AN OUTSIDE VIEW

I was pleased that Handel won the vote for BBC Composer of the Year. This was a difficult choice, the others being Purcell, Haydn and Mendelsson. Most mornings when I am in Brighton, I am down at the seafront at dawn. Sometimes the sea is rough and the sky an angry red, presaging a stormy day. The scene is operatic. Scene Two of some Handel opera, in fact. I have put a selection of Handel operas on my iPod, which are perfect for a long train journey.

29th December is the anniversary of the murder in 1170 of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It is usually celebrated as one of his two feast days but the feast seems to have been superseded on account of the readings which are those for the Feast of the Presentation. At a time when Britain is plagued by bad government, it seems fitting to commemorate an Englishman who resisted it. About twenty years ago, the curate of my parish church in Brighton was Fr Mark Elvins who is a descendant of the Thurnhams of Thurnham on the North Downs, who were connected to Ranulph de Broc, one of the four knights who committed the murder on the instigation of King Henry II. Whilst on a visit to Rome he had mentioned the fact to someone in a religious house and was presented with a relic of St Thomas. King Henry VIII had intended all relics of St Thomas to be destroyed, but Fr Elvins related to me that relics had been presented to the King of France and the Papal Legate at a state visit some ti...

I thought that there were many disturbing aspects of this case. I am not in favour of the death penalty, but it is the decision of the Chinese to punish drug smuggling in this way and that surely is the end of the matter. There is a good case to be made for the severest punishment for drug dealing. There is an even better case for decriminalising it altogether. What there is not a good case for is to make it a criminal offence and not imposing the severest punishment, which is the policy in the UK. Chinese society was for centuries enfeebled by opium addiction and the country's determination is understandable. The Chinese have not forgotten that the British went to war against China to protect the "rights" of British merchants to sell opium in China. Also worrying was the fact that that a man with severe mental illness had been lost track of by both his family and the British health care services, to the extent that he had ended up in China. Is this part of "Care i...

The Daily Express today ran a headline about how badly Britain's local councils had dealt with the snowy weather. Normally this newspaper's promotes the view that the best councils are those with the lowest council tax. Being prepared for snow and ice is expensive and must be paid for through taxation. The Express editorial team seems to be suffering from cognitive dissonance.

CAN YOU HEAR THE POWER? You need to listen hard. There is something very odd about 71000, the Duke of Gloucester, which sounds different from any other steam locomotive: the exhaust sound is soft and almost perfectly regular, sometimes described as a "chatter", and presumably due to the special valve gear with which it is fitted. The video shows it pulling hard - probably flat out - up the notorious Wellington bank. It also shows that there is surplus steam which is being released from the safety valves. As part of the programme of research, upgrades and remedial work which the owners have been engaged in ever since the locomotive was removed from the scrapyard in the early 1970s, it is presently undergoing further modifications to remedy yet another manufacturing error. This fault apparently meant that the centre of the three cylinders has only been producing half the power it ought to, so that the locomotive is only running at 5/6th of its potential. Since, this defect...

Once again, the snows are upon us and once again the roads are not being cleared. Are councils to blame? Perhaps, but keeping the roads clear of snow costs money. If councils were to take the responsibility, then council tax would rise. But the way for councils to win approval is to keep the council tax low. So the real reason why the roads are blocked with snow is because people are not willing to pay for the service.

The British government is preparing a report on the future of high speed rail in Britain. A firm proposal is expected in the spring. Enthusiasm is growing, as more and more people become familiar with travel on high speed lines on the continent. But Britain is not the continent and the British railway network is not tied in to the continental one except through the Channel Tunnel. The case against high speed rail in Britain is strong, and it needs to be put, because investment in high speed rail could turn out to be bad value for money, especially bearing in mind how else it could have been spent. France, Germany and Spain, which have the best-developed high-speed systems, are large countries with cities far apart, separated by sparsely-populated countryside. Britain has a completely different pattern of settlement, with 80% of the population living in less than one-third of the land area, but relatively spread-out within that area, in low-density suburbs that are difficult to se...

