the autumn statement: let’s all get depressed together…

There are at least THREE certainties regarding George Osborne’s Autumn Statement on Wednesday: a) it’ll be delivered with a confident smugness (to “loud encouragement” from his fellow Tory MPs); b) it’ll be clever and will see him producing one or two “rabbits out of the hat”; and c) it’ll be well-received by the predominantly Tory media.
Osborne is continuing on his “austerity is a necessity” crusade and has pledged to run a £10billion budget surplus by 2020. Local government (including welfare and social services), further education, the police, courts are all facing spending cuts of up to 30 per cent (and this comes on top of previous reductions) and, despite the government’s pledge to “protect the NHS”, there could also be cuts in some areas of public health spending.
The fact remains that, with the government’s comfortable majority in parliament, Mr Osborne can do whatever he likes.  

As Will Hutton outlined in The Guardian last week:

“The Conservatives’ choice is driven by a refusal to see any merit in public activity: in their worldview, the point of life and the purpose of civilisation is to celebrate and protect the private individual, the private firm and private property. The state should be as small as possible. It has no role, say, in owning Channel 4 to secure public service broadcasting; it will be privatised with scant care about its ultimate owner. Equally, there was no point in holding the 40% stake in Eurostar, forecast to generate more than £700m in dividends over the next decade and a good payback for £3bn of public investment. Thus it was sold for £757m in March, the government concerned to get the sale through before the general election. You could only proclaim a £2.25bn loss on the public balance sheet and the surrender of £700m of dividends as a “fantastic deal for UK taxpayers”, as Osborne did, if you see zero value in public activity.
“It is this philosophy that will drive the choices to be laid out on Wednesday. The spending of the so-called protected departments – the £189bn spent this year on the NHS, schools for five- to 16-year-olds, aid and defence – will rise in cash terms in line with inflation, but only to buy the same in 2019-20 as it does today, an unprecedented decade-long freeze in real terms. The block grants to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be hit slightly harder, protected only in cash terms, implying, after adjusting for inflation, a small real fall. The axe therefore has to fall on what is left – £77bn of spending by 15 departments along with non-school spending”.

The sad fact is that Osborne is hell-bent on reducing public spending to just over 36% of GDP in the last year of this parliament (without raising income tax)(or scrapping Trident!). This will inevitably result in too few nurses on a ward, too few police, too few teachers and too little of every public service. The cuts in welfare will hit the well-being of millions, including their children.

Osborne doesn't care about the consequences.
It’s all about political ideology.

One could highlight worrying issues in ALL those sectors facing further cuts but, just as one example, let’s look at the police service:

1.    If the predicted cuts of 30% do form part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, then this would mean that funding for the police service will have been slashed by some 50 per cent between 2010 and 2020!).
2.    An estimated 17,000 officer posts were eliminated in the last round of cuts under the Conservative-led coalition government between 2010 and 2015 – and this level of officer losses could be higher at 30,000 in the next five years across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
3.    Cuts will almost certainly mean a severe pruning back of neighbourhood policing and proactive prevention work which stops crime levels rising.
4.    It’s even been suggested (by Sara Thornton, chair of the body representing police chiefs) that a police officer may not attend every burglary in future – resulting in burglary victims even being asked to send evidence by email!
5.    I have a good friend who works in the police force and who is extremely concerned by the latest proposals. He is adamant that the on-going and disproportionately savage cuts to the police/council/criminal justice budgets will make it IMPOSSIBLE to be effective across the board.
6.    Only last month, Devon and Cornwall confirmed plans for reducing its number of PCSOs to ZERO. Many forces are stating Neighbourhood Policing is now a thing of the past. Pro-activity has almost disappeared.
7.    Studies show the majority of the public have no conception as to the true extent and effect of these budget cuts.
8.    Indeed, we’ve had a number of burglaries in our local neighbourhood over recent months. I haven’t got the figures, but I would be prepared to speculate that the number of burglaries has started to rise again. It’s almost as if “minor” criminals know full well that the police just don’t have the resources to cope – which therefore increases their chances of “getting away with it”. Continuing cuts will mean fewer officers and a pruning back of both neighbourhood policing and pro-active prevention work - which stops crime levels rising.

