Bolshoi on thin ice?

Recent stories surrounding the world famous Bolshoi ballet are testament to the artistic temperament. As they embark on a three week run at Covent Garden, their new head Vladimir Urin seeks to put recent events behind them.

The former artistic director had acid thrown in his face by a masked man. Tensions were said to be surfacing between him and the lead male dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze. The latter was forced out in June. Urin's predecessor was asked to leave a year before his contract expired due to mishandling of the budget of £860million.

Of course, Russian ballet boasts a proud history of off-stage recrimination. In 1961, the then President Nikita Kruschev was known to have signed a death warrant on Rudolph Nureyev. He had defected to the West earlier that year to join the Royal Ballet where he would go on to strike up a famous partnership with our own Dame Margot Fonteyn. The following year, Nureyev made his film debut in a performance of Les Sylphides. Orchestrated on a previous work by Chopin, this had first been premiered in the theatre des Champs Elysee in that memorable season of 1913 which caused so much controversy. The beautiful nocturne was written by Stravinsky who would shock the music world a few days later with the first public performance of his now legendary "Rite of Spring".

Occasionally, a particular branch of the arts is given a new direction by a new performer and the reaction is not always favourable. This was a case in point. It is said a near riot ensued at its premiere with the audience split in two. Half were in awe of it and half loathed it. Either way, Stravinsky had changed the direction of music for good. Just as the Great War would leave an indelible stamp on the world a year later, that concert is still talked about today even though there are no survivors from that first night. Thus are legends born.

A year earlier, an iconic piece by Debussey was choreographed in to a ballet. The lead role was taken by the legendary Nijinsky and that performance remains the benchmark. Prelude a l'Apres midi d'un faune is arguably the most important piece in the back catalogue of Debussey even though Clare de Lune has become more popular in recent times. The subject matter of ballet is dramatic so it seems inevitable that life imitates art in so doing.   

Grand theft unopposed: The Compulsory Purchase Order of the North Wales Hospital.

It is reported that the proposed compulsory purchase order of the former North Wales Hospital by the local council awaits approval by the Welsh Assembly Government. The conditions for such approval being granted are quite clear. The local council must show that there is "a reasonable likelihood" of the (listed) building being restored using funds from the sell-off of housing land.  As much as the ongoing demise of this once magnificent site pains me, I hope and pray that this approval is not granted.

Since the closure of the site in 1995, that same local council (albeit with a different name in 1995) turned down a succession of requests to redevelop the site and build housing. It seems a bit rich then to think that having turned down everybody else from developing the site, the council is now going to muscle in and do precisely that. Whichever way you look at this, this is either arrogance or an abuse of power. Given that they have recently had to spend a reported £930,000 just to make safe the listed building after years of vandalism, there is an argument to suggest that they would now look stupid if they didn't pursue a CPO. But it is also important to bear in mind that they spent that money (previously held in a bond) before being granted a CPO to buy the building. That is either supreme confidence or it was a decision made with some form of prior knowledge. The crux of this matter is this: Did they choose to spend the money to temporarily repair that roof or were they legally obliged to? Since they were not the legal owners at the time of the temporary repair, it is hard to present an argument that they had to do it. The greater likelihood is that they chose to make the temporary repair safe in the knowledge that the CPO would inevitably go their way as has happened up and down the UK with this and other councils over recent years. This does not condone the behaviour of the current owners but it does question strongly the disproportionate power being afforded to local councils.

The council have already showed their hand. They claim that any compensation due to the current owners under any proposed CPO would be offset against the cost of repairs. Given that they can legally withhold any CPO payments to the current owners for a period of up to six years anyway, its heads they win and tails they win - for a change. How? They admit that the sale of development land would offset the cost of any existing and future repairs necessary to comply with the terms of a CPO. Convenient. 

We can't turn back the clock now but it is galling to think how badly this whole thing has been handled from day one. The recent consultation with local residents in the Denbigh area was little more than a perfunctory tick box exercise in which any objections were just ignored. Which only begs the question: Why bother with public consultations if they are just going to do as they please anyway? At best, this sort of behaviour is disingenuous but at worst it is corporate arrogance with no evidence of any discernable accountability.

CADW described the former hospital as "the finest purpose-built hospital in Wales". That being the case, how on earth have so many agencies been allowed to step back to observe its painful demise over the last 18 years? It is really hard to think of any other listed building of this magnitude being allowed to deteriorate so blatantly for so long. It is reported that all items of real value are long gone. Although I don't condone such actions, that hospital has been "free at the point of access" to anyone who could be bothered to go there. So any purported plans to restore the front to it's former condition are literally pie in the sky because they will never be able to reposition the original parts which have since been stolen. At best, they will seek to create a sympathetic replica which is not quite the same thing.

If I were one of the former owners from the intervening years, I would be feeling more than a bit aggrieved right now. They bought the site in good faith and presented their plans for development as they did so. One by one they were roundly turned down by the very same organisation which now seeks to do just that. Unbelievable. I have long believed that local councils in our country have too much power. This is proof positive.

Of course, on a final note, the biggest scandal in all of this is the obvious missed opportunity. Given that the decision had been made to relocate mental health care to the community, the hospital in 1995 automatically became the obvious choice should there ever be a need for new council offices. Anybody and everybody who I spoke to at the time from Denbigh were in agreement on this. Instead, they chose to build new offices part financed by granting planning permission for a supermarket which has subsequently seen the local high street more notable for the number of shops vacant than the number of shops thriving. On any level, history will never justify that decision. Even if they didn't like the idea of using the hospital for council offices (and I have spoken to many people who cite this as the main reason for declining such a move), there was no need for the catalogue of bad decisions that followed.

So why am I so against CPO. I'll give you an example which is still ongoing as I write. For three and a half years now, neighbouring Conwy Council has been in ownership of the former Colwyn Bay Market Hall under a CPO. As I write, not a penny has been paid to the former owners. In addition, the following items have been recovered by the council after they chose to demolish the building earlier this year - without consulting the former owners naturally:-

90 tonnes of wood, 35 tonnes of timber, 70,000 bricks, 20 tonnes of steel, 10 tonnes of light iron, 0.5 tonnes of lead, 0.5 tonnes of wire and last but not least, 1,800 tones of hardcore.I'm not a builder but I reckon that little lot would amount to a lot of money.

How do I know all this? Because they have actually published it on their website for all to see - they haven't divulged that as yet they haven't paid a bean for the building though. Given that this CPO related to a public property, I also don't see the money from these materials being used to bring down the cost of council tax for example. We can rest assured that they will seek to drag it out for the full six years before they are legally obliged to actually pay for what they have sequestered - scandalous.

This whole story is an absolute indictment on the Britain of today. In today's Britain, the power base is firmly with local government and we are seemingly powerless to do anything about it. For all those people who worked so hard and gave so much to make that hospital as famed as it was, they deserved better. For the people of Denbigh who have seen their town centre become a collection of charity shops (albeit very good and worthy shops) and vacant premises, they deserved better. For the councillors who made the decisions along the way, they could and should have done better for the town they represent. A CPO will be the death knell for this hospital. The land will be squandered in anattempt to build as many homes as possible which will create levels of traffic for which the town is not designed. In addition, local services such as primary schools, secondary schools, doctors and dentists will struggle to cope if there are anything like the reported new numbers coming in. And all this will be served by a road which is more suited to a horse and cart than it is to those leves of cars. And all of this presupposes that these new homes will sell anyway. As I cast an eye around the place where I live, I can only wonder where all these people are going to find the levels of employment to pay their considerable mortgages. It is highyl ironic that the numbers of houses for sale in the town at the current time has seldom been higher. I and many others pointed out all the above when "consulted" but it appears once again as though we might have been beter served saving our energy.  

