Black sheep

The news today is not great. It has sadly been dominated by crimes which we would probably rather not hear about. Yesterday, a man was jailed for the murder of five year old April Jones. Today, on my way home, I drove past a mass of police and forensic officers and later learned they were investigating a body believed to be that of the missing teenager, Georgina Williams. Earlier this week, the first of the two men responsible for the murder of Lee Rigby was released from hospital to embark on the legal process which will doubtless incarcerate him for many years to come. The two young men who murdered the Shropshire busker Ben Bebbington by a canal path last September were today given sentences of 16 and 14 years respectively before being considered for parole.

I write this because as bad as these stories are, they are not new. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that the world is a more evil place today than in days gone by. There will sadly always be people of this type. Thankfully, they are newsworthy for their scarcity. I always find it very difficult to understand what must drive anybody to consider taking the life of another. During the past week, strong emotions have been expressed in the wake of the killing of Lee Rigby. Calls to bring back hanging are never too far away when we are confronted by events of this magnitude. Such calls though would be misguided. We have come a long way since Ruth Ellis faced the noose and I would argue our approach since has been far more civilised. I do have sympathy with those who point to the paucity of some of these sentences though. The two lads in Shropshire could conceivably be released in fourteen and sixteen years time which seems rather at odds with the years denied to the innocent man they murdered. An eye for an eye though is a big step backwards to the dark ages from which we pertain to have moved away.

Doubtless, the law will deal very firmly with the two extremists responsible for last weeks' murder outside Woolwich barracks. I shouldn't imagine the two responsible will ever be considered for release because of the seriousness of the crime and their stated potential to repeat it. At a time when fewer people seem to profess a faith, it is regrettable that they have chosen to attribute their act to their faith. There is no such faith which would condone such an outrage. It is easy to forget what a great comfort faith is and can be to millions of people the world over. It does not follow that they will all become murderers in due course.

While all the cases to which I have referred here are distressing, the case of April Jones is arguably the worst. Whatever your opinions of the claims of the two men in Woolwich, at least we know why they did what they did. I'm damn sure we none of us agree with their reasoning but at least they have given us an explanation no matter how unpalatable. I just can't imagine how difficult it must be for the family of Lee Rigby. As for the family of April Jones, they will perhaps never know. Last August, 78 year old Winnie Johnson died. Her son Keith Bennett had been murdered by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady forty five years earlier. I can't imagine a more cruel fate than being condemned to live the rest of your life not knowing. For the sake of April's parents, I hope the man responsible for the death of their daughter has one shred of decency in him and reveals the truth - that is surely the very least they deserve.

Enid Jones - A woman for our times?

She may not be known to the most of us but Enid Jones is at the centre of a debate which threatens to destroy our communities and way of life. In the mid Wales town of Aberystwyth, town planners have approved a proposed retail development which would see yet another large Tesco being built with a three-storey Marks and Spencer outlet.

The proposed development entails an entire street being bulldozed in favour of the corporate big boys. With a promise of 280 jobs, this new development claims that it will result in an extra £1.6 to £3.5 million pounds per year being spent in the town centre. Wrong. Look at any town you care to mention where a new superstore has been built on the fringes of the town centre and the statistics are overwhelming. Town centre spending goes down and key businesses are lost as they seek to fight the supermarket in a battle they can never win. The greengrocer has no chance faced with the buying power and import strength of the supermarkets. The butcher likewise. Even the electrical shop and hardware shop are now in the firing line. The florist will be sweating even as I write. There will be limited scope for a newsagent to compete and even the chemists will take a battering. The only shops which are seen to prosper when the supermarket comes to town are the charity shops. Retail premises haemorrhage their value and many become vacant and remain that way. When they are gone, they have a habit of not returning. Quite how this new development will result in all this extra money being spent in shops which will no longer exist is an absolute mystery to me.

To their shame, local councillors have approved the employment of a compulsory purchase scheme to force Enid out. This house was purchased by this lady nearly a decade ago because she needed to be near to her town centre on the flat so that she could easily access local shops and services. Her medical condition dictated her decision the building the council would destroy is not a house - it is her home. This is a fundamental and very important point. The mantra of local government now appears to be "if we can't get our own way, we'll just use whatever means we can until we do". That they have been allowed to become so powerful is a massive mistake for which we will all pay in due course.