I COULD go on (and on!) about a whole host of other things that are likely to be adversely affected by the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement – all hugely important and all hugely depressing.
But, hey, what’s the point?
The Government isn’t listening (and the Opposition are arguing amongst themselves)… we might as well all give up.

october-november 2015 books

More book stuff:
A Place Called Winter (Patrick Gale): This novel, set in the early years of the 20^th century, tells the story of a gay Englishman who was ostracised by his family after an illicit affair and forced to make a new life for himself on the harsh Canadian prairies. It’s actually loosely based on the life of Gale’s own great-grandfather and compiled after he’d read a huge hoard of letters+papers inherited from his maternal grandmother). In the notes that accompanied my copy of his book, Gale readily accepts that, while he respected the “known facts, keeping real names, and houses and dates”, his story “inevitably… moved further and further away from reality”. As someone who has long struggled to come to terms with fiction (per se), I found the mix of fact and storytelling a little difficult to take at times. Nevertheless, it’s tender, compelling and beautifully-written book and one that I enjoyed reading.
Helena (Evelyn Waugh): I really should know better by now… when it comes to historical fiction (see Patrick Gale’s book above!). Evelyn Waugh is a favourite writer of mine and so I thought I’d “give it a go”. The novel’s protagonist is the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. In his introduction to the book, Waugh stresses that “this is a novel” and freely admits that “The Age of Constantine is strangely obscure” and that her life “begins and ends in surmise and legend” (we don’t actually know where Helena was born or when). History tells us that she was in Rome in 326 and that she went soon after to Jerusalem (by which time she’d become a Christian) and associated herself with building the churches at Bethlehem and Olivet. Frankly, I do struggle with historical novels (even if I did enjoy “I Claudius” on television all those years ago and, a little more recently, Melvyn Bragg’s brilliant book “Credo”!) and, although Waugh reckoned that there was nothing in the book contrary to authentic history or tradition, I found it all rather too picturesque and, at times, rather absurd. Predictably well-written… although, for me, lacking in Waugh’s normal wit and satire.
A Rose For Winter (Laurie Lee): I’d forgotten just what a brilliant writer Laurie Lee was. This book, written in 1955, tells of his return to Spain’s Andalusia (15 years after his last visit – Lee first travelled through Spain as a 19 year-old, in the mid-1930s, when he was trapped by the outbreak of the Civil War) to find a country still broken by that war. To say that Lee had a way with words would be a pathetic understatement… but he had a way of conveying a place and the people he met in a wonderfully warm and eloquent manner. Incredibly evocative and telling the story of a forgotten life (for instance: “There are bars in Algeciras where a glass of wine and a plate of shrimps cost only twopence; where it takes an hour spend a shilling; where a bootblack has only to see you to press drinks upon you; and where processions of strangers are forever offering you glasses of coñac with proud gestures of courtly friendship”). The Sunday Times described the book thus: “He writes like an angel and conveys the pride and vitality of the humblest Spanish life with unfailing sharpness, zest and humour”… and, for me, that describes the book EXACTLY. A simply wonderful book.
Sour Sweet (Timothy Mo): This is our book group’s next book. It’s initial setting is London’s Chinatown of the 1960s and tells the story of a family of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. The book’s chilling, dark side recounts husband’s reluctant involvement into the dangerous underworld world of the notorious Triads. However, the book’s shining feature for me was the resourcefulness of the family (especially his young wife), their domestic arrangements and their often comic dealings with British officialdom. Fascinating, scary, entertaining and frequently funny. I enjoyed it.
To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf): First published in 1927, this ‘stream-of-consciousness’ novel tells the story of a holiday at a family’s summer home on the Isle of Skye – Mr and Mrs Ramsay, their eight children and a few friends+colleagues. It’s initially set in the years just before WW1 and concludes ten years later. The book begins with a projected trip, via sailing boat, to the near-by lighthouse and although this is a recurring focus for the book, all this is secondary to its philosophical introspection – of thoughts, observations and perceptions. The book contains almost no dialogue and very little action, but flitters around the thoughts and emotions of its principle characters (especially Mrs Ramsay). I found it a little confusing at the start of the book (somewhat difficult to keep up with “whose thoughts are whose?”!), but eventually warmed to the task. A beguiling, rather beautiful, book.    

