07 September 2024

'From holy day to holiday'

 

I commend to you the excellent article – ‘From holy day to holiday’ – by Fergus Butler Gallie in the Church Times, 30 August 2024, in which he refers to a video of the Southwark Diocesan conference held at Butlin’s, Bognor Regis in 1961. Here’s the video:

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/36378/

There are also some outtakes (not referred to by Fergus), not to be missed:

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/36391/ (the first ten minutes).

, , , and here’s the full article:

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/30-august/features/features/from-holy-day-to-holiday-what-do-churchpeople-do-when-they-get-away

Enjoy!

26 August 2024

New master of the King's Music

 

This article in The Guardian on the appointment of Errollyn Wallen as Master of the King’s Music is a hopeful sign for the future of music education in schools:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/25/widen-access-to-classical-music-with-free-lessons-says-errollyn-wallen


30 July 2024

Defend the arts . . . before it's too late

 

I’m not a great fan of Norman Lebrecht, but he has written an excellent article in the latest issue of The Critic:

https://thecritic.co.uk/defend-the-arts-before-its-too-late/

Incidentally, have we heard anything from the new culture minister, Lisa Nandy?

25 July 2024

'It's a disgrace' - Melvyn Bragg on the state of the arts in Britain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-OVpcr_jE

‘The arts are being systematically undermined and devalued and incompetently treated. That's where we are. That's the sort of country we are at the moment. And it's a disgrace.’

Responding to a newly-published Campaign for the Arts report, Melvyn Bragg calls on the UK to address the languishing state of the arts as a matter of urgency.

Read the State of the Arts report by the Campaign for the Arts and the University of Warwick here: https://www.campaignforthearts.org/reports/the-state-of-the-arts/


06 July 2024

Future prospects for the Arts in the UK?

Apologies for another long pause between posts on this site, partly owing to having been in Intensive Care in Ipswich Hospital for eleven days followed by necessary convalescence, which is proceeding as hoped for, with no expected long-term consequences.

As for the General Election: It is a shame that the election of the excellent Carla Denyer for the Greens in Bristol Central has knocked out Thangam Debbonaire, who would have been Culture Secretary in the new Government. A cellist, educated at Chets and the RCM, she would have been just the person to encourage recovery in this sector, though the PM apparently plays the flute, recorder, violin and piano, was a junior exhibitioner at Guildhall and has declared that playing in an orchestra gave him 'life skills'. Improbably, even deputy PM Angela Rayner is said to be an opera enthusiast! So perhaps there is some cause for mild optimism, though their minds will no doubt be on more 'important' matters, at least initially. The actual new Culture Secretary is Lisa Nandy, whose biography reveals no special interest or involvement in the Arts in general or music in particular, so we will have to wait and see what happens.

06 April 2024

The Decline and Fall of Royal Mail

Amazing, isn’t it, that in Victorian times, without the benefit of modern technology, when people wrote letters by the score, it was possible to write to your wife in the morning to say that you would be late home from work that evening and the letter would be delivered in the afternoon.

Now, with all the technology currently at our disposal, and (apparently) far fewer letters now written, Royal Mail is proposing that second-class letters will in future be delivered only every other working day – which, in some areas, will actually be an improvement, I understand!

In Victorian London there were up to twelve deliveries a day, six days a week. Even during my childhood, two daily deliveries and, at Christmas, cards were delivered as soon as a deliverable quantity had accumulated at the Post Office – again, in far greater numbers than today.

Progress?