The final decision in this shameful story will rest with the powers that be in the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff. I can only hope that they show a shred of decency and allow themselves to see this charade as it really is. The local council has said they are merely asking Enid to compromise and relocate to another property. If they too could show some compromise, she wouldn't need to. Does Aberystwyth really need a 25,000 square feet Tesco and a 36,000 square feet Marks and Spencer? Will the world stop spinning if they don't go ahead?  The developer has stated that this is the only way they can do it - and the council believes them. What a surprise! If any of these council employees ever spent a month or two working in one of the shops in the town, they might just gain some insight in to just how hard it is and just what a vital service they give. If the qualification for becoming a council employee required people to have previously run a small business, the function of the council would change overnight.

This lady has my full support. Whichever way the council likes to portray their treatment of her, she is being bullied, plain and simple. Stick to your guns Enid. Her right to remain in her home should only be compromised by earthquakes, volcanoes and subsidence - not corporate greed. The leader of the council claims they have no choice because they have to develop their economy and provide a viable future for their young people. Absolute rubbish. If proof were needed of how detached councils are from real business, we need look no further. Tesco and Marks and Spencer exist at the behest of shareholders and operate accordingly. They do not provide a sustainable future any more than local councils do. This is a case of the swindlers promoting the money men. Let us not delude ourselves that the council leader even believes her own words. There will undoubtedly be something in it for the council for them to be supporting it to such a partisan extent. Meanwhile, can they just leave this lady alone in the comfort of her own home or has their regard for us now become none existent?

Reaction

The daylight murder of a British soldier outside his Woolwich barracks this week has given rise to a tidal wave of condemnation from the public and politicians alike. And rightly so. On the same day, the trial was taking place of the man accused of the murder of five year old April Jones. In both cases, a life was needlessly taken but the reason for doing so rather different.

In the case of the murdered soldier, the men responsible cited their reason. They claimed it was done because it highlighted what the British army was doing to people of their faith in other countries. In the case of April Jones, the man accused seems intent on keeping the details of her death and, by intimation, her final resting place, a mystery. This may well end up being referred for psychiatric reports with the accused man being detained indefinitely on psychiatric grounds.

Not so long ago, Norway had to deal with the aftermath of Anders Breivik who saw fit to murder 69 young Norwegians because they belonged to the Workers' Youth League of the Labour Party. Idealogically speaking, Breivik was about as far right as it is possible to be without actually falling off the edge. He was eventually diagnosed as having a condition called narcissistic personality disorder. His far right views were thus attributed more to his psychiatric state than his actual insight.

In each of these three cases, the one common theme is the innocent loss of life or, to put it another way, murder. In the case of the two men in Woolwich who were shot by the police, they will face the music in due course and, no doubt, indulge us with their views, however unpalatable. I am glad they were not shot dead. An eye for an eye would have played directly in to their own warped view of the world. As is stands, they will have to live with the enormity of their actions. Even a brainwashed mind can't be in denial of murder for ever. At 28 years of age, they will have plenty of time to reflect on their action. It has been heartening to see the Islamic community unite in their condemnation of this appalling act. The moslems I know are rightly disgusted that their faith has been sullied in this manner. Whether or not we have a faith, we none of us have the right to take the life of another - under any pretext.

The danger from this weeks' savage killing is the sympathy for the extremists which may ensue - on both sides. As I write, the English Defence League is marching in Newcastle upon Tyne with 1500 people joining them. On the other side of the fence, a radical moslem has this week refused to condemn the actions of the two men in Woolwich. As sickening as this, his views are thankfully in the minority where they belong. The frightening part of all this is that if a General Election was being held this week, I shudder to think how many people would feel disposed to vote for far right parties for all the wrong reasons.

When murders of this or any type occur, they go against common decency and have no place in any society. The perpetrators are understandably reviled by the public. That said, we mustn't make the mistake of striking out against the faith concerned. I know this is already happening and would urge everyone to take stock and calm down. However upsetting this week has been for everyone, what's done is done. Sadly, we can't turn back time but can seek to learn lessons. In the three cases to which I have alluded here, those responsible all seem to have been on the fringes of our society. It is arguably the task of society to reel in those on the fringes and seek to include and integrate them. Ostracising them will only have the opposite effect and will help nobody.

For the family of the murdered soldier, I may only guess at their grief. A two year old boy has now been deprived of his Dad and his wife and family are now faced with picking up the pieces. They have been in my thoughts all week because I know they face a very difficult time in the days, weeks and months to come.

This weeks events are a blessing for people like Nick Griffin and the English Defence League but they needn't be. As a society, we must keep our resolve and not descend to the level which has abhorred us all this week.

