Victorian 2016

Recently I have been watching BBC2's The Victorian Slum on catch-up on iPlayer.  It follows a group of people who have volunteered to live in a mock up of a slum and each episode has followed a different decade.  1860s onwards.

I highly recommend the programmes.  A number of the participants have actually traced that they had relatives who lived in such areas but all of the people have been very affected by what they have experienced.  One man, for example, volunteered to give up his prosthetic leg and to manage with a peg leg for the entirety of the experiment.  

The programmes have introduced immigrants at the relevant points (Irish escaping the famines, Jews escaping the pogroms in Russia) and have also given social history asides via a presenter.  The sick, the old, the disabled stood no chance of making enough money to survive.  The debt cycle was never-ending.

And looking at the reactions on Twitter, I think many viewers have drawn similar conclusions to me.  

Namely, just how close are we to such appalling circumstances being repeated now?  By the 1870s, there were people actually campaigning to take away such poor relief as there was, despite cities over flowing with people in need.  There was a strong belief in the idea of the deserving poor versus the feckless, undeserving poor.  Racism was endemic.  And all of the available assistance was presided over by 'boards' of white middle class men who sat in judgement over those forced to go cap in hand in order to survive.  All sounding a bit close to 2016, isn't it?

Here in York, an initiative took off last year called Xmas Presence.  It started as someone's attempt to provide a really good Christmas Day for a small number of people who would otherwise be alone and  ended up as a fantastic event, with food, drink, gifts, entertainment and many local people involved - as helpers, providers and guests.  It will hopefully be even bigger this year.

This week, someone wrote to our local paper complaining at the use of 'Xmas' instead of 'Christmas' in the title of this initiative - 'what a pity the title is another step towards losing the real meaning of Christmas'.

Ian Donaghy, the amazing founder of Xmas Presence, wrote a wonderful reply about inclusivity, ending that he wondered what Jesus would think of the work being done.

We are still battling with the idea of 'deserving poor v undeserving'.  Our media endlessly promote these ideas.  Whether it be attempts to dehumanise the refugees stranded in Calais or the 'can't pay, we'll take it away' style of reality television (such programmes are far too close to the wealthy Victorians' sightseeing trips into the slums for my liking).  Our government is constantly attacking the welfare system and underfunding the NHS and is now making a concerted effort to break equal education.  When Brexit finally takes place,  many of the laws which currently protect our remaining rights will be up for grabs.

I think Jesus would be delighted at Xmas Presence, of course.  But he would, and we should all, be appalled at what is happening in our society.  And our Victorian ancestors would be amazed that so many fundamentals haven't changed.

Beat the Uncertainty

Every day at the moment seems to bring some new hit of bad news or prediction of future problems.  It feels almost overwhelming.  India Knight wrote recently in The Sunday Times that Strictly Come Dancing was providing her with the only light relief to be had at the moment.  All sequins and sparkle and fluff but she would take her respite from the news where she could get it.  And I quite agree.

Sometimes I long for a time travelling device.  I have always wanted to go to the past before now, should I get such a machine.  But now I just want the US election over, Brexit done in whatever manner.  The uncertainty is horrendous.  I want to visit, say, 2020 and just check what has happened.  So I can mentally prepare myself and my family for whatever is going to happen over the next four drawn out years.  To say nothing of knowing what has taken place in the Middle East, Russia, etc.

Normally I say to my children that they should not be wishing time away.  And I do still stand by that mantra.  We should live in the moment and enjoy life to the best of our ability.  Enjoy the small pleasures.  The trouble at the moment is, it is increasingly hard to enjoy the small things when such huge beyond-our-control decisions loom over us.  Booking a holiday?  Oh, well it might cost you twice as much as you thought by the time it comes round but hey, that's Brexit-land for you.  

And it is not just the small pleasures.  It is the everyday life decisions which are being affected.  Education, employment, future finances, care for the elderly, the health service.  Thanks to the selfish decisions made by arrogant politicians, our country has been thrown into indecision and chaos.  And it is worsening day by day.