         

 

 

 

On the wrong track

A consultation process has recommended significant investment to the railway network currently serving North Wales. Rather than looking beyond the current rails, they have predictably highlighted the need to add to what is already there.

With a population of approximately 675,000 people, North Wales is a very rural area which sees many of residents isolated by inadequate public transport links. Granted, much of the population resides on the coast within easy reach of the current railway. They are not the problem here. It is the people living inland who need to be considered if North Wales is at last to be treated with the seriousness which it deserves.

Achieving this goal needn't be overly taxing on the consultants. Up until the Beeching Report, most North Wales towns were served by branch lines which also included stops in a great many villages. If the need to reconnect with these towns and villages was properly recognised, it would not take much to reverse the effects of the branch line closures of the 1960s. This has been mooted periodically in the intervening years but nobody thus far has seemed willing to grasp the nettle.

Let there be no doubt about the demand for such a move. Residents living away from the coast are all but confined to their towns and villages if they don't drive. The fact that our road system is so clogged up is due to the necessity to drive. It doesn't have to be this way. The Railway is a far more effective and efficient solution to our transport problem. I don't propose the abolition of cars because they obviously have an important role to play.

Looking East from where I live, I see a shining example of what can happen. The steam railway in Llangollen is principally run as a tourist attraction for enthusiasts but it has surpassed the expectations of many in recent years. As I write, it approaches Corwen with several stops en route which pepper the course of the historic A5 road. It wasn't so long ago that a person could board a train in Rhyl bound for Denbigh. They could then change trains in Denbigh to travel down the Vale of Clwyd and the Edeyrnion Valley to Corwen.

Being honest, driving where I live is not a particularly pleasant experience. Then again, this is true for just about every other part of Britain today. As the cost of petrol becomes prohibitive to many, it seems to make sense to me to address the provision of public transport.

Its all well and good calling for a direct line connecting North Wales to Liverpool but the existing arrangement with changes at Chester is perfectly acceptable. You seldom have to wait long and the service is reliable and reasonably well run. The bus services locally are at best disappointing and at worst expensive. They would be better served if they had a local railway service running alongside them so that all villages become accessible. If the political will was there, this project could be undertaken and completed within a decade. Of course, it would provide some temporary jobs during that construction period but more importantly it would provide a permanent solution to our existing dilemma. 

Escaping the grip of Dr. Spooner

On December 6th 2010, at approximately one minute to eight in the morning on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, James Naughtie fell victim to the infamous Dr. Spooner and committed the spoonerism by which all others must now be judged. Jeremy Hunt is now the Health Minister but back in 2010 he was the Culture Minister. Announcing the forthcoming ten minutes past eight interview, Naughtie informed his audience of several million that after the eight o clock news he would be interviewing the Hulture secretary, Jeremy *unt. He subsequently collapsed in to a choking fit upon realising the enormity of his gaff. That he continued to conduct the interview was a testament to his professionalism. I have always adored Spoonerisms and the more public the better. Watching "World of Sport" as a young lad, I watched the legendary presenter Dickie Davies announce that he would now be turning his attention not to Cup Soccer but to Cock Sucker. In those days, you could see the office staff sitting behind him but they weren't sitting for long after that one. Anyway, to conclude this very short post, I wonder what the chances are of Jeremy Hunt being returned to Culture should a new coalition be voted in by 2015? Even if the government is uninspiring, we can perhaps live in hope of another naughty interview by Naughtie.

My pink half of the drainpipe..

Boris Johnson today unveiled a very large blue cock on the now famous fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. At the time of writing, the most vociferous complaint so far has been made to Westminster City Council by the Thorney Island Society. Like many, I was struck by the potentially endless double entendres.  Until I saw a picture of it. I can't imagine what must have been in my head but the said sculpture is that of a particularly large cockerel in a shade of blue which will linger long in the memory. The Thorney Island Society objects on the grounds of its obvious French character. After all, they argue, Trafalgar Square commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar - the scene in 1805 of one of the key naval encounters which led to the demise of Napoleon.

Well, you can please some of the people some of the time...In recent years, the fourth plinth has become a showcase for controversial art. I was there a few years ago when the plinth featured a naked heavily pregnant woman with no arms or legs. Its intention to shock was given impetus by the prominence of its location. It was shocking and it was interesting to observe the reactions of people as they saw it for the first time. Anything outside our personal expectations of normal is shocking so the fourth plinth has been an inspired idea. Anything which provokes thought is fine by me.

The British are famously prudish and artists have delighted in this fact over the years. In the sixties, the music scene was dominated by a number of groups who frankly took themselves and their music just a little too seriously. It was therefore with relief for many people that groups such as the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band came along. Of the many things which they could be accused of, taking themselves too seriously definitely wasn't one of them. The Beatles were huge fans of theirs because to them, the Bonzos must have represented a bit of normality when compared to the frenzied glare of their own lives.

The Bonzos in common with many of their contemporaries had met at Art School. There the similarity ended. Inspired by the concept of Dadaism which would ultimately lead to surrealism, the Bonzos were led by the musical prowess of Neil Innes and the peerless wit and humour of their charismatic frontman, the late and very much missed Vivian Stanshall. With his beautifully crafted sepulchral tones, Stanshall could give the impression of taking the song seriously despite all around him suffocating from excess laughter. A bit of a rogue even by his own admission, his antics were truly legendary.

Their songs often boasted thought provoking song titles such as "the canyons of your mind" and "the urban spaceman". The former was produced by Apollo C. Vermouth - a pseudonym used by a somewhat more well known musician who wanted to keep his name firmly detached from theirs - Paul McCartney! Some of their song titles though were a bit more puzzling. "Equestrian statue", "Mr. Apollo", "The Strain and "My pink half of the drainpipe" spring to mind. I took a friend of mine to see the Bonzos on tour in 2006 and have seldom seen anybody laugh so much as when they played "The Strain". Written about the sometimes painful subject of constipation, the rendition of this bunged up masterpiece was delivered with customary straining noises by Ade Edmondson. Juvenile I know but Viv would have been proud because this song was always one of his particular favourites.

While I adore most of their back catalogue, I have to profess a fondness for "My pink half of the drainpipe". Taken off their 1968 album "The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse", this gem of a song is set to romantic music which would be more appropriate for a French cafe in the 1930s. The lyrics are rather different. The song tells the mundane story of a trivial property dispute between suburban British neighbours. The background is filled with irrelevant muttering featuring a good mix of drivel and codswallop. I could spend the next hour trying to convey it but could never achieve what the record can. The closest thing to the Bonzos these days would be a group like the Divine Comedy although they are second class by comparison.

Viv had the unique ability to be able to put his shoulder out of joint on account of him being double jointed. At one gig in the sixties, he had actually broken his collarbone and as he was lifted off writhing in what the fans thought was feigned agony, they all cheered and clapped. He even managed to have false blood pouring out of his mouth just to confuse matters. Viv became heavily dependent on alcohol following the break up of the Bonzos and he was prescribed liberal quantities of the valium to which he would remain addicted while on tour in America in the late sixties. In spite of this, he still managed to turn out an impressive body of work following the release of their final album "Let's all make up and be friendly" in 1972.