The media has been widely chastised for its graphic portrayal of the events in Woolwich as they unfolded. While they might have been more discreet in their editing, mobile phones with cameras and video allied to a vibrant social media will forever more ensure that such events are shown to us all. Whether we want to see them is up to us. There will always be those who seek to create division among us. Our job is to be even more determined to stand firm.  

Keyboard Giant

It is not difficult to explain why Ray Manzarek was such a highly regarded musician. The former Doors keyboard player has died aged 74. His musical legacy will last a great deal longer than that. Before the 1960s came along, rock and roll music had become very formulaic with lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums usually augmenting a good looking singer. All that changed when early 60s groups started to realise the impact the organ was having on their sound.

With the notable exception of the Beatles who only incorporated it late in their career with Billy Preston guesting on several tracks, most 60s bands of note had a decent keyboard player. The rhythm section of drums, bass and keyboard was, if you'll pardon the pun, instrumental to their sound. Drums aside, the combination of bass guitar and keyboard was integral to the sound of many stellar acts.

The Small Faces had Ronnie Lane and Ian Maclagan. The Animals had Chas Chandler and Alan Price. Deep Purple had Roger Glover and Jon Lord. ELP had Greg Lake and Keith Emerson. The Rolling Stones at various intervals had Bill Wyman and Nicky Hopkins. I list these bands because I would consider their respective keyboard players to be the very best to emerge from that most influential decade. The Doors, by comparison, had Ray Manzarek - he was that good. He played bass with his top keyboard using one hand and played standard keyboard below it with the other. Like Jon Lord, Keith Emerson and Nicky Hopkins, he had been classically trained and was equally at home with classical, jazz or any other genre you cared to throw at him.

It is widely believed that the enduring appeal of the Doors' music can be attributed to the mythical status of their erstwhile singer Jim Morrison. The fact is that Ray Manzarek was far more important - he made their sound possible. Listen to any of their songs and you will appreciated the extent to which he absolutely dominated the group. His other group was his musical inventiveness and willingness to experiment. Playing it safe wasn't his style and thus the boundaries were pushed. Boots like his are nigh on impossible to fill. The most the contemporary musicians can aspire to is simply to try and copy some of those magical patterns he created. I wish them luck.

The acid rock of the Doors is now stuck in time in that golden musical era which happened between 1966 and 1971. Its legacy is timeless.

Compromise - the hardest choice of all?

In August 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis heralded the Worldwide credit crunch which has been the albatross around all our necks ever since. We continue to pay the price as we seek, like the mole at the beginning of "The Wind in The Willows", to emerge from our dark world in to daylight.

Food prices in the UK have risen a staggering 40% since the beginning of the financial crisis. Inflation has continued unabated at 3.5% despite the government targeting a rate of just 2%. The 2% target will not be met for a very long time simply because food and fuel inflation is so exorbitantly high. As a society, we are all directly affected by these two parameters and seem set to remain so for a long time to come. Fuel poverty is said to apply to anyone who is spending more than 10% of their income on heating their home. This puts a lot of people in fuel poverty in the UK today.

It is therefore all the more baffling to witness the growth in out of town retail parks at a time when the fuel to get us there has never been more costly and the food to purchase so expensive. This begs the question: Why do we choose to shop in this way? Our net disposable incomes have never been lower and yet still we seek a little retail therapy to make ourselves feel what? A bit better? Over the past twenty years our high streets have become increasingly barren with major retailers choosing to relocate to lucrative out of town venues.

An interesting trend has started to emerge recently. The supermarket dominated retail sector has started to spot that not as many people are venturing out to their out of town retail palaces. Their response has been to seek premises on our high streets just in case they might be missing out on some of our income. Of course, the big problem is that like that that other scourge of modern society, the banks, they don't face any serious opposition. We all have a choice though. As our net disposable income is gradually squeezed, we naturally become a little more discerning in terms of where we chose to part with our money.

One thing is certain. Because of the rising price of petrol and diesel, shopping on our local high street has to be cheaper. It is up to the independent retailers to entice us. We have nothing new to learn about the supermarkets. We are all well versed in their marketing gimmicks. The supermarkets with loyalty schemes seem to have hit on something. Perhaps this is the way the local high street can fight back. If they join ranks and create a collective loyalty scheme, they stand a far better chance of getting their locals back. Recessions invariably serve one important purpose. They habitually get rid of the dead wood so that the retailers left standing are more efficient and focused.