I have often wondered what it was like for my family in India during the time preceding Partition.  The uncertainty, that is.  Partition led to one of the biggest mass movements of people ever seen and also to horrifying violence.  Its 'design' was mainly based on decisions by ill-informed, arrogant politicians and civil servants.  Sounding familiar?

Sick of the uncertainty as I am though, I do actually believe it is vital to remain engaged in what is going on, no matter how painful.  There is little political opposition of worth in the UK at present.  It is up to all of us therefore to keep up the pressure for transparency (and common sense!).  Much as it is tempting to sink in the mire of bad news, we should be making our voices heard as loudly as we possibly can rather than admitting defeat.

The Curious Case of Kim K

In a world where thousands of people are dying everyday in unnecessary wars, where the resources of the planet are far from equally shared and where we seem to have a major leadership crisis, apparently one rich (mainly naked) woman being held up and robbed at gunpoint is worthy of major news items on all media sources this morning.

Kim Kardashian.  That juggernaut of celebrity for celebrity's sake has been robbed - but not harmed - in her hotel room in Paris.  Twitter is divided between her fans saying 'she is a mother, wife and daughter' like anyone else and many from the US pointing out how many black people are being shot on a daily basis in the States.  Interestingly for a UK person, many US tweeters are also saying how they too have experience of gunpoint robberies and feel sorry for it to happen to Ms Kardashian/Mrs Kardashian-West (or whatever she calls herself).

How have we reached this point?  The woman has been in Paris for 'fashion week', although wearing less and less clothes every day.  Her every move is followed by an enormous press pack and millions on social media.  But I just don't understand what she 'does'.  She became famous for a 'reality' TV programme and a sex tape but has accumulated vast wealth.  But she makes no attempt to use her 'power' for good.  Other than a brief self-interested dabble in Armenian politics and history (funnily enough for this blog, her family tree is Armenian connected), she does not seem to comment on anything contentious. Let alone encourage her millions of followers to help society in any way.

In the days before social media, Princess Diana made a conscious decision that if she was to be followed by a massive press pack for the rest of her days, she would at least give them some issues to think about while they were trailing after her.  Via their coverage, she was able to raise world issues such as the landmines crisis by barely uttering a word.  Of course, the irony is that she died trying to escape the press pack.  In Paris.

But that sad fact aside, I think we should now hope that this experience will cause Kim Kardashian to finally say something of use to the world.  She could now properly make a statement about the effects of gun crime.  Apparently she is traumatised - as you would be - by the experience.  Her cameras (and where were they at the time...?) should record the effects of the trauma.  And then she should begin to strongly campaign for gun controls in the US and put her influence to good use for once.  Rather than to sell stuff or show off her quite bizarre backside.

And if she wants to perform a service to the world rather than just the US, she should link her gun control campaign to a plea for people not to vote for Donald Trump.  

Imagine.  Kim Kardashian saves the world.  Now that would be a headline.

The Big Read

Not managed a proper post this week.  Not that there isn't plenty to talk about.  There is just not plenty of time in the day!  However, I did just want to recommend something.  In York this autumn, we have something called The Big Read.  The library people have organised these before - getting lots of free copies of a book and doing events based around its themes.

 

However, next week, the 2016 Big Read opens and they have chosen Renegeration by Pat Barker.  It is the first of a trilogy and is about the First World War.  It is not a new book but it is a wonderful book.  If you are a York reader of this blog, copies of the book are available from our libraries from 5 October.  The many events are already booking though - including a couple of visits from Pat Barker herself.

 

And if you are not in York, I highly recommend, in these days of 'the big society' having to run its own libraries, such an event.  Every museum and many organisations in the city are contributing and it promises to be a fantastic event.

 

With a thread true to the heart of this blog, they are also taking the opportunity to look at modern links to the themes of Regeneration, such as mental well-being.

 

http://www.exploreyork.org.uk/bigcityread/

The One with the Cultural Legacies

My children have discovered Friends.  Showing every evening on our holiday, it was great to revisit much loved episodes.  Apart from the occasional fashion issue or the distinct lack of technology to assist (or not) the characters' relationships, I think the shows' content has really stood the test of time.  They just make me laugh every time.  And the kids loved it.