His creation Sir Henry at Rawlinson End had legions of loyal fans and can still be heard on the splendid Radio 4extra. Each instrument was introduced by him on Mike Oldfield's seminal album "Tubular Bells" although true to form, he was out by one as each instrument made its appearance..For a younger generation he became the voice of "Mr Cadbury's Parrot" in a well known TV advert and he made several serious collaborations with no less a musical God than Steve Winwood! "Arc of a diver" is co-written by the two of them.

The epitomy of the English eccentric, there are now too few people of his calibre in public life to take us out of the tedium of everyday life. I have no doubt he would have adored the massive blue cock on public display in Trafalgar Square. I think a suitable song wouldn't have been too long in the making..   

  

Will the real lunatics please step forward?

The present government has been obsessed with waste and mismanagement since finding themselves in power. These two scourges of our times have been free to view in any town you care to mention. If though, you would like to be directed to an exceptional example of both waste and mismanagement, I can help. The town where I live is arguably a shining light of what happens to towns who hand over too much power to their local council.

News emerged this week that the local council intends to pursue a compulsory purchase order on the now derelict North Wales Hospital. If there is a more potent example of resource waste than this one, I would be amazed. Granted, Gordon Brown really did think it was ok to sell off the national gold reserve but that apart, the story which I now share with you is shameful on almost every level.

The history of the North Wales Hospital is really the history of mental illness treatment in Wales since its opening in 1848. That it was even built in the first place was a culmination of several events and a massive will to change things for the better by the local community. Go to any psychiatric unit in the UK and I will wager that in addition to the people working there being familiar with Denbigh, they will also be reverential in their regard. Denbigh was legendary and often set the standard which others followed. A mini community in its own right, it was largely self supporting and regularly provided meaningful activities for its patients. It often staged performances which starred the patients and the provision of sports and music makes today's offering look utterly pathetic. It took the five counties of Denbighshire, Flintshire, Meirionethshire, Caernarfonshire and Anglesey to pool their resources to make this happen. The fundraising effort was given its initial impetus by a sizeable donation from both Queen Victoria and her son the Prince of Wales. The land was kindly donated by a local landowner. The rest is history and the project grew and grew to become an 1800 bed institution with its own nurse training facility. If it was still running as it did in 1995 at the time of its closure, they would be justified in charging an entrance fee to marvel at its gardens.

In common with the other former lunatic asylums dating from the Victorian era, the writing was on the wall for Denbigh following a speech by Enoch Powell in 1960 wish became the precursor for "care in the community". Governments make decisions. They don't always get them right but once the decision is made, there is no going back. In 1995, Denbigh closed its doors for the last time and the provision of mental healthcare in North Wales changed for good.

The real scandal with Denbigh started from the moment those doors closed in 1995. Sold initially to a company which sought to develop the site, the council rejected their plans. The first company became so disillusioned with the lack of support, they sold the site and the next owner suffered the same experience. It has been a sad story. The current owners are abroad and have understandably lost interest in the site having had any proposals to develop it thwarted by the council.

That is an extremely condensed history of what has happened during the last 18 years. The interim has seen the hospital become derelict and a haven for kids and explorers of all persuasions. A serious fire broke out in 2008 with many parts of the building now unsafe. The council announced this week their intention to pursue a compulsory purchase order on the property. The farm opposite has since been sold (asset stripped) as have the sports playing fields (asset stripped) and several houses on the site (asset stripped).

Due to their legendary short-sightedness, the local council has recently had to fork out over £900,000 just to try and make safe this once magnificent building. It is pertinent to point out at this point that while they were wondering what they might be able to bring themselves to agree to for its future use, they built a brand new council office building in the town which would have been semi-detached if it had been any closer! £900,000 of public money is now being frittered away as the result of unbelievably poor decisions at the time of its original sale.

Compulsory purchase is a scandal. What it really means is that your local council (wherever you happen to live) has the absolute power to assume ownership of any public building as they see fit. If they condescend to pay for the said building, they do so within the statutory six year period. Six years! Tax payers assets and money? Absolutely scandalous. For the record, they are answerable to nobody and do exactly as they please. They can even decide to bulldoze the entire site if it takes their fancy. Does that sound a little far fetched? Sadly, it isn't.

As I write, the former Market Hall in Colwyn Bay is no more. Conwy council assumed ownership under a compulsory purchase scheme nearly three years ago. As yet, they haven't paid a penny but they have raised it to the ground. The Market Hall in Colwyn Bay is no more because the council can do exactly as it pleases with no recourse to anybody. Don't just take my word for it though. All the details are there for all to see on a basic search engine. If their incompetence hadn't already reached rock bottom , they have surpassed themselves this time. Although they have demolished the site, they remain undecided about what to do with it! The arrogance is without compare. I only state facts here. I do not intend to cause offence but I believe passionately that people have a right to know the truth about the people in power who make massive decisions in your locality.

Denbigh hospital was originally built to house lunatics deemed to be in need of care. Much derided and widely feared, the lunatic became a figure considered to be a risk to the society they inhabited. I'm now beginning to wonder who the real lunatics are. Watch this space for reports of the final demise of the Denbigh hospital - the former jewel in the crown which has been squandered needlessly away.        

Blurred lines..

I today read with great mirth the story of a New Zealand man who has been informed that he is too fat to be allowed to stay in the country. The gentleman in question is a South African chef whose 20 stones and 6 pounds is deemed by the authorities to be an "unacceptable standard of health". Despite having lost more than 30 kg since arriving 6 years ago, he and his wife now face expulsion from the country because the authorities are threatening to refuse renewal of their visas. There's something about chefs but that is a discussion for another day.

Quite how they define overweight is not clear but apparently 30% of the New Zealand population is overweight. Citing his increased risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, the authorities claim he presents an unacceptably high potential burden on their health service. Reasonable.

I find the story amusing because I can't imagine the EU being overly happy about our government seeking to follow suit. Racism and sexism have both been roundly dealt with over the years but fattism (it warrants two teas if you'll forgive the pun) has hitherto been granted a wide berth (bugger, I've done it again). Such is the extent to which we pay lip service to Brussels. It is also amusing on account of the obvious double standards with the implication being that it is ok to be overweight provided you're not an immigrant - legal or otherwise. I question legality because it has come to light that British estimates of immigration figures are just that. Estimates - and not particularly scientific ones at that. The fact is, nobody knows - and to finish a favourite saying in our house - and nobody cares.

Of course the way in which we now label people as being overweight is highly contentious anyway. Body mass index is merely a ratio of weight to height. It takes no account of the ratio of fat (fat) or protein (muscle). I don't think it would be accurate to label your typical British Lion rugby player as being overweight. Or, to put it another way, I don't think I'd like to be the one to tell him.

Of course, there is a serious point here. It seems as though ours isn't the only health service with finite funding. The difference seems to be in their approach. It is a brave move but at least it seeks to provide more clarity to the boundary lines. The awful sales jargon dictates that you can't manage it if you can't measure it. In English, this just means that you have to draw a line in the sand so that people know where they stand.

The New Zealand rate of 30% needs comparison. Only Tamworth in Staffordshire boasts a higher figure (30.7%). There is almost a badge of honour in being labelled Britain's fattest town and I can't get the "Tales of Tamworth Pig" out of my head - perhaps I just read too much for my own good in my dim and distant. The British average is a very respectable 23.1% so by comparison with our Antipodean cousins we are positively starved over here - well perhaps that's overstating things somewhat.

When it comes to the global hierarchy of obesity though, the New Zealanders have, like Thursday's child, far to go. Predictably, the United States boast a figure of 35.7% of adults at the latest count. That is particularly sobering when you consider that their percentage was just 13% in 1962. That represents a lot of food consumption in 50 years.