SAVE THE PLANET - BECOME A NUN!

No, it is not, but Tax Justice has been making approving comments about what is being hatched in Copenhagen, which should put one on one's guard immediately . The proposals are for a financial transactions tax and a carbon tax, so that the rich can help the poor. But the likely effects of a financial transactions tax are unpredictable, as the system is a delicately balanced one. An effect of trading at high frequency and volumes is that exchange rates keep within close limits, which probably helps to stabilise the system. But since it is working quite well at the moment and is peripheral to the land-based boom-bust cycle, it sounds like a bad idea to interfere through taxation. In any case, where is the principle behind such a tax? Taxes on carbon hit those in cold or remote areas the hardest, which adds to congestion in the more populous regions. That is a bad idea. And poor people, being tenants, are not in a position to do much to reduce the size of their heating bills. This sou...

Children's favourite Thomas the Tank Engine has been attacked by a Canadian academic for its "conservative political ideology" and failure to adequately represent women. I read this in the Daily Telegraph, so it could have been a spoof (see link at bottom). Had it been April 1st, one could have been certain. But then again, such things are possible. Apparently the trouble is that the engines have boys' names and the carriages have girls', such as Annie and Clarabel, which makes it sexist. Eventually came Daisy the railcar, which solved the problem a bit, but she took a long time to settle down and could misbehave at times. A lot has happened since the last Thomas story was written, what with the railways being privatised and so many new trains replacing the old ones. There are real possibilities here. How would the engines react to finding a real stinker like a Voyager? Here is an attempt to bring things up to date. Latest news from Thomas ... When the Big ...

Man säger att en biskop i den svenska kyrkan blev den första lesbiska biskopen i världen. Men det kan inte vara sant. Det finns redan en biskop i Lesbos - den är faktiskt den grekiska ortodoxa biskop Metropolitan Iakovos III.

Punishing the bankers with a windfall tax is this week's political big idea. The trouble is that it is based on no principle. Worse, it is retrospective and therefore contrary to a fundamental principle of jurisprudence. It is difficult to believe that no laws or contracts have been broken. Have none of those responsible obtained money by false pretences, or failed to exercise due diligence or, indeed, reasonable professional competence? This is what needs to be investigated and tested in open court. Those found guilty or responsible should be duly punished if any crimes have been committed, sued if contracts have been broken, or both. Windfall taxes are a blunt instrument and set a bad precedent.

The past few years have seen a spate of attempts to build new steam locomotives in Britain. Tornado, Mostly the aim is to construct examples of types that were never made it into preservation, such as, Tornado, the brand new A1 Pacific completed last year, the culmination of a twenty year project. It seems to be performing particularly well, perhaps because the construction is to a higher standard of precision than was usual when the original locomotives were built in the last 1940s, and possibly also because the machine receives more care and attention than was possible in the days of British Railways. Following this have come two further projects for large main line locomotives to fill preservation gaps: a Clan class British Railways standard Pacific and a Patriot class 4-6-0, a type designed in the 1920s. A third new build project is for the construction of a small tank locomotive to the North Eastern Railways G5 design, introduced in 1893. Yet a fourth is to build an example of the...

Following disclosures about leaked emails, people no longer know who or what to believe on the subject, since few of those making statements on the subject are completely impartial and are without any vested interest in the outcome. In an attempt to settle the argument, the front page of today's Times reports, "The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails. "The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012. The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN’s main climate change science body relies for its assessment that global warming is a serious danger to the world. This assessment is the basis for next week’s climate change talks in Copenhagen aimed at ...