This sharing of my loves has not always worked with the children.  Some things just don't work for succeeding generations.  The Bagpuss (above!) and Clangers DVDs gathering dust on my shelf are testament to this.  Books have not gone how I would have liked either.  Try as I might, I cannot pass on my love of 'classics' like Little Women, Treasure Island etc.  My son reads futuristic adventures like The Hunger Games.  My daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson at the moment.  They did both read some Enid Blyton in the past but not avidly.  Harry Potter has been actually the one series we definitely have in common.  Except of course I first read the books as an adult. 

So how are 'classics' decided?  How many generations have to adopt and love something before it is a 'classic'?  These days we refer to 'classic comedy', for example.  But mostly this means stuff from the Sixties and Seventies.  Is it measured by number of re-runs, number of awards?  Or by generational fanbase?  The Morecombe and Wise Show could be shown to every preceding and following generation and they would all 'get it'.  Well, once you had explained television to the preceding ones obviously.  Is it therefore the themes which constitute a classic?  A love story, a slapstick comedy, a war epic.  All understandable for hundreds of years, no matter what the fashions.

What about all the other stuff?  The books and shows which haven't really stood as classics but in their time were loved and admired.  Hundreds of books were written in the nineteenth century but sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking there were only a relatively few authors around.  Thousands of plays have been written.  Many rarely get a second outing.  Some forms of entertainment enjoyed by our ancestors have vanished forever.  Unless we have access to diaries or letters (sadly unlikely in most cases), we cannot have a rounded idea of what made our ancestors tick.  People should be required to leave recommended - and honest - reading/listening/viewing lists with their wills, maybe.  (In Friends, Rachel claims her favourite film is Dangerous Liaisons.  Her actual favourite is Weekend at Bernie's.  That kind of honesty...!)

On a related note, in the last week there has been a furore about changes to the Great British Bake Off.  Now, I do love the show but I don't believe it will be a classic.  We will not be watching its repeats in ten years time.  I think the more important things to take from the GBBO fuss are the further whittling away of the BBC's resources and the very creditable refusal of presenters Mel and Sue to change channels with the show.  It is a pity, though, that we can't better use the energy expended on outrage over television programmes, Z-list celebrities or random YouTube videos.

Unequal Opportunities

This week, whilst considering the reignited grammar school debate, I recalled my O Level project about education in my home town, Nuneaton - from 1870s church schools to the 1902 Education Act, standardising the various school boards.  The 1944 Act, reforming secondary education and introducing the 'tri-partite system' so much back in discussion now - grammar, secondary modern and technical schools.  And finally, in 1965 the Labour government instructing local authorities to begin converting from the tri-partite to comprehensives.  A policy decision inherited by, of all people, Margaret Thatcher as Education Secretary in the early 1970s.  She opposed comprehensives but it was too late to change most authorities' plans.

The picture above shows King Edward VI College (as it is now called) in Nuneaton.  It began as one of many colleges established by Edward VI and survived as a fee paying boys' school right up until the 1944 Act.  It had been called King Edward Sixth Grammar School since the 1880s but from 1944, it was selection rather than fees which decided its entrants.  Then, in 1974, as part of the process which so outraged Thatcher, King Edward VI Grammar School closed.  It re-opened as a co-ed sixth form college.  I graced its doors in 1987 as a sixth former  but it was still referred to as 'KEGS' by everyone in the town - ie the grammar school.  A little piece of history surviving endless change.

I do not agree with grammar schools.  I do not think any child should have their life choices affected so definitively at age eleven. 

My own children are each very different in outlook.  I am sure they will both achieve excellent results in the end but I think it will take the youngest longer to knuckle down.  She is is Year 6 now though.  SATs year.  Or Eleven Plus year.  And I do not think she would be a candidate for a grammar place as things stand at the moment, which would mean a very different path for her life, for her self esteem if her brother had reached the grammar, and so on, ad infinitum.