Amazingly though, even the United States don't hold the crown. That belongs to the country immediately to their south. Mexico is the real deal. A diet rich in soft drinks laden with sugar is responsible for this feat. It results in an estimated 70,000 per year dying from the effects of diabetes.

The problem is really an ethical one in the end. Has any government the right to dictate how big or small we are allowed to be? In one sense they can. Let me explain. If you advertise a service as being free at the point of contact, you are surely entitled to attach conditions provided you don't happen to be a charity of course. Given the recent admission by the current NHS chief executive that the NHS budget is likely to be over £30 billion in the red by 2020, it is clear some tough decisions will need to be made. The real challenge is: Who is going to step up to the plate and make them. Let's face it, it won't exactly be a vote winner. Its the sort of policy you want in the smallest font available tucked away at the foot of page 691 in your manifesto.

While last week was dominated by the did he or didn't he get lobbied by the tobacco industry relating to David Cameron, I'm quite sure the soft drink industry is lobbying them like mad. Judging by their ubiquitous presence in the vending machines which occupy our hospitals, they appear to be doing a good job of it too. Anyway, I must sign off because, you guessed it, dinner beckons - fresh vegetables from the garden, naturally!

The legacy of Pasternak

If a poll were conducted to establish the greatest film director of the Twentieth Century, one name in particular would be the outstanding contender. Born in Croydon before the Great War, this colossus of the British film industry went up to Oxford and did very little of note except found the now legendary Inklings. The Inklings was a literary group which brought to prominence the contrasting genius of C.S Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien was founded by David Lean.

To try and provide a measure of his subsequent achievements in film, a brief catalogue of his output reads like a biography of British Film. In Which We Serve (Noel Coward, 1942), This Happy Breed (Celia Johnson,  Robert Newton, 1944), Blythe Spirit (Rex Harrison, Margaret Rutherford, 1945), Brief Encounter (Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, 1945), Great Expectations (John Mills, 1946), Oliver Twist (Alec Guiness, 1948), Hobson's Choice (Charles Laughton, 1954), Summertime (Katharine Hepburn, 1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (Alec Guiness, 1957), Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O'Toole, 1962), Doctor Zhivago (Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, 1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (Max von Sydow, Charlton Heston, 1965), Ryan's Daughter (John Mills, Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, 1970), A Passage to India (Peggy Ashcroft, Art Malik 1984). Not a bad cv I think you'll agree.

For three of those films, the musical score was written by a man to often forgotten. The father of the French pioneer of electronic music Jean Michel Jarre, Maurice Jarre wrote the scores for three of Lean's finest. Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter all benefited from his uncanny knack in being able to capture the essence of the film. Never was this more true than for Doctor Zhivago. The score without lyrics was the mesmerising Lara's theme still so treasured by romantics the world over.

Written by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago was deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1958. It remains one of the finest books I have ever read - or could hope to read. The book is set around a complicated love triangle during the time of the Russian Revolution. Continuing the great Russian literary tradition of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin et al, Pasternak wrote a brutally honest account of the Russia which resulted. Like Solzhenitsyn after him, he had to face the wrath of the authorities who didn't take too kindly to their dirty linen being washed in public.

The resultant film was a masterpiece and remained refreshingly faithful to the novel. On eof the last of the "epics" bankrolled by MGM, the casting was perfect with Julie Chistie sparkling as Lara and Omar Sharif unforgettable as Yuri Zhivago. Sometimes,  everything comes together. Perhaps it needed the efforts of David Lean and Maurice Jarre to achieve this but it still looks as good now as it did for those first audiences in 1965. Some films are best left alone with re-makes somewhat futile. This is a case in point.    

Mental Health - society's problem.

As the credit crunch started to affect European economies, many lost their jobs and so, their livelihoods and their sense of self worth. For those with mental illness, this effect was sadly even worse. Before the downturn, 12.7% of those with mental health issues were unemployed. After the downturn, this figure had sadly, if predictably, grown by 50% to 18.2%.

Predictable because the attitude of our society to mental illness has always been poor. Since the advent of the first lunatic asylums in the late eighteenth century, we have always sought to put the mentally ill somewhere else where they won't encroach overly on our own existence. Out of sight, out of mind one might say.

People do not as a rule like being ill. This applies all the more to mental illness. The stigma attached to mental illness is every bit as bad now as it was when "care in the community" sought to change all that. The idea was that integrating the mentally ill into local communities would lead to them being accepted and included. Ironically, this is exactly what used to happen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In those days, the mentally ill were broadly divided in to two groups - idiots and lunatics. While the words would be deemed offensive and unacceptable today, everybody knew what they meant and they informed the way in which the person in question would be treated.

The idiots were people who obviously had some form of learning disability but who could still serve a useful purpose within their local community. This is probably the source of the expression "village idiot". Rather than being locked away out of sight, such people were looked after by the local community and carried out the roles of which they were capable. They were not viewed as a problem and certainly weren't deemed to need asylum.

The lunatics were those people who we would now deem to have an acute mental illness beyond the capabilities of the local community. Schizophrenia, depression, mania and the mental illnesses which we now recognise and treat accordingly were deemed in need of asylum. These were people whose illness needed urgent help and it was principally with them in mind that the asylums were built in the nineteenth century.

It was felt that the asylums had come to symbolise the worst aspects of care for the mentally ill with reports of ill treatment and neglect. The latter are now known to have been inflicted within our general hospitals so it is sometimes difficult to gauge how far we have come since those early days.

The figures on employment in the mentally ill only go to confirm what I uncovered in a research study three years ago. Stigma is alive and kicking and despite the best efforts of a few "celebrities" to highlight their own problems, it seems that modern society is more intolerant than ever. It is said that all health starts with mental health so the chances of anybody reading this without having been affected themselves are slim. Of course, the people who have experienced mental illness will be better served to relate to others in the same position. Rather than them being an obstacle, such people (and that includes most of us) should be viewed by employers and society alike as an asset.

"Care in the community" is in danger of becoming one of the biggest misnomers of all time. "Care which happens to be delivered within a community which is not interested" would seem a more apt title. One thing is certain. The longer we continue to ignore mental illness, the bigger the problem will become - it is not just going to go away because unlike the rubbish we throw out once a fortnight, these are real people.

Let 'em in!

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has this week taken a huge step in bringing the people closer to the church and vice versa. He has skillfully exploited his background in financial circles to address the growing problem of debt. The growth of so called “pay-day” lenders in recent years has been alarming. Alarming on many counts. Such lenders can only thrive if people use them. That they choose to inflict such immoral interest rates as scandalous. That they are permitted to do so is more so.

There comes a rate of interest above which the reality of being able to repay a debt is just about impossible. Of course, there is a misnomer here. “Pay-day” lenders by their name imply that they only lend money to those in work who actually have a “pay-day”. Research reveals that many of their customers are not in work. To exploit people with such paltry incomes is amoral. It has been shown that over half of their customers will never be able to repay the money which they have borrowed. The business model of these companies is therefore dependent on misery. It must be depressing beyond words to be caught in this trap.

Years ago I operated as a self employed financial advisor and was governed at that time by LAUTRO (The life insurance and unit trusts regulatory authority). We couldn’t enter in to business with anybody unless it could be clearly shown that they had a net disposable income in the first place. As you would expect, for various reasons there were those who fudged the figures in order to bypass the constraints of the regulation. Sadly, that is human nature. I saw deals done which were plainly lacking in substance but they were still concluded - partly due to the wishes of the buyer and partly due to the greed of the seller. The practice of the “pay-day lenders” is no different.  I’m ashamed to say that it was not unusual to see life insurance being sold to people who had nobody financially dependent upon them. Looking back, I’m glad that I stuck to my principles.

