Some general musings, including two TV shows reviewed, and a few comments on local news.
Victoria: Some TV Notes
While this series is still very good in respect of the historical setting, period costumes, streets houses and customs, it nevertheless is taking various liberties with history and I think more so than before.
Lord Palmerston was undoubtedly a man with a roving eye for the ladies and of course - as many Victorians did had a mistress.
But while he was a populist politician who was opposed to increasing the franchise as the Chartists desired there is not the faintest shred of evidence that he arranged an agent provocateur to infiltrate the Chartists and plant weapons. Indeed I have been unable to find any record of weapons being found. It is true that the Duke of Wellington deployed troops along the Bridges but far from marching through unimpeded the Chartists were forced to allow only some of their members through, the rest remaining, and the petition was delivered in three hansom Cabs. Far from being a clear and brilliantly sunny day it was raining and the movement petered out as something of a damp squib.
And as History Magazine notes:
“The petition which was boasted to have over 5,700,000 signatures, proved to contain just under 2 million. Pages of them were in identical handwriting and many of them were forged or facetious, including those of the Queen and the Iron Duke, who appeared to have endorsed the petition no fewer than seventeen times, along with Mr Punch and names like Pugnose and No Cheese.”
Laurence Fox presents masterful depiction of Palmerston (channelling Boris Johnson!) who was still at the height of his powers in 1848. However he was over 20 years older than Fox and not in his 40s but in his mid-60s at the time.
It should be noted that these historical inaccuracies do not detract from the stories which are about the people and the Queen. This is a drama about characters as much as about events. Indeed, the events themselves are the colourful backdrop and while not completely authentic do nevertheless grounds the series in reality, and the bigger picture of the challenges to the monarch.
After a deficit of good historical drama Victoria is a welcome return and a welcome change from the many reality TV shows coming back onto our screens.
Songs of Praise - and a refugee’s story.
Catching up with Songs of Praise from two Sundays ago I was struck by the story of a young former Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity and left Iran with her fiancé to avoid the brutal punishments meted out to apostates. Converting the Christianity in Iran still carries the death penalty.
Indeed only last month saw the news about 30-year-old Mostafa Nasirpour who was caught in Malta and given a suspended sentence for entering the country illegally. He had fled Iran after changing his religion, said his lawyer. He was part of a group of five who tried to escape the country, and was one of only two who made it out. The Iranian authorities were only two hours behind him, he said. “The others are probably dead,” said the lawyer.
The niceties of diplomacy means that governments such as the UK – when engaged with regimes such as that in Iran - turn a blind eye to the more brutal aspects of life there. It is probably something that atheists would find hard to comprehend that a mere change of religion should carry with it a very real penalty of great severity, and yet it does. And even becoming an atheist in Iran carries the the same penalty.
The woman who fled from Iran was pregnant. After a traumatic journey north having to pay people smugglers to escape and using flimsy inflatable craft she eventually made her way to England where she was able to claim asylum. Yet the price was very heavy - she lost her child.
Changing the Change Expert: Who was responsible?
I find it astounding that Charlie Parker is blaming the media for taking the advertisement for a Change Expert seriously. After all if you wanted them to take it uncritically surely it should have gone out on April the 1st?
That the agency should put out an advertisement which apparently contradicts the rules regarding recruitment of this level of officer suggests that either they're not a very competent agency (which begs the question why they were engaged in the first place) or they were briefed badly by States officials - which begs the question as to what procedures have been put in place to prevent this happening in future.
The cynic will no doubt think that because this advertisement appeared in a rather lesser seen publication that it was in fact supposed not to be seen by local media or social media enthusiasts. With such large salaries being paid to senior posts it is more essential than ever that the trust of the public is retained and this kind of happening does nothing to foster that trust.
Indeed much play is given of the fact the posts for civil service officials above £100,000 have been frozen for the past years. However, as we all know new posts have been created with new salaries and this does seem to have been a way of circumventing the pay of the most senior civil servants.
What is the remit of an Assistant Minister for Culture?
Montfort Tadier has apologised unreservedly for his recent email and also referred himself to the commissioner for standards. I do detect the nascent beginnings of a party whip with in Reform. This is actually very positive insofar as it can constrain his tendency to occasionally shoot himself in the foot.
One of the things that it would be interesting to know is precisely what is the remit of an Assistant Minister with responsibility for Culture – which was his job until suspended. His suspension could not have come at a worse time giving that Fort Regent seems to have been ruled out as an arts venue for large scale events.
It will be interesting to see if Senator Lyndon Farnham will now pick up the baton (an appropriate image) and find a suitable venue for the Jersey Symphony Orchestra who otherwise they find themselves in financial dire straits. While no new venue will provide the same number of seats as Fort Regent, there must surely be at least a second best venue and time is running out.