brooklyn…

I went along to the Watershed this afternoon to see John Crowley’s film “Brooklyn” (Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Colm Toibin’s best-selling novel). It’s the story of an educated, reliable and hard-working woman who journeys from post-war small-town Ireland to New York. It’s about leaving home+family and setting out into an unknown world; it’s about the initial home-sickness; it’s about getting on with life; it’s about gradually finding new-found optimism; and it’s about finding love.
I’ll say no more to avoid *spoileralerts*.
Unusually, perhaps, it’s also a film which focuses on the female point of view. Saoirse Ronan is simply wonderful as the main character, Eilis (she reminded me why I love my half-Irish wife so much!)(as if I needed reminding) and I thought the entire cast (including Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters) was excellent  - well-observed, sensitive and, on occasions, very funny. Among the highlights for me were the scenes from the Brooklyn boarding house (with Julie Walters as landlady) – with the girls sitting around the dinner table (no boys!). All quite brilliantly portrayed. I don’t want to say much more for fear of *spoilers*, but I also thought Emory Cohen (as Tony) and Domhnail Gleeson (as Jim) were both perfect.
I also loved some of the female fashions… and, with the film being set in the early 1950s, a couple of the outfits reminded me of my mother Mary (when she “dressed up”!).
It could all have been pretty maudlin and dour (leaving her mother+sister in Ireland, struggling on arrival in New York etc etc), but it wasn’t at all. It was a humorous, uplifting, happy film.
I absolutely loved this film… it was pretty perfect as far as I was concerned (but, hey, I am bit of a softy at heart!).
PS: if you live in Bristol, you’ve got until 19 November to see it at the Watershed… and I think you should!
PPS: the ONLY slight downside to the afternoon was that it was shown in the Watershed’s rather small Cinema2 (with seating for perhaps 80?) – which has an aisle on one side only… tickets were completely sold out in advance and so, almost inevitably, it was a case of latecomers battling to find the only remaining seats  in the dark (which were, of course, at the very end of the non-aisle rows… with all the disruption that that entailed!).  

he named me malala

I went along to the Watershed yesterday afternoon to see Davis Guggenheim’s film. Yes, we all know that Malala Yousafzai is a truly inspirational figure - a teenager who won the Nobel Peace Prize while still studying for her GCSEs in Birmingham. I knew the film would make an impressive documentary… but I was somewhat taken aback by its effect on me. Yes, I know I’m a bit of an old softie (“The Railway Children” gets me every time), but I found myself surreptitiously trying to dry my moistened eyes through large tracts of the film!
It was good to be reminded that, as a 15 year-old (before she was shot in the head), she had already been a powerful campaigner for the rights of girls to be educated (in fact, she was a campaigner for girls’ education from the age of just 11!). The story of her grotesque shooting on the school bus, her survival, her remarkable recovery, her articulation and her continuing, global campaigning are truly staggering… and she’s still only 18.
Maybe it’s because I’m the father of three wonderful daughters but, for me, one of the most powerful aspects of the film was Malala’s relationship with her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai – a wonderful, gentle and wise man (who, amongst many other things, set up his own school… and, despite his stammer, has been a passionate, articulate speaker against the Taliban’s radical, ideological version of the Islamic faith)(the film includes lots of footage of him speaking at various rallies in north-west Pakistan). Malala’s father has not been the person pushing her to take a stand on issues, he has simply been someone whose passions and concerns about the world have inspired her.
Malala’s father named her after the Afghan folk heroine Malalai – a Joan of Arc figure who rallied Pashtun fighters against the British in 1880. The same moral courage and heroism is alive well today, thanks to Malala Yousafzai.
It’s a wonderful, moving, inspiring film about the strength of the human spirit and about having the bravery and courage to do something about it.
As she has said: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world”.
Amen to that.
PS: another film that I/we had wanted to see was “Suffragette”, but the nearest cinema (within easy walking distance) was charging £13.40* for the privilege of watching it in their “Director’s Hall” (with a free drink and popcorn!)… so £4.50 at the Watershed felt like a bit of a bargain! Actually, the main reason for posting this note is that the Cinema De Lux DID do special rates for oldies like us - £13.20, instead of the full £13.40 price. A WHOLE 20p saving!! Whoop, whoop!
We’ll no doubt end up getting the DVD.