Despite the best efforts of the left wing financial times to try and imply impropriety in the financial dealings of the church, Justin Welby has hit upon something with this proposal. Shock horror, the financial times has delved deep and found that the church has indirectly invested £75,000 in Wonga, the very company to whose practices the archbishop is so opposed. This is a non-story. In today’s world, it is impossible to not be indirectly involved with all sorts of undesirable companies. In fact, the only sure fire way of avoiding such involvement is to save cash in a shoe box – provided the box wasn’t made by child labour or financed by a private equity company with a stake in Wonga. See what I mean? Your pension be it private or company will have its money invested in a wide spread of companies some of which you approve of and some which would make your blood boil. But if in the end you had sufficient money upon which to retire, I’m sure you’d be reasonably happy.

The brainwave of the Archbishop is to utilise the tens of thousands of churches at his disposal to double up as credit unions geared to providing real competition to the unscrupulous “pay day lenders”. He estimates that an APR of about 60-70% should be low enough to provide the sort of alternative with which the big companies can’t compete. If 60-70% sounds high – and it is – it is a drop in the ocean compared to the rates charged by Wonga et al.

Opening the doors of the churches should have been the norm anyway. That said, this is a great way to re-engage with the public. The church has seldom felt more isolated. The people who sustain these lenders deserve better. While the vast majority are undoubtedly living a hand to mouth existence, a bit of moral guidance wouldn’t go amiss. Living within our means is always a tough lesson to learn. The church has a duty to remind people of the importance of cutting their cloth according means. Not an easy thing to do in an era of unmatched marketing with constant pressure to keep up in the material world. The church has already played a big part in the development of food banks around the country. This is precisely the sort of role to which it is best suited. Money and food are a physical support but it is faith which will help people back on to the right path.

The Newcastle United striker Papisse Cisse recently threatened not to play for the club again on the grounds of his muslim faith. Despite having to back down for contractual reasons, he is to be admired for taking this stance. It reflects well on him and his faith. The club sponsor is Wonga and their logo is emblazoned on the shirt front.

A move back to cash is already well on the way. I have observed a lot more cash being used in recent months. This is no bad thing. It seems as though people are going back to the basic principle of living only on the cash in their pocket. If more people adopt this, the banks will have to feel the pain for a change. They have had it all their own way for a long time and have made money hand over fist for a long time. Not content with that, their greed almost brought the country to its knees in 2008.

I wish the Archbishop luck because his plan has the potential to address many of our current problems. Aside from money, food and faith, his real masterstroke is to seek to re-acquaint us with our fellow man. Society and communities will be the winners and the all conquering financial institutions will receive a timely reminder as to where they really belong in the social pecking order. Just as the youth could benefit from faith and guidance, the church could benefit enormously from their energy. Ageing congregations are not being replaced and the church is in grave danger of having thousands of churches with nobody to use them. That would be the biggest scandal of all. As the Wings song goes, “Do me a favour, Open the door, And let ‘em in”.

Protectionism

It has emerged today that five of Europe's largest wine producers have lodged a legal challenge to the decision of the Scottish Government to introduce a minimum price for alcohol. Why? Have they even read the legislation?

An average bottle of wine from these countries contains about 9 units of alcohol.  The proposed 50p per unit minimum price would mean that a bottle of wine would cost upwards of £4.50. How different is that to the status quo?

I could understand such a stand if it were emanating from the producers of the high alcohol cheap cider so beloved of those in alcohol addiction. I don't hear them complaining. Yet. I've no doubt they will have something to say in due course.

This legislation is a step in the right direction and will draw a line under the era of cheap booze where it is possible to top up your blood alcohol level every day even on a modest income. How bad would that be? The long term cost of alcohol addiction is mind blowing and getting worse. The Scots should be applauded for pursuing this. They are also ahead of their counterparts in Westminster which will do Mr. Salmond no harm when they vote for independence.

The countries involved in this objection are France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria. Of these, only Bulgaria and Portugal consistently offer wine under the price referred to. In my experience, French wine is normally nearer to £10 per bottle than £5 so their protestations seem rather lame. The Spanish and Italian wines are not too far behind them so its difficult to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps the recent growth of the UK wine producer is giving them cause for concern. I was always led to believe that the French tend to keep their best wine for themselves and send us the other stuff. Having been to France many times, I can only concur with this view!

Protecting one's own interest is admirable but only if your argument is a sold one. Aside from this, the average Scot is not synonymous with a glass of finest claret anyway so maybe they have got their markets confused.

Reaction to Meningitis B vaccine rejection.

The decision today by the UK government to reject the vaccine for meningitis B comes down to money. As there is a lack of an evidence base, they have rejected it. The problem is that there won't be an evidence base unless an EU country decides to incorporate it. As yet none have.

The vaccine developed by Novartis is thought to be effective against 73% of the forms of the disease and would offer significant protection to the under 5 age group. Our daughter Thea died aged 15 months due to the most organism to affect that age group - Neisseria meningitidis. Protection against this organism would be offered by this new vaccine.

The debilitating effects of this disease include brain damage and loss of limbs. If this new drug is deemed to be too expensive to be considered worthy of a place in the National Immunisation Programme, I can only guess at the long term cost of having to provide care for a severely brain damaged child as they make their way through life.

For all of us who care so passionately about this, today's decision has come as a bitter blow. We can't save the loved ones we have lost but we can seek to prevent anybody else having to endure the effects of this dreadful disease. For the record, the government was being advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

If anybody reading this has a child who has died or has been left physically scarred by this disease, I share your anger at this decision. On so many levels I think they have got it wrong today and sincerely hope that common sense will prevail before any more lives are needlessly affected. Putting a price on any life is a very difficult business but it seems all the more so when considering the quality of life which faces one so young who has been affected in this way. Rest assured, we will not give up until this vaccine is available to all.

I would have thought that the recent outbreak of Measles in South Wales might have served to a timely reminder to the committee of the value of vaccination. One life was lost and hundreds of thousands of pounds needlessly spent trying desperately to vaccinate people who had chosen not to be. The National Vaccination Programme is there for a reason - it saves lives and it reduces the disabling effects of a select group of pathogenic bacteria.

Oscar Wilde once observed that a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. How true.  

Recognition And Anonymity!

In the seven years it took J.K.Rowling to successfully complete the first of her Harry Potter novels, she endured a family death, divorce from her husband and financial hardship. Her intention to escape that poverty and provide for her daughter was rewarded when the Harry Potter series took off like a rocket. She achieved that rare feat of being able to appeal to children and adults alike. Thus she reaped the enormous financial benefits - and the fame which goes hand in hand with them.

She must be fuming now because her latest attempt to write successfully under a pseudonym has been thwarted by a leak. The leak has become a peculiar part of our public life and seldom does a day pass without revelations of a new one. Until recently, all budgets by our Chancellors have been blatantly leaked for various reasons of political advantage. Rowling was understandably seeking to prove that her books would sell even if her identity was hidden. It was an admirable ploy but somewhat naive. With wealth goes fame and with fame goes jealousy and avarice. A party pooper is never too far away if they think they can put a spanner in the works.

So what now for J.K.? Does she continue with her latest literary creation and take it on the chin or is she desperate enough to seek recognition in her own right as a writer. There is no telling with the foibles of an artist. Vanity of vanity, All is vanity!