Once the present orders for Britain's trains have been delivered, a new series of designs will be launched. Trains such as the Adtranz Electrostar (above), for local services, were a development of the British Rail Networker, which came into service in the early 1990s, whilst large numbers of suburban trains were also purchased from the German manufacturer Siemens. The first came into service around 2000, and after prolonged teething troubles are performing reasonably well, apart from chronic problems like unreliable toilets, and uncomfortably bouncy, or uncomfortably hard, riding. But in comparison with the trains they replaced, dating from the 1950s, they are heavier, harder on the track and guzzle electricity, so there is plenty of scope for something better. The next generation of long distance trains, the Inter City Express (IEP), was specified by the Department for Transport and that contract has been awarded to Hitachi. This is a hybrid electric/diesel train which can run on...

Compass, which describes itself as the think tank for the "Democratic Left", has just come out with a set of proposals for putting the tax system to rights. As this was written by Richard Murphy & Company, the proposals are predictable. 1. Introduce a 50% Income Tax band for gross incomes above £100,000. This raises £4.7 billion compared with the current (2009/10) tax system, or an extra £2.3 billion compared with introducing this band at £150,000 as proposed by the Chancellor. 2. Uncap National Insurance Contributions (NICs) such that they are paid at 11% all the way up the income scale (although pensioners would continue to be exempt); make NICs payable on investment income. This results in further revenue of £9.1 billion. 3. In addition to (1) above, introduce minimum tax rates of 40% and 50% on incomes of above £100,000 and £150,000 respectively; these raise an additional £14.9 billion. 4. Introduce a special lower tax band of 10% below the poverty line (below £13,500...

Innan Alfred Nobel dog fick han en mardröm som handlade om framtiden. Kanske var den en uppenbarelse. I början såg han en stor öde slätt nästan utan träd. Det verkade vara ändlös. Då fick han se ett litet moln som växte upp över fältet. Molnet blev större och rörde sig hit och dit, utan mål. Då uppträdde ett andra. Och ett tredje. Snart blev luften fylld av rök och nu rörde molnen sig i hans riktning. Han blev så kall och rädd att han började huttra. Sedan hördes ett dundrande ljud som fortsatte i en tid innan det blev tyst. Då dykte det upp en massa svarta tjocka moln som höjde sig mot i himlen. Precis två minuter senare kom ett otroligt högt ljud och en kraftig vind. Bullret fortsatte under en tid, men han visste inte hur lång. Nu förstår han att fältet är ett slagfält. Hela tiden blir ljudet högre. Plötsligt blåser det så hårt att han kastas ner i gyttjan. Lerklumpar ramlar ner på honom. Nu får han se en massa män springande omkring. Männen är klädde i kakifärgade kläder, stålhjälma...

Vilket konstigt liv jag har haft! Det verkade som en lång resa, eller rättare sagt, som många resor samtidigt: en resa från Sverige till Italien; en resa från den Lutherska till den Katolska kyrka; en resa från prinsessa till drottning och från drottning till... jag vet inte! Vad är jag egentligen? Själv kallar jag mig drottning men så är det inte. Jag har bott i palats i hela mitt liv. I Stockholm var palatset kallt och mörkt. I Rom var palatsen ljusa och vackra i barocka stil. När jag kom fram till Rom tänkte jag försöka bli drottning igen. Jag försökte att bli Napolis drottning, men försöket misslyckades och då hade jag ingen politisk roll. Men det är inte heller sant. Jag blev vän med två påvar: Alexander VII och Alexander VIII. Jag blev beskyddare till många målare och berömda kompositörer: till exempel de underbara Carissimi, Corelli och Alessandro Scarlatti, som skrev så mycket när de var medlemmar i mitt hov; när Carissimi dog år 1675 blev jag mycket ledsen. Men trots att livet...