Ultimately, both we the consumers and our local high street retailers have to compromise together to regain our once thriving retail sector. A retail sector dominated by four or five big players is not healthy. It needs to be spread out between more players and more local. If the supermarkets couldn't offer cheap booze, cheap petrol, loss leaders and loyalty cards, the playing field would be a lot more level. That won't change though so local retailers need to join forces and play them at their own game. We, the consumers, will ultimately choose whether we want a vibrant high street or not. Fuel poverty might just help us to make up our minds. The battle is between globalism and localism and it is up to us think carefully about which we want in the future. 

Friend or foe?

Sheila Dillon is the presenter for the Food Programme on Radio 4. In a recent article she turns her attention to a subject I was writing about in the year 2000. She was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma which is a comparatively rare cancer of the bone marrow.

On her visits to her local cancer treatment centre she was surprised to encounter ambivalent staff attitudes towards nutrition. On each visit, she was offered a white bread sandwich, a fizzy drink and either a chocolate bar or some biscuits. I can well believe this because I saw the same things being offered to my first wife in 2000 when she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I am dismayed to see that little has changed because there are no excuses for this

It is counter-intuitive to ignore nutrition when treating someone with a cancer diagnosis. Granted, if the cancer is of genetic origin, the diet of the individual is likely to be limited in its effect on their long term outcome. A great many cancers though are not genetic and by deduction are either environmental or maybe even psychosocial in origin. One of the problems in all of this is that current medical education is entrenched in evidence-based medicine. This is all well and good but does close its eyes to anything outside of that box.

In 2007, the World Health Organisation stated that 60% of oesophageal cancers, 45% of all colorectal cancers and 38% of breast cancers could be prevented with just three core strategies. A healthy diet, a healthy body weight and regular physical activity all contribute to these claimed reductions. Much has been written about the Mediterranean diet and rightly so because it is very straightforward and very healthy. The only notable omissions to this diet are heavily processed foods, refined flours, sugars and specifically, saturated (animal) fat. The best part is that we don't need to live in the Mediterranean region to achieve it.

Surely when our body is being presented with the challenge of fighting a cancer, the best thing to do is to give it the best available fuel to do the job? Of course, some cancers sadly remain untreatable but many are now treated very well so it makes sense to stack the odds in our favour when we can. If no less a body than the World Health Organisation recognises this fact, why are our health professionals not doing likewise? The average hospital in this country, regardless of cancer treatment centres, are littered with vending machines which dispense most of the very foodstuffs which we should be seeking to avoid. Why is this being allowed? If patients choose to bring their own food in to the hospital that is a matter for them but please don't offer them the wrong foods from the hospital itself. The hospital ought to be promoting health, not exacerbating it.

I suspect the real reason the hospitals place such a small premium on nutrition is that it seems like too much hard work. For a start, staff would have to be seen to be adopting the same approach to their own health which, with due respect, is not always the case. The big food manufacturers who benefit from the proceeds of such vending machines might also have something to say about it. More than this though, we as a society have become progressively more attuned to a high carbohydrate diet which is now known to be detrimental to our long term health. The real challenge therefore seems to be one of change through better education. When we go to the shops today, the marketing begins even before we have entered. Look at the special offers the next time you go to a supermarket and ask yourself this? How many of these offers tick the boxes of the Mediterranean diet? That is to say, how many of these offers are not processed food, not high in saturated fat, not high in sugar and not high in refined flour? You will not find many and that is because it is the food manufacturers who are reliant on maintaining our eating habits to sustain their profits for their shareholders. Ironically, with a work-based or personal pension, you are probably already contributing to their profits and your own pension because it is likely that your pension provider has a vested interest in their success. It is therefore clear that effecting such a change is going to be like pushing the proverbial elephant up the hill.

That said, we all have the capacity to choose what we allow in to our bodies. The challenge is to try to be even stronger than the lure of the marketing which seeks to keep us hooked in to this cycle of inferior nutrition. It is surely one of the great ironies of our age that the very poor in countries such as China and India have diets far superior to our own because they can scarcely afford to eat meat or processed foods. It is only us in the West with our disposable incomes who can afford to eat so badly to maintain the pressure on our already buckling Health Service.

I attended a small talk the other day given by a nutritionist and she asked a question which made me think. What was the last thing you had to eat and did you enjoy it? I think that if we all made a habit of asking ourselves this simple question on a regular basis, things might start to change for the better and we would all start to see the light. A bit of food for thought on a lovely Sunday in spring. Great day for a walk in the country? 