In seeking anonymity, she is attempting to turn back the clock to a place it can't go. The paradox is that her fame alone (irrespective of wealth) means that she has to accept her place in the media spotlight. That is how it works. It is a transaction between the artist and the media who feed the idolatrous public.

In a way, I admire her intention because she clearly has no need of financial gain. The Harry Potter secured her for life and beyond so I suppose she must want to achieve something meaningful if only for herself. If she is to achieve her goal, she will undoubtedly need to turn to the wizardry of her alter ego. Perhaps Van Gogh got it right by achieving his artistic fame after he could be hounded by it. That said, would he have preferred the money? Decisions, decisions..

The Snake in our Midst

The baby born yesterday to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is born in the Chinese year of the snake. Politicians take note. The last British monarch born in the year of the snake was Queen Anne. Born a year before the Plague and the Great Fire of London, she was pregnant 17 times but no heir was born. She suffered ill health for much of her life and could scarcely have come to the throne at a more challenging time.

Although her father James was a Catholic, she was raised a Protestant and was our Queen at the time of the Act of Union in1707. Her reign coincided with the advent of the two party politics which has plagued our country for so long.

As I write, the existing Union comes under scrutiny next year when the Scots are given the opportunity to go it alone and revert back to their pre-1707 status. That said, they didn't have oil in 1707! A staunch Tory, she fell out with her best friend and confidante who was a Whig. Sarah Churchill was the Duchess of Marlborough and the victory of the Duke at the Battle of Blenheim gave great impetus to the Whig cause. Strange to consider that their most famous forebear winston was about as prominent a Tory as there has ever been.

The passing of Anne ushered in the German monarchy which has prevailed ever since. Although the current Royals diplomatically changed their name from the Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at the time of the Great War, they are still German by lineage. Anne reigned for just 12 years, her support of the Union created the largest Free Trade area in Europe at that time. Collectively, the British internal Free Trade is of course just a fraction of their European counterparts for now at any rate.   

Maybe the Last Time?

Released the day after the death of their founder Brian Jones in July 1969, Honky Tonk Woman remains the last Rolling Stones single to top the charts. As the sixties drew to their close, the party would soon be over. The Beatles disintegrated within the year amid a maelstrom of recrimination and bickering. The single which had come to define the sixties was fast becoming passe. A new audience was emerging which was looking for something a bit more challenging than the three minute format of the commercially orientated single.

As the Beatles and the Stones began their gradual descent, other bands soon came to the fore to define the direction of music for the next decade. Led by Led Zeppelin, the new breed of band was more geared towards live performance and albums. They were more interested in the American market than ours and were set to realise fabulous wealth. As with the Who and a number of other successful bands, the halcyon years of the Zeppelin were brought to an abrupt close by the death of their drummer. Both bands boasted drummers who had become synonymous with the heavier sounds which had replaced the Beatles and Stones.

A former hod carrier, John Bonham was a powerful drummer and the sound of his snare drum has been compared to a shotgun going off. Like Keith Moon and many other drummers in rock music, he had a penchant for fast cars, drugs and alcohol. His lunacy may not have been in Moon's league, but his propensity to excess was almost without parallel. It is an amazing fact that Jimmy Page still asserts that irrespective of how much booze Bonham had taken on board, he always kept perfect time and never arrived late for a show. It seems as though Bonham took his job seriously and placed a high value on the performance of the band. It was somehow fitting that when the Zeppelin reformed a few years ago for a one off show in London, Jason Bonham took up the drums. Having grown up watching his illustrious father, he was perhaps better placed than anybody to try and emulate that unique sound.

On reflection, it is quite incredible to think that the Stones seem more popular than ever this year. You really start to wonder how long they can carry on. Yesterday, the BBC announced that after a staggering 69 years working for the BBC, the veteran broadcaster David Jacobs would be retiring from his weekly Sunday evening show on the radio. Perhaps we will be seeing a lot more of the Stones yet!  

The Welsh Assembly

On Saturday, I was asked to take part in a survey being carried out by the Welsh Assembly Government. I had been randomly chosen to to give my views as a resident of the part of Denbigh where I live. The researcher was a very pleasant lady and the questions were straightforward enough. They were seeking to explore my views on the Welsh Assembly, my local Council and my local Police force.

At the end, I was asked if I wanted to offer any additional comments. Indeed I did. My overall impression had not changed radically since my childhood and I can only hope that my views were broadly those of my neighbours. When I was growing up, it was always supposed that Wales was a distinct group of three countries. The haves in the South to whom came jobs and investment. The forgotten group in the middle who were largely forgotten about. The Gogs in the North who were thrown a few scraps every now and then as a token gesture.

In truth, little has changed. It is good to know that the Welsh Assembly Government is seeking the views of its electorate.  They might not like the answers though. Then as now, transport links in Wales were risible both at a regional and national level. It remains a sobering fact that a commuter wishing to travel from the top of Wales to the bottom has to do so via England. If that wasn't inefficient enough, attempting the journey by car is, if anything, even more forbidding. As long as this situation remains, the "them and us" attitudes will prevail. On a local level, our public transport is very poor. In common with many rural areas, the services which run are both expensive and infrequent heavily reliant on government assistance. If this is to persist - and there seems little evidence to the contrary - it is time to rethink our infrastructure and planning.

Across North Wales, and nationally for that matter, market towns have been relentlessly driven in to the ground by allowing large supermarkets to come in and mop up the struggling town centres. If public transport prohibits travel out of the towns, it surely makes sense to develop the towns and recapture their roles of forty years ago. Then, they supported local jobs and the concept of a vacant high street shop was a the stuff of dreams. Street markets thrived and local events were regular and well attended. The move away from the town centres has been a disaster. It can't be reversed soon enough. Granted, the picture in more urban areas may be somewhat different but in rural communities in places like North Wales, the need for a vibrant town centre is essential to support local communities struggling to make ends meet. It will grow jobs and, just as importantly, it will foster a local community spirit which has been too long lacking.

The erosion of the town centres in North Wales has taken place at a time when the Public Sector has sadly become the major employer. It was a sad day when this happened. It is not that we don't need a Public Sector - of course we do. But we need a more realistic balance between the public and private sectors. Where I live, employment in the Public Sector has become the dream. This reflects badly on the potential within the Private Sector. It is the latter which will promote innovation, growth and progression. The Public Sector should be in the background - not the foreground. It is little wonder so many young people locally leave the area for England to seek a better future. The majority would stay if the opportunity existed to do so.

They may well want to promote the Welsh Language but this is going to be in vain if the majority of those taught ultimately leave for England - and I know plenty that have. I did. I suggest to the Welsh Assembly that while seeking to promote the Welsh Language is well intended, it remains tertiary to their real challenges. If they address transport, town centres and jobs, the Welsh Language can then be pulled in to the foreground. The police provision locally is not the best. We in North Wales have become synonymous with the concept of slapping a speeding fine on motorists. Aside from the obvious effect on tourism, it is naive at best. Put simply, I could be drunk as a skunk high on any drugs you care to mention, but as long as I'm within the speed limit, I'm off their radar. Meanwhile, the streets are so seldom patrolled, the sight of a policeman is almost a past-time now. Recent events have highlighted the lack of independence with which the police are monitored. If the spotlight is ever turned on them, the response is always the same. They will investigate themselves and their own behaviour and it has nothing to do with anyone else. Wrong. It has everything to do with everyone else. Just like the council and the Welsh Assembly, they are still a public body and, as such, remain accountable to the public. To do so with a semblance of credibility, they must cease this silly practice and emerge in to the daylight of the real world. If they had nothing to hide, there would no problem.