The Guardian has pretensions to being the standard-bearer of the intellectual wing of Britain's press. If this is so, one must ask where the hell the country is heading. Yesterday it carried an article by a Carrie Quinlan under the title "Vatican to welcome aliens". She writes 'The Catholic church has had a conference about astrobiology. Awesome, say I. I've never heard the term "astrobiology" before, but it is seemingly a way of talking about aliens without sounding like a geek or someone with an unusual relationship to reality. It's one of the paradoxes I enjoy in my brain that I think in all probability there is life on other planets, while at the same time being more than happy to mock anyone who claims to have met it. So, the fact that there's now a much more sciency sounding word one can use to talk about the possibility of Wookiees, Sontarans and Borg is very special. I might be welcome at dinner parties once again. 'I might even be we...

Under andra världskriget och efter Under andra världskriget blev förhållandena i Storbritannien en fråga på liv och död. Ingen brydde sig om hur man talade. Men nu var språket påverkat av radion. Den så kallade ”Received Pronounciation” (RP) spridde sig genom sändningarna av BBC. RP bestod av en blandning av överklass, Oxford och Cambridge universitetens socioleketer, och södra Englands stadsspråk. Man kan lyssna på sådana språk i gamla inspelningar. Så småningom adopterade medelklassen den ”RP” brytningen. Efter kriget verkade det som om klassskillnaderna nästan hade försvunnit. Strax efter krigets slut år 1945 var valet och Storbritannien valde en socialistregering. Jämlikhet blev målet. Barn fortsatte i skolan ett år till och de duktigaste eleverna fick platser på gymnasiet utan avgift. Regeringen drev den brittiska ekonomin enligt keynesianska principer och då följde en period av högkonjunktur som fortsatte till slutet av 1960-talet. Ekonomin blev så bra att många invandrare kom ...

The case of the autistic computer hacker whom the Americans are trying to extradite is worrying. The legislation is intended to be used against terrorists, and nobody has even suggested that the man concerned has any terrorist links. If anyone should be on trial, it is the US military and their computer software consultants responsible for the lapse, and who have evidently failed to maintain the security of their systems. The British courts should have dismissed the extradition request out of hand. What is going on here?

Meet at St Mary Magdalen's Church and go round Brighton saying a decade of the Rosary at selected locations. I suggest the Abortionarium, the various witchcraft shops round the town and the dolphin fountain in the Old Steine.

What a disgraceful article David Miliband wrote in The Times yesterday. Under the title " Britain is still a big player. Europe needs us ", and speaking in support of Tony Blair's bid for Presidency of the EU, he claimed Britain is a leading contributor of people and money in tackling the great challenges of the world. Our Armed Forces are trained, equipped and flexible. And we are willing to deploy them in the toughest places. and again Second, British ideas give us influence. During the economic crisis, Britain has been at the forefront of new thinking. Who in Britain is actually doing this contributing, who exactly is being "deployed", and what is this "new thinking"? Miliband should take a walk round Brighton and see the grinding poverty in which many people are trapped, as a result of being expected to "contribute". He might also consider deploying himself for a while with the military, to find out how things are at the sharp end and w...

How about this for a counter-cultural activity in the most godless city in the UK? Meet St Mary Magdalen's Church. Process through city to St Nicholas, Christ the King (Clarendon Church), St Bartholomew's, St Joseph's (Elm Grove), St Peter's, then down the Steine and up St James's Street finishing at St John the Baptist, Bristol Road. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to resist the atheism, and strange spiritualities such as Wicca, Tarot, Crystal energy and other beliefs that are running in this part of the world. Suggested starting time around 6 pm. Please leave comment if interested.

Windows 7 cannot come too soon. Lots of perfectly serviceable computers will be thrown out and become available for next to nothing if they do not end up as landfill. Computers which run XP will also run a Linux distribution just fine. If all you do is browse the internet, write letters and edit photographs, which is all that most people use computers for and Linux does perfectly well, this is good news. In any case you can run both Windows and Linux on the same computer if you want to and you can even run Windows as a Linux application. Windows can do the fancy things like run Autocad, Linux is good for simple routine tasks or if you want to tinker. There is no need to get into arguments about which system is best. There are horses for courses, so take your pick. But I get a bit angry when I see people being sold expensive Windows systems when they did not need them and could have mangaged just as well or better with Linux running on an old box under their desk.

