflect once again on the subject of my blog of yesterday, Tom Paulin's book "Minotaur : Poetry and the Nation State".
The concluding chapter of this book focuses on the work of the contemporary British poet, Peter Reading, and, in particular, his poem "Ukulele Music" and the figure of "The Capting". The poem poses the following question :
And shall it, now, be counted
as ye dignified defiance
in us towards our fateful
merciless element,
or gull naivete,
cousin to recklessness,
that, e'en in pitching Gulpward,
our salt kind brings forth chanteys ?
Paulin, in turn, offers the following reflection on this passage :
".... these lines carry a patriotic impulse as well as performing a kind of ritual absolution. In them we witness the the isolated, scarred and diminished soul of a great seafaring nation asking forgiveness after centuries of reckless imperialism. It's a hard request to answer and it perhaps betrays a sentimental softness for the imperial past*. We may be grateful, though, that the nation has found such a prolific laureate in Peter Reading. The imaginative risks he takes in confronting the state have a witty desperation and a strange but essentially confident poignancy that speaks in that phrase "our salt kind". It reminds me of Churchill's remark in May 1940 that the nation was as " sound as salt in the sea"".**
* A past unfortunately re-kindled in the imperialist foreign policy of the Blair Government and a UK banking system which swelled to leviathan proportions under "Capting" Brown's watch.
** The subjects of "soundness" (legal) and "SEA" (in this case "strategic environmental assessment") are tackled at my other blog : http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
The Minotaur dances with Big Brother
I've just started reading Tom Paulin's 1992 book "Minotaur : Poetry and the Nation State", which explores the nature of government through the symbolism of the "bull-man" and other poetic imagery, from John Milton to Peter Reading. The Minotaur is widely regarded as a metaphor of political oppression, a theme which Tom Paulin - whose hinterland lies in Northern Ireland, and who has a deep interest in the Israeli-Palestinian relations - is keen to expound. Incidentally, he (Paulin) might make a very good Oxford Professor of Poetry.
On a lighter note, I very much enjoyed a BBC Radio 4 "From Fact to Fiction" programme the other day, which dexterously wove together medieval animal tale and modern political fable in the story of a "Parliament of Rooks". Here the common rooks dispatch their political brethren, led by a David Cameron-like twitterer, whose nests that have grown overly-well feathered, from the rookery. The piece owed its inspiration to Chaucer, one of my favourite poets, whose work dances along as merrily to the music of the spheres as it does to lower vibrations.
Returning to the present, it seems to me that we (the citizens of Merry England) are now witness to an uneasy dance between The Minotaur (in an overly-powerful, but deeply wounded body politic) and a media-induced frenzy of "Big Brother" "vote-'em-out-of-the-house" popularism. Let's hope this doesn't lead us back to another kind of "Big Brother" : the Orwellian kind. I have to say that the prospect of Comrade Balls taking over the reins of Chancellor of the Exchequer makes me deeply uneasy, indeed rather queasy.
On a lighter note, I very much enjoyed a BBC Radio 4 "From Fact to Fiction" programme the other day, which dexterously wove together medieval animal tale and modern political fable in the story of a "Parliament of Rooks". Here the common rooks dispatch their political brethren, led by a David Cameron-like twitterer, whose nests that have grown overly-well feathered, from the rookery. The piece owed its inspiration to Chaucer, one of my favourite poets, whose work dances along as merrily to the music of the spheres as it does to lower vibrations.
Returning to the present, it seems to me that we (the citizens of Merry England) are now witness to an uneasy dance between The Minotaur (in an overly-powerful, but deeply wounded body politic) and a media-induced frenzy of "Big Brother" "vote-'em-out-of-the-house" popularism. Let's hope this doesn't lead us back to another kind of "Big Brother" : the Orwellian kind. I have to say that the prospect of Comrade Balls taking over the reins of Chancellor of the Exchequer makes me deeply uneasy, indeed rather queasy.
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