I don't know if my views reflect those of my neighbours but hope so. Nationally, the picture will be the average so my views are of limited worth but I was glad to have the opportunity to express them. Long live democracy. Let us hope they intend to heed the views they receive and act upon them. Should they do so, they might actually reap the rewards.

Medicine: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

As medicine has developed side by side with the evolution of man, it has become progressively more scientific. With science comes fact. Without fact comes doubt. Rightly or wrongly, the doctor of today is brought up with an absolute trust in evidence based medicine. They don't always get it right. The most notable recent example was the decision of the Lancet to publish the article citing a link between the MMR vaccination and autism. The article and its author where subsequently discredited but not before Health Boards such as that in Swansea had to spend huge to sums of money to deal with the inevitable measles outbreak. The latter resulted from the scaremongering of the original Lancet article.

Put simply, if it hasn't got an evidence base, the medical profession doesn't want to know. I don't say here if this is right or wrong but would seek to draw your attention to a drug which you will all have taken. Paracetamol is one of the most frequently used drugs either over the counter or prescribed. See if you can find out how it works. My point is that nobody really knows. But it works. It will bring down a temperature and it will provide pain relief. We just don't know how.

Why then is paracetamol so willingly accepted when homeopathy is treated with such derision? Homeopathy comes under the heading of "Alternative Medicine". To the medical profession, it is thus little short of witchcraft and mumbo jumbo. For many proponents of homeopathy (including our heir apparent), they couldn't be without it and experience a benefit. My medical school afforded an entire morning to Alternative Medicine. They are therefore affording it a shop window for the medical students to look at - albeit very briefly. I much prefer honesty so I am glad that they give it the time they think it is due.

When I go to France, they have entire aisles in their supermarkets devoted to what we would call Alternative Medicine. Perhaps the French are just unaware of the lack of an evidence base. Alternatively, they might actually be deriving some form of benefit from buying and using it. It is not often in my experience that people repeatedly purchase anything from which they derive no comfort or benefit.

In the 1980s, the new breed of comedians pointed with mirth at the emerging "Alternative Music" which had started to grow in prominence. As I recall it, Alternative Music simply referred to music being made by bands who enjoyed making their music and for whom commercial success was secondary if not tertiary. A lot of it was quite good too not that you'd hear much of it on the commercially minded radio stations. The parallels with Medicine and Alternative Medicine are difficult to ignore.

Before the advent of antibiotics, chemotherapy and the rest, Alternative Medicine was the treatment of choice. In fact, the foxglove which currently adorns our hedgerows was identified by our forebears as being useful for the treatment of dropsy. We don't call it dropsy any more. We now call it heart failure. Digoxin is derived from the foxglove (digitalis) and still used today for aspects of heart disease. One of the new breed of drugs being used for chemotherapy is derived from the Yew Tree so synonymous with our churchyards.

The truth is that Medicine doesn't have all the answers and neither does Alternative Medicine. If either if them did, people would be living much longer in much better health. It seems intuitive therefore to use the word Complimentary Medicine since this better describes the role of non-evidence based treatments within the context of mainstream Medicine. Prince Charles has been a staunch advocate of homeopathy for a long time now and I don't doubt that he will continue to do so - even when he is King Charles III. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he consults his Royal Physician because that would surely stretch diplomacy to levels which would test even the most capable politician.

3 day test matches?

Before a ball was bowled in the current Ashes series between England and Australia, I expressed reservations about widespread predictions of an England whitewash. My reservations were based on the rational view that the Australian bowling had been seriously underestimated and their batting line up featured at least two players of genuine class.

As the mid-point of the second match approaches, it seems as though all five tests will yield a positive result. I can't see a draw because neither side looks capable of batting for two days. I can't remember the last Ashes series which began with a worse display of batting from both sides. I will come to the bowling in due course. Ian Bell aside, no England batsman has convinced me of their desire or capability to bat for four sessions in a test match. As such, none of this summer's tests look likely to result in a draw because reaching the fifth day looks like a rare event even at this early stage of the series. Cook has looked uncharacteristically wobbly and Root looks like a fish out of water crying out to be returned to the shallower water of the middle order. Trott has been unfortunate in some of his dismissals but has lacked his customary solidity. Of late, he is the batsman who has executed the role for which Rahul Dravid became synonymous for India. Dravid batted like the proverbial brick wall whereas Trott has thus far looked more like rice paper. My feelings on the selection of Pieterson have been made clear before and I have been proved right. The Ashes is not a publicity competition. It is a long hard fight to which he appears woefully ill prepared. Bairstow rode his luck for his first innings half century but badly needs to put in a more convincing shift at the crease. It isn't a race - he has all the time in the world. Good fielders are not worth their place as a batsman if they can't deliver the runs with the bat. Paul Parker, Derek Randall, Alan Wells et al will all testify to this. Prior looks like a shadow of himself and doesn't seem to know where the next run is coming from. I don't count the tail end because their job is bowl sides out - runs are a bonus when they get them.

Given my assessment of the England batting, I barely know where to start with the Aussies. I have a theory though. I've heard all the old guff about dressing room fall outs and various players preferring the previous coach and all of that. I don't know if anyone has told them but this is a five match series of five day test matches. Too many of them are batting like its a 50 over a side match. My assertion is that the glut of one day cricket is producing too many players who are simply not good enough to play a five day test match.

The England bowling is good but, Anderson and Swann aside, it is hardly world beating. As a batsman, you wouldn't exactly be quaking in your boots facing Bresnan and Broad. Bresnan will always give you his all so you know what you'll get. Broad is a different story. In the first test, he was shocking. Led by the dependable Siddle, Australia look like a decent attack. They're clearly not the bowling side of 15 years ago, but you can see their potential.

When test cricket was in its early days, most matches were played over three days and based from what I've seen so far, I think it might be time to seriously reconsider this approach. Compton aside, I can't see who England can bring in to make their batting stronger. Put simply, they're not good enough to bat for two days and put a match out of reach. I hope Cook will come good but I am starting to wonder.

Whatever the outcome of the Ashes this summer, it will not go down as a classic. Bell has played well but you'd be hard pushed to describe him as world class. He seems content to have reached 100. World class batsmen are never content and always seek to convert the 100 into a really big score which will hurt the opposition. Anderson is bowling as well as he has ever bowled but only Swann looks capable of providing decent support at the other end. If the Australians don't get their heads together very quickly, they are in danger of reducing the Ashes to side show of little consequence. The need to fight back and do so quickly or risk the series running away from them. If their bowling gets in to top gear, there is a flimsy England batting line up waiting for them. Quis?     

The Beatles in Rhyl!

Tomorrow will mark the fiftieth anniversary of an early gig played by the Beatles. Hard to believe now, the Beatles were still playing the circuit in 1963 after their explosion on to the pop scene a year earlier. They played the Ritz Ballroom and I don't doubt there will be many locally old enough to remember going to see them. Life often comes down to timing and simply being in the right place at the right time. Five years later, their fame was so huge that the Ritz Ballroom would have been unthinkable. In fact, they played their last live concert in the Shea Stadium in 1965. This is astonishing when you consider that their legendary recording career still had five years to run.

It must have been an amazing experience for those lucky enough to be there. Seeing a young talented group before fame has got too big is a rare privilege. The talent and desire is all there and such atmospheres are beyond compare. You are aware that you have just witnessed something special.