Spitfireperformance.com It strikes me as odd that a party with Nazi antecedents should be using Spitfires in its advertising. Spitfires were used against the Nazis, not by them. Surely the BNP should be showing Messerschmitt 109s?

Min mormor och morfar var invandrare. De flyttade till Storbritannien i början av 1900-talet. Min mormor kom från Estlands huvudstad Tallinn och min morfar från Babruisk som ligger nära Minsk i nuvarande Vitryssland. På den tiden var både Estland och Vitryssland en del av det Ryska kejsardömet, liksom Finland. Min mormor hade studerat till lärare vid Tartus universitetet och hon undervisade i musik och kanske språk. Hennes modersmål var antagligen tyska och hon kunde ryska, och judiska, hebriska, estniska. Sådan språkkunskap var inte ovanlig. På den tiden var tyska och ryska de gemensamma språken. Hon hade avslutat sina studier 1895 och förresten, på den tiden hette Tallinn Reval och Tartu Dorpat. Det verkar som om hon blev privatlärare. Hennes släkt var affärsmän som handlade med pälsar och som blev mycket rika. Med min morfar var det helt annorlunda. Han hade många syskon och familjen var fattig. De flesta syskonen flyttade till USA men av en slump hamnade min morfar i London. Kanske...

Whilst the sanctuary floor is up this week, our temporary altar has had to be placed where is was not possible to say Mass except in the traditional position ie facing east. Our parish priest, Fr Blake, explained this and reminded everyone that this is how Mass was said for all but the past few decades of the church's history. This shows the elevation of the Host. When the floor has been put back the altar will be placed in a more permanent position. Many people in the parish would like to see it go, as soon as possible, in what must surely be its ultimate location - where it was originally, against the reredos. That means it will no longer be possible for Mass to be said facing the people, but there is a growing preference for it to be said as in the photograph. It gets rid of the them-and-us feeling created when the priest and congregation are facing each other across a block of stone, for all the world like a terrified junior in front of the boss behind his desk. Of course, it c...

If you are interesting in migrating to Windows 7, this article in the Financial Times might be of interest. On the other hand, you might find it so daunting as to conclude it wasn't worth the effort, and you could decide that it was easier to go out and buy a new computer. However, you probably don't need to waste your time and money at all, let alone throw away a perfectly good computer. If you are running XP, then your present computer will run the latest versions of Linux without trouble, though it helps to put in extra memory. 2GB is good, 512MB can be a strain especially if you are using it to edit photographs. What to do? First, save your data - photographs, word-processing documents, etc, also your email addresses. These can go on CDs, DVDs or USB memory sticks. Then download a copy of the live-CD version of a Linux distribution and burn a CD. The various versions of SuSE and Ubuntu are good and you can try all them first without altering your computer. In fact, you nee...

The visit of the relics of St Theresa of Lisieux continue to provoke anti-Catholic articles and comments. There was yet another on the subject in today's Guardian, with a string of mostly approving comments. Much of this is just Britain's Calvinist legacy on display - good old Paisleyite prejudice dressed up as liberalism. It is strange how a few old bones can get people's backs up so much, especially with those who affect disbelief. If it is such a load of nonsense, why not ignore it? Instead, these people just give it the publicity which presumably they believe it does not deserve, thereby helping the cult to serve its intended purpose. As a Catholic who does not do relics and was never particularly keen on St Theresa's style of spirituality, I had no intention of going to visit them, but thanks to all the comment in the British press, such as the above article, I changed my mind and went to Aylesford where she was on display last weekend. Contrary to my expectations,...