It should be noted that the recent report on the fort Regent as a sports venue also looked and provided a detailed audit of different sports venues across the island. It would be good if something similar could also be done for arts venues.
And finally, on a different note - while some editing has been required, and punctuation is something I have not got the hang of, I am rather impressed with the capabilities of voice recognition on Google Docs which I have used to type this blog. There are minor proofreading adjustments needed but far less post-production editing than I have encountered in other voice recognition software. Well done Google!
And as History Magazine notes:
“The petition which was boasted to have over 5,700,000 signatures, proved to contain just under 2 million. Pages of them were in identical handwriting and many of them were forged or facetious, including those of the Queen and the Iron Duke, who appeared to have endorsed the petition no fewer than seventeen times, along with Mr Punch and names like Pugnose and No Cheese.”
Laurence Fox presents masterful depiction of Palmerston (channelling Boris Johnson!) who was still at the height of his powers in 1848. However he was over 20 years older than Fox and not in his 40s but in his mid-60s at the time.
It should be noted that these historical inaccuracies do not detract from the stories which are about the people and the Queen. This is a drama about characters as much as about events. Indeed, the events themselves are the colourful backdrop and while not completely authentic do nevertheless grounds the series in reality, and the bigger picture of the challenges to the monarch.
After a deficit of good historical drama Victoria is a welcome return and a welcome change from the many reality TV shows coming back onto our screens.
Songs of Praise - and a refugee’s story.
Catching up with Songs of Praise from two Sundays ago I was struck by the story of a young former Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity and left Iran with her fiancé to avoid the brutal punishments meted out to apostates. Converting the Christianity in Iran still carries the death penalty.
Indeed only last month saw the news about 30-year-old Mostafa Nasirpour who was caught in Malta and given a suspended sentence for entering the country illegally. He had fled Iran after changing his religion, said his lawyer. He was part of a group of five who tried to escape the country, and was one of only two who made it out. The Iranian authorities were only two hours behind him, he said. “The others are probably dead,” said the lawyer.
The niceties of diplomacy means that governments such as the UK – when engaged with regimes such as that in Iran - turn a blind eye to the more brutal aspects of life there. It is probably something that atheists would find hard to comprehend that a mere change of religion should carry with it a very real penalty of great severity, and yet it does. And even becoming an atheist in Iran carries the the same penalty.
The woman who fled from Iran was pregnant. After a traumatic journey north having to pay people smugglers to escape and using flimsy inflatable craft she eventually made her way to England where she was able to claim asylum. Yet the price was very heavy - she lost her child.
Changing the Change Expert: Who was responsible?
I find it astounding that Charlie Parker is blaming the media for taking the advertisement for a Change Expert seriously. After all if you wanted them to take it uncritically surely it should have gone out on April the 1st?
That the agency should put out an advertisement which apparently contradicts the rules regarding recruitment of this level of officer suggests that either they're not a very competent agency (which begs the question why they were engaged in the first place) or they were briefed badly by States officials - which begs the question as to what procedures have been put in place to prevent this happening in future.
The cynic will no doubt think that because this advertisement appeared in a rather lesser seen publication that it was in fact supposed not to be seen by local media or social media enthusiasts. With such large salaries being paid to senior posts it is more essential than ever that the trust of the public is retained and this kind of happening does nothing to foster that trust.
Indeed much play is given of the fact the posts for civil service officials above £100,000 have been frozen for the past years. However, as we all know new posts have been created with new salaries and this does seem to have been a way of circumventing the pay of the most senior civil servants.
What is the remit of an Assistant Minister for Culture?
Montfort Tadier has apologised unreservedly for his recent email and also referred himself to the commissioner for standards. I do detect the nascent beginnings of a party whip with in Reform. This is actually very positive insofar as it can constrain his tendency to occasionally shoot himself in the foot.
One of the things that it would be interesting to know is precisely what is the remit of an Assistant Minister with responsibility for Culture – which was his job until suspended. His suspension could not have come at a worse time giving that Fort Regent seems to have been ruled out as an arts venue for large scale events.
It will be interesting to see if Senator Lyndon Farnham will now pick up the baton (an appropriate image) and find a suitable venue for the Jersey Symphony Orchestra who otherwise they find themselves in financial dire straits. While no new venue will provide the same number of seats as Fort Regent, there must surely be at least a second best venue and time is running out.
It should be noted that the recent report on the fort Regent as a sports venue also looked and provided a detailed audit of different sports venues across the island. It would be good if something similar could also be done for arts venues.
And finally, on a different note - while some editing has been required, and punctuation is something I have not got the hang of, I am rather impressed with the capabilities of voice recognition on Google Docs which I have used to type this blog. There are minor proofreading adjustments needed but far less post-production editing than I have encountered in other voice recognition software. Well done Google!
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