My own comprehensive experience was, it has to be said, greatly enhanced by streaming.  But there was opportunity for all and fluidity based on ability.  Total division at eleven does not allow for differences of development or personality.  A piece I read this morning said that in the previous post-1944 system, grammar places accounted for 15-25% of secondary places, depending on location.  If competition was considered to be fierce for places back in the 1950s, can you imagine what it would be like now?  The tutors, the pressure, the backbiting over who got in, the social exclusion issues. To say nothing of the social media backlash amongst children and their parents!  It is bad enough now with catchment issues in so many areas.

 

And what of the thousands of children without parental backing?  Or with backing but no resources?  My maternal grandfather was the first in his family to go to university.  An immense achievement in the 1930s and very unusual for a son of a railwayman.  It is a credit to the current system that his story would not be so unusual today.

 

Our schools are not perfect.  What institution is?  But we have made great strides, as the history of Nuneaton and KEGS shows.  From education for fee-paying males only to education for all.  Just thinking about the millions which will be wasted on these plans through public enquiries, civil service overtime and council battles makes me angry, let alone the actual proposals.  And as the incredibly brief one-town rundown above shows, the changes, if passed, will take years to implement.  We do not need grammar schools.  We need resources for our existing schools.  Unfortunately we are supposed to be planning how to compete in a 'post-Brexit world', aren't we?

 

Coatigans and Assumptions

Back on track after holiday.  At last.  Apologies for lack of posts for last two Mondays - between jet lag and then camping, neither Monday was very productive!

Anyway, yesterday I read an article in the Sunday Times Style Magazine.  It was called 'Are You Coatigan Woman?' and discussed the apparent 'rise' of the 'coatigan'.  A coat shaped/style of cardigan.  (Fairly self explanatory really.)

However, the journalist, Laura Craik, used the article mainly to poke fun at the kind of person who might wear such a garment.  It culminated in a list entitled 'You are coatigan woman if...'.  Now, one tries not to take such articles too seriously.  Even if they do feel a little close to home - the list included '...if you can't wait for Poldark tonight'.  Definitely me yesterday.  Hence excuse for gratuitous picture above.)

But the tone of the piece did anger me.  Why should any ordinary person be judged by a fashion journalist?  Fashion magazines are there to show us mortals the way, yes.  But was it necessary to make such statements as 'those who worship at the coatigan's drab beige feet are united less by age or demographic than by outlook' followed by another unworthy list?

We are all guilty of assumptions.  We make daily judgements on how people look, what they might be thinking, how they behave.  The Brexit result was the hideously spectacular result of many completely wrong assumptions about people's thoughts and behaviour.

And everyday that we blithely watch - with increasingly thick skins - the continuing chaos of the refugee crisis, we are making assumptions about the people who are trying to get to Europe.  We are told - or assume - many are criminals or terrorists.  Or 'economic migrants' after our jobs and our lifestyles and leaving perfectly reasonable lives behind.  We begin to believe they risk their children's lives on the Mediterranean because they are irresponsible - when actually they're at their wits' end.

When we look at our own family histories, assumptions are not a new phenomenon.  They are unfortunately a human trait.  And in writing your family history, you are continually making assumptions about people's actions in order to make some sense of the scant information you can glean from official records.  My ancestor who joined the army in 1804 and went to India gave his occupation as 'staymaker'.  I could assume he was a patriot who decided to fight.  More likely, he was in trouble with the law or destitute or even conned into signing up by a sergeant who got him drunk.

My descendants might look at photos of me and assume I was a badly dressed would-be writer who clearly ate quite a lot of cake.  Except for winter 2016/17 photos though!  Because I will be Coatigan Woman.  Yes, after reading the article, I held my head high and proudly purchased said item that very afternoon (that's how cross I was).  From Warehouse - proclaimed by the very same magazine having been 'transformed' this season.  I quote their assumption: 'you'll love this'.

In my absence...

I am currently away and will not be posting as normal this week.  Service resumes next week, hopefully!  In the meantime, may I recommend a book...