It is a poor argument on the part of the Euromaniacs to label sceptics as unprogressive and Little Englanders, as they so often do. As someone who spends much of my time outside the UK, I can hardly be considered a Little Englander and as a beneficiary of the freedom of movement and residence that comes with EU membership, the last thing I would want is a break-up. However, it does not help to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of the organisation as at present functioning. There is a democratic deficit. Legislation, often ill-considered, is churned out, some of which can only be implemented at considerable expense and to little gain, or is positively counter-productive. Its protectionist trade policies work in the interests of the big trade cartels which have the resources to lobby at Brussels and Strasbourg, and against the interests of consumers. It has failed to devise an effective policy to protect fish stocks, despite ample scientific advice which would have enabled it to devis...

"Tories would force jobless to work". So ran the Sunday Times headline today. The policy was tried in the 1980s. I saw this from the inside. I was working for Lewisham Council and my colleage was involved in a scheme for refurbishing the railway arches in Deptford. A worthwhile job got done and a few people acquire useful skills. But it was an administrative nightmare. The client, British Rail Property Board, concluded that the work could have been achieved much more cheaply by letting the work out to contract on a commercial basis, which was what happened with later phases of the project. Cameron is spouting nonsensical political rhetoric. So what should the Tories be proposing? Get out a pocket calculator, pencil and paper. How much would someone get in benefit when out of work? Jobseeker's allowance, Housing Benefit and all the other things that come free. Now work out how much it would cost an employer to give the same person a job and leave them with the same amount,...

Pity the Irish didn’t have the guts to say NO. And NO again, each time the politicos asked for a YES. The EU provides a forum where only the rich and powerful can exert effective influence. Who has actually read this treaty and understood the full implications of what is contained therein? In the remote event that the British government were to introduce a tax on the rental value of land, the Duke of Pestminster and his pals would no doubt appeal to the European court that their human rights were being infringed upon, and the tax would be ruled unjust, and overturned.

Västtrafikens nya kontokort är jobbiga. Problemet händer om man reser mellan zoner och måste checka ut vid avstigning. Idag åkte jag från Korsvägen till Burö och bara glömde att checka ut. Mina tänker var på någonting helt annat. På väg tillbacka var det helt omölijligt att checka ut därför att spårvagnen var absolut fullsatt och en tjej stod framför maskinen och kramade den! Västtrafik kommer att förlora mycket pengar pga det nya systemet, inte bara genom fusk men eftersom systemet är opraktisk. Kanske finns det en enkel lösning. Jag haft hört att i Hong Kong används sensorer som kan läsa kort utan att man måste dra ut kort ur ens ficka. Sensorerna verkar likadana som används i affärar som skydd mot tjuvar.

Windows 7 is due out on Oct 22. It is pricey, with several versions to choose from, the cheapest being crippleware. There is a cut-price offer for students which Microsoft said was ideal for those students who couldn't afford to buy a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed, but still wanted access to the latest cutting-edge tools and software. Computer users upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 will have to pay £79.99 for the Home Premium edition, £189.99 for the Professional edition, or £199.99 for the Ultimate edition. Those still running earlier platforms, such as Windows XP, will have to perform a clean install, and will need a full retail copy of Windows 7, which will cost £149.99 for the Home edition, £219.99 for the Professional edition, and £229.99 for the Ultimate package. All copies are single-license, meaning they can only be installed on one computer. Students - resist the temptation This is a temptation students would be well-advised to resist. I have just done some Linux...

I often hear this from my fellow Catholics. It is just not good enough. If you look at the encyclical Caritas in Veritatis, it is evident that the Catholic laity have a clear duty to attempt to understand the truth about economics. Economics as taught in academic institutions is mostly a load of baloney and if you have reasonably normal thinking capacities you should not expect to be able to understand it. The entire subject of economics has been surrounded by a fog of confusion for the past 100 years. If you are a conspiracy theorist you should be able to find good reasons why it is in some people's interest to ensure that confusion prevails amongst the populace. And that is the underlying reason for the present mess. Economic theory as presented by the so-called experts, including most politicians and journalists, is a crock of shit. Anyhow, there is no reason why any person of average intelligence should not be able to understand economics and there is no excuse. There is mater...