Dates matter, says Helen Szamuely
It’s a grand game, deciding which dates matter enough to be included in the 50 (or is it 100?) that everyone must know. NCF started it in response to an article by Andrew Roberts and had a number of interesting suggestions, though it seems impossible to explain to some people that a date everyone should know is not the same as a date I find interesting. I suppose I suffer from that myself.
Meanwhile, the Conservative History Journal has had two postings on the subject (here and here) and there has been a lively discussion on both. No question about it – people feel strongly about dates and the need to commemorate important events that were turning points in history. The real difficulty is to decide which dates, which events qualify. It looks like the final list on the Conservative History Journal blog might have to be 100 rather than 50 dates, perhaps divided into 50 British and 50 rest-of-the-world ones, in so far as they can be separated. And there is a spin-off, which is already exciting interest: turning points of the Second World War. They are being listed and discussed, even as you read this piece.
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Submitted by peterwhittle on Tue, 2009-01-06 08:34.
At the Guardian's Comment is Free, NCF supporter David Cox complains about the pointless fashion for 'guest editors' on the Today programme.:
'...of this year's elect, the most successful on all counts has undoubtedly been that charming and talented musician, Jarvis Cocker.
His tenure was not only noticed; it was also distinctly innovative. Jarvis dreamt up all by himself the exciting idea of asking other celebrities for their thoughts on 2009. This gave his fellow-musician, Brian Eno, the opportunity to advocate the allocation of an hour a day of the school curriculum to singing.
Jarvis also decided that Today interviews might be more spontaneous if reporters stopped preparing for them. So the unfortunate Evan Davis was sent off to grill an interviewee without even knowing who she was. The exercise demonstrated all too clearly that Jarvis had perhaps got this one wrong. None the less, Davis was required to congratulate him on its efficacy. Celebrities, like token members of the public, are of course always right.'
Read the article here
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Submitted by peterwhittle on Mon, 2009-01-05 14:18.
Yesterday, NCF director Peter Whittle appeared in a report on France 3 News, about the BBC and the licence fee. You can see it here - click on Dimanche 4, then the 10th listed item, beginning 'Meteo France'.
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Submitted by peterwhittle on Mon, 2009-01-05 11:35.
It didn't take long for them to crawl out of the woodwork. A contingent from the monstrous regiment of phoney revolutionaries and useful idiots joined the orchestrated anti-Israel demonstrations in the UK yesterday - among them Annie Lennox, Bianca Jagger and one Alexi Sayle - a comedian who, having spent the 80s spouting Marxist platitudes, has spent the past few years making fun of his past position. A man worth listening too, then.
They marched alongside demonstrators who held banners which proclaimed 'We are Hamas.' Of course of the people taking part, many would have been quite genuine useful idiots, others still genuine Israel-haters. After all, there have been no demos protesting at the 6,000 rockets fired by Hamas into Israel in recent years.
But I'd wager that the defining characteristic of those who choose such occasions to display their sense of aggrieved humanity (just look at the expression on Lennox's face) is simply this: sheer ignorance.
Ignorance of what Hamas is, or stands for. Ignorance of its beliefs, not least on the rights of women or gays (one of the most unintentionally funny banners ever must surely be that spied on a US campus a few years back - 'Gays for Hezbollah'). Ignorance of Islamism's hatred of Jews. And only a genuinely ignorant or genuinely illiterate person could equate the casualties of the recent actions with the Holocaust, as was being done yesterday.
It is the same ignorance which sees the broadcasting on a major UK channel of a Christmas day speech by the Iranian President as a bit of 'edgy' fun.
PW
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Submitted by peterwhittle on Sun, 2009-01-04 12:01.