Just finished The Muse by Jessie Burton.  The author of The Miniaturist has produced an outstanding second novel.  The characters are brilliantly observed and the period settings are meticulous.  I absolutely loved it and am considering abandoning the rest of my holiday reading list in order to re-read it!

Talk to you soon....

Can Donald Trump Surf?

So I am off to California.  Apart from a brief stop in San Francisco nearly twenty years ago, I have never been there.  As a movie fan, I am beyond excited about Los Angeles and Hollywood.  And I am going to attempt to learn to surf.  (Or maybe paddleboard - a little more sedate.)

However, in this American election year, I am also curious about what we will find.  We are staying in San Diego too, near the Mexican border.  I intend to take my family to see the current arrangements - high metal border gates and so on.  I think it is important for us to see the physical manifestation of the way the world is going.  If Trump has his way, it will be a brick edifice of course.  But I think the border will be scary enough as it is.  And we are people who are unaffected by it - at present.

I say 'at present' because I believe if Trump were to succeed to in his plans, there are implications for the whole world.  The man is campaigning on a wave of hatred that could indeed propel him to the White House.  But if he makes it to the Oval Office, can he then ride the riptide which he will have unleashed?  Or will it be a closeout?

In the UK, reported hate crimes rose in the wake of the Brexit vote.  The very worst of our society thought they suddenly had the right to treat others with contempt.

Now let's just pause and think about what might happen in the US in the wake of a Trump victory, where everyone has the right to carry guns.  Guns so prevalent, incidentally, that a number of people are killed every year in the US by toddlers who have picked up loaded guns found in their homes.  Terrifying, isn't it? 

A politician aiming for national office in the US has to find factors which appeal to a huge variance in people, places and concerns.  Unifying factors which have historically been all too often based on fears.   The US is not the only place where this happens by any means.  But its open society and importance to the world in general make the knock-on effects of its domestic politics very troubling.

So I am 'looking forward' - for want of a better phrase - to hearing 'the word on the street'.  To seeing some of the bonkers TV election ads.  To trying to gauge, just a little, what people think might happen.  Although I don't think a Brit is the best person to ask for political predictions at the moment.  Let alone surfing advice*.

*although I have been reading the slang.  Can you tell??!

More World History, Please

For the last couple of weeks I have been listening to The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan on Audible.  It is a fascinating 'reassessment of world history' as the blurb says.

 

Frankopan starts with the idea that centuries ago, maps of the  known world centred on places like Constantinople and even further East.  I am now about half way through and it has been so amazing to hear about places like Kabul, Baghdad and Palmyra in such a different context to what we are used to in our century.  Such rich histories and civilisations.  I knew, of course, these places had incredible stories from way back but it is hard to imagine when all you see and hear most days in relation to them is destruction.  My own grandfather used to work in places like Baghdad and Beirut and that was only in the twentieth century but it seems unimaginable when you see how things are today.  And I was never given the opportunity to study them before.

 

There are many aspects of The Silk Roads which I could discuss in relation to the themes of this blog.  For example, it has given me some idea of the movement of peoples in Asia and shown me why my DNA test has traces of Afghanistan and Tibet in its 22% Asian.

 

It also ties in very much with modern day politics.  I have written quite a few times about how we are none of us pure 'Anglo' and how immigration and people movements are not a modern phenomenon nor should they be feared.  The main events our politicians reference are really very recent in comparison to the history of the world.  The millennial-old patterns shown in The Silk Roads are simply being continued today.  It is tactics and technology that have changed.

 

And as for Britain, the battle since the Second World War to maintain our 'place in the world', our space at the 'top table' as our press refer to it, seems a minor blip when you consider that the first proper maps of the world barely acknowledged our existence.  And Seventy years of European co-operation is nothing when seen alongside Frankopan's assessment of historical trends.

 

I am really looking forward to hearing the second half of the book and I really recommend you give it a try if you would like to try to better understand the times through which we are living at the moment.  It is a very accessible account of a period and of places which I feel are very much neglected in our education system.  Our children need more understanding of the history of the world as a whole, rather than 'Tudors', 'Victorians', etc. if peace is every to come again.