By coincidence, it was five years to the day after that Rhyl gig that the actress Jane Asher announced that her engagement to Paul McCartney was over. She did so on a live TV broadcast while McCartney apparently watched on TV in his room. There can be few more cruel ways of announcing a split. We have much to thank her for though because she inspired a cluster of great songs. "All my loving", "And I love her" and "With love from me to you" were all written with Jane Asher in mind. It is always difficult to name your favourite Beatles song but "And I love her" is a song of rare genius showing McCartney at his most inspired. Like "Yesterday", it invokes all sorts of emotions as you live through the journey of the song. I think the most amazing aspect of "And I love her" is that he is allowing us in to a very intimate discourse between two young lovers. It is a special gift to be able and willing to do this.

I'd like to think that if another talented foursome was starting out in the music business, I might expect to see them cutting their teeth in Rhyl. Sadly, Rhyl is not the thriving tourist town it was in the sixties. The intervening years have not been kind and the Rhyl of today is summed up by the pseudo derelict state of its sea front. That said, Rhyl is a symptom of the trend which has seen successive generations flock to the airports in search of summer sun. Many other British seaside towns have been dealt similar fates over the years. I hope therefore that the hot weather which we are now enjoying will persuade a new generation that Rhyl and towns like it still have much to offer for the British holidaymaker. Whatever the future holds for Rhyl, nobody can alter the history books. The Beatles really did play there fifty years ago and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Little Errors and Big Mistakes

With a mixture of amusement and disbelief, I read today of the apology made by PayPal regarding the error which resulted in a Pennsylvania man being credited with the quite staggering amount of 92,233,720,368,547,800 dollars. Apparently, we even have a word to describe such a huge sum. We call this 92 quadrillion dollars (not including the other 233 trillion of course).

At an atomic level or when estimating the number of colonies of a bacterium, it might be helpful to use such numbers. In real life, it is highly unusual to encounter a number of this magnitude. By comparison, the world population is estimated at a mere 7 billion people. I suppose the aspect of this story which is so baffling is the sheer amount of money concerned. To begin with, is there even that much money in the world? Given the fact that our country has been employing quantitative easing to kick start the economy, I suppose it is theoretically possible. But that was just the Bank of England printing money so just how real is it?

It only came to light when the rather startled man received his monthly bank balance. Seemingly, the amount was transferred and rectified very quickly. It reminds me of the immediacy of the digital age. In fact, it almost renders the entire concept of money meaningless. In many ways of course, it is. My ten pounds is just an arbitrary amount used as an equivalent against goods.

War doesn't come cheap and often precipitates hyperinflation when the fighting has finished. The most famous example of this occured when the Weimar Republic rather lost its way between the turn of the last century and 1923. In a shade less than a quarter of a century, compared to a gold deutschmark, one mark in 1900 became 1,000,000,000,000 by 1923. This was almost entirely due to the cost of participating in and losing the Greta War. Since that war was little more than a feud between the three cousins who presided over Germany, Britain and Russia, this was arguably one of the costliest fall outs in history.

Of course, one man's demise makes capital for the next man. As Germany reached its nadir in 1923, one American dollar was estimated to be worth 4,210,500,000,000 marks. By reissuing new versions of their currency and ditching many of the excess zeros, Germany began to get back on its feet such that it could ultimately become engaged in another war in 1939. If insanity really is the process of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, you would have to question the mental state of the German psyche at that time. The hyperinflated mark had become a figure of fun which would have been a great example of Dadaism. People were using the bank notes as wall paper because of the disparity in their value. Joking aside though, a country in such dire straits becomes easy prey for the extremists and Germany was no exception. It seems that the greater your financial woe, the more extreme the government to which you will be prepared to turn. You can't get much more extreme than Hitler of course.

But back to PayPal. Chris Reynolds was the 55 year old man who noticed this aberation on his bank statement. His reaction to this monumental oversight must rank as one of the great understatements of our age. He said it had been "quite a big surprise"!

St. Brigids and The New Revolution

In 1989, the Autumn of Nations took place which culminated in the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Massive change occured almost overnight throughout Eastern Europe and the division between Communism and Capitalism began to fade after years of mutual suspicion. The 1989 revolution which saw the overthrow of the Eastern Bloc had been quietly simmering away for years and so the people needed little encouragement to get involved when events began to unfold. The images of people playing their own part in the demise of the Berlin Wall which had symbolised such stark division will stay with me forever mainly because my generation thought we'd never see it happen.

The Arab Spring of 2010 was a rather different affair. Different because of the way in which it was spread. In the 21 years since the events which took place in Eastern Europe, a lot had changed in the world. Arguably, one of the biggest changes was the rise of the internet. With that came the birth of social media. It was this ground breaking invention which would underpin the political change which was to take place throughout much of the Arab world. North Africa in particular was the recipient of the early events and several heads of state went on to seek their futures elsewhere. To see so many people mobilised by the mobile phones in their pockets confirmed that a new world order was here to stay and that anything was now possible.

This week, I have witnessed the power of social media in the town where I live. The scale might be smaller but the principle remains the same. In their wisdom, the local council who seem obsessed with new buildings have proposed the closure of two faith schools within Denbighshire in order to build a new one. The two existing schools on their existing sites are perfectly adequate and fit for purpose. Logic alone dictates that they would already have been closed if this were not the case. St. Brigids in Denbigh is a great school run by enthusiastic staff. Children from all sorts of backgrounds some with no faith clearly enjoy the experience which this school affords them. Previously run by nuns, this school has become a credit to the town attaining standards which other schools could scarcely hope for. We recently attended their fun day and were impressed with the camaraderie of all involved - staff and pupils alike. 

Their campaign to save the school has been played out through a combination of the social media and the local press. As I write, many hundreds are attending a prayer vigil to emulate the practice of the nuns of yesteryear. This school deserves to carry on in its own format because you don't need to be an Ofsted inspector to see how cohesive and effective it is. I sincerely hope that social media can play its part in saving this local gem thus guaranteeing the education of these children for many years to come.

Although not all children at St. Brigids profess a faith, many do. I can't express strongly enough the value of faith in the young. And in the old when it comes to that. Faith gives people a direction when they often need it the most. I would like to know how many of the local councillors who support this wasteful proposition attend church themselves? I think I know the answer. I'd expect to find them not in a church but rather on a golf course or in a shopping centre.

With this in mind, I have a radical proposition for the future of St. Brigids and Blessed Edward Jones' in Rhyl. If the councillors are so keen to have the children housed in a more modern facility for their education, the solution seems obvious. A few years ago, the local council saw fit to admit the supermarket chain Safeway in to the town on the site of the old livestock market, Part of the deal was that the supermarket had to build new council offices just above the new supermarket - handy because it enables council employees to walk not in to the town for their lunch but in to the supermarket instead, Needless to say, this move was not widely beneficial for the shops on the High Street but then we all knew that didn't we?

The existing school where St. Brigids is sited would make the most beautiful council offices. Set in a stunning country location, the new location would enable the council employees to benefit from a nice long walk in to the town centre to give them a bit of exercise at lunchtime. Meanwhile, the plush council building next door to the supermarket seems tailor made to serve as a faith school. Since many of the pupils are from the Catholic faith, this move would move them closer to the Catholic Church situated just above the existing council offices. This would remove the need to build a new school and keep all the people involved in the same town but in each others' buildings.

The alternative is for enough to people to vent their anger through social media and the local press to force an outbreak of common sense among the councillors charged with making these absurd decisions. A good friend of mine last week warned that it was a fait accompli. He might be right but that doesn't stop us all from fighting them all the way. We are not obliged to make it easy for them and nor should we! Of all the arguments I have seen proposing the decision to relocate the school to a new site, not one of them has the slightest logic or sense. Why am I not surprised?