Behind blue eyes

Tomorrow marks the 68th birthday of one of the most influential musicians of the 1960s. The 60s were the stand-out decade for musical expansion beginning as they did with Elvis, Buddy and Cliff and ending with Led Zepellin, Elton John and David Bowie. Of course, it was the acts in the middle who dominated the scene. In particular, the Beatles bestrode the decade as Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians. Not far behind them came The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. For their part, the Americans gave us the Beach Boys, the Byrds and the Monkees. Back in the UK, the band who were to conquer America unlike any other were the Who.  They alone played all the iconic gigs: Woodstock, Monterey and the first Isle of Wight festival. As a stage act, they were second to none.

Yesterday marked the 49th anniversary of the multiple arrests made on Brighton Beach as rival gangs of Mods and Rockers engaged in fights on the beach. Culturally, they constituted the polar opposites of 60s youth. The Rockers gravitated towards the early rock and roll sound of people like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochrane. The film Easy Rider could have been made for them. The Mods by contrast were more concerned with looking the part and espoused the early rhythm and blues music which was making its way over to the UK from the States. A wave of British groups sprang up to epitomise Mod Culture. They dressed in the coolest Italian fashions and eschewed large British motorbikes in favour of the more aesthetically stylish Italian scooter. The Mod movement was very image-orientated and even its music was very cool compared to established sound of rock and roll.

The main UK proponents of the Mod cause were the Small Faces, the Yardbirds and the Who. Each started off covering rhythm and blues standards and quickly progressed to writing their own songs. The Small Faces had the songwriting partnership of lead singer and guitarist Steve Marriott with diminutive bass player Ronnie Lane. For the time they were together, they turned out a very impressive back catalogue culminating in the highly regarded concept album "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" featuring the gobbledygook English narration of the incomparable Stanley Unwin. The Yardbirds became the laboratory for guitar players and restricted themselves to three - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Difficult to top that trio in any era. The Yardbirds relied on song writing from all parts of the band with Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja and Jim Macarty all contributing regularly. The Who were reliant on the songwriting genius of the man who turns 68 tomorrow. Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend remains the driving force for the group as it approaches its fiftieth year in the business.

In 1964, they scored their first hit with "Can't explain" but it was their third in 1965 which brought them to everyone's attention. My Generation was the youth anthem for the 1960s. It is remarkable to reflect that Pete Townshend was still only nineteen when he wrote it. The immortal lyric "I hope I die before I get old" seemed somehow to sum up how the youth felt about the older generation. They struggled to relate to a generation who had lived through the Second World War with all its hardship and distress. Townshend's generation didn't want that life. They wanted excitement. They wanted to experiment. They wanted to push the boundaries. They didn't want to be dictated to by an older generation who just didn't understand. The song was, and remains, a masterpiece which captured the musical zeitgeist of the time. The stuttering vocals of Roger Daltrey suggest the use of the F word but cleverly transmute into Fade away.

Townshend's musical accomplishments seemed always to be one step ahead of the game at least until Quadrophenia was released in 1973. Two years earlier, he had released the album which remains their finest, Who's Next. The album resulted from an aborted project in which Pete Townshend had placed much faith. The Lifehouse project never came to fruition but had been intended to stage a new type of musical show in which the audience and the band where as one, all searching for that elusive perfect note. In hindsight, it all probably seems a load of hippy nonsense. Be that as it may, the album which resulted was extraordinary with ten tracks. It is impossible to point to a weak track. Of the ten though, three in particular stand out: "Won't get fooled again", "Baba O'Reilly" and the semi-autobiographical "Behind Blue Eyes".

The lyrics of the latter are widely held to be written about himself. "No-one know what it's like, To be the bad man, To be the sad man, Behind blue eyes". Its a very poignant song dripping in angst and frustration. I suspect few people could listen to it without identifying at least in part with the lyric.

Well, he didn't die before he got old although plenty of his musical peers did. Like them, he too experimented with drugs and alcohol but he got lucky. The death in 1978 of the Who's legendary drummer Keith Moon  at the age of just 32 was surprising only for the fact that he had managed to live that long. At the height of his own addiction in the early 1980s, few would have foreseen the Modfather reaching his 68th birthday.  That he has done so is perhaps testament to the irony of his 1965 lyrics. "I hope I die before I get old" was perhaps just a passing swipe at the establishment which he so despised. To coin an interesting quote from the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited, rather than having a great will to live perhaps "he has an even  greater fear of death". Anyway, Happy Birthday Pete and as a lifelong fan, many thanks for the music.