'You enter Greece as one might enter a dark crystal; the form of things becomes irregular, refracted. Mirages suddenly swallow islands, and wherever you look the trembling curtain of the atmosphere deceive. Other countries may offer you discoveries in manners or lore or landscape. Greece offers you something harder - the discovery of yourself...(We) for example, are confined by the sense of several contemporaneous lives being lived inside us; the sensation of being mere points of reference for space and time...' (Lawrence Durrell Prospero's Cell)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Plot 14 on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments

Hi Paul. Just a question....Will the flattened rubble left in the apothiki be 'compacted' in any way? Thanks. Love Lin x

Hello Lin. We would normally tamp it down and apply water, then tamp again. If you let us know fairly quickly I can get it done this week. Love, Paul xx

Hi Paul, i did say to go ahead with the clearing of baza and levelling, so it would be great if you could get that done this week. However, we don't want the concrete done at this point, as funds are low and we have a lot of outgoings coming up. I'm going to say that again, as we've just had a complete cock-up by a builder over here, who didn't hear what I told him and has put the wrong windows in  my house!!!...We WANT the baza cleared and the levelling and tamping down done. We DON'T WANT the concrete put down. My daughter Amy and family are coming out from 12th till 20th April. It would be nice if you and Lula could come for supper while they're with us. Have you got a spare evening during that time? See you soon and looking forward to seeing the apothiki minus the baza mountain. Love Lin x

Our apothiki

                  Η δόξα
Στων Ψαρών την ολόμαυρη ράχη
περπατώντας η δόξα μονάχη
μελετά τα λαμπρά παλικάρια
και στη κόμη στεφάνι φορεί,
γινωμένο από λίγα χορτάρια
που είχαν μείνει στην έρημη γη΄΄
               Διονύσιος Σολωμός, Κέρκυρα

Ano Korakiana's band on Theotoki in the city - our neighbour's daughter Dimitra in front on left

Εορταστικό διήμερο αυτό που μόλις πέρασε… Κυριακή της Ορθοδοξίας χθές, με Λιτανεία στην πόλη της Κέρκυρας, στην οποία συμμετείχε η Φιλαρμονική μας… Εθνική εορτή σήμερα, εορτασμός της απελευθέρωσης από τον οθωμανικό ζυγό και το πρόγραμμα της ημέρας περιελάμβανε: δοξολογία στον Άη-Γιώργη, κατάθεση στεφάνων στο Μνημείο της πλατείας, συμμετοχή της Φιλαρμονικής στην παρέλαση του χωριού από κοινού με το Νηπιαγωγείο και το Ειδικό Γυμνάσιο, όπως και στην παρέλαση της Κάτω Κορακιάνας και της πόλης… Παρά τα πολλά μποφόρ.

(My translation) Gala weekend has just passed...Sunday of Orthodoxy yesterday, with a procession in Corfu Town, attended by the Band...our National Day today, celebrating liberation from the Ottoman yoke with a programme that included: thanksgiving in Ag. Georgios, laying wreaths at Monument square, participation by the Philharmonic in the parade through the village together with children from the Kindergarten and Special School, to match parades in Kato Korakiana and the City ... all this amid gales.

Osborne's Budget clearly demonstrates how economic policy drives ideologically inspired policy objectives, especially ‘rolling back’ local councils (in the government’s eyes probably the least desired part of the public sector; lowest of the low). To ensure that Total Managed Expenditure is kept as low as possible the so called ‘unprotected’ services have been squeezed disproportionately hard and of course local government expenditure is a large part of the overall unprotected total expenditure. To bring public finance back into balance, public expenditure has to fall from 45% of GDP to 38% - a massive drop. With no growth, or tax increases, the only option is further cuts and in a disproportionate way which hits LAs hard. Whitehall has done better than LAs. If Total Managed Expenditure overall had fallen at the rate of local councils then it would have dropped from £694 billion in 2010 to £632billion by 2014. In fact it will have increased to £720billion. If Whitehall had reduced its spending at the same rate as LAs then the public sector deficit would have been around £35billion. Instead the figure will be £120billion. This demonstrates the distorted relationship between Government and LAs and how our masters value, or not, the two so-called 'partners'. Given the near non-existent LA tax base it is difficult to find much to be cheery about when looking at Local Democracy and how it can be put on a firmer footing (when we are all skidding down the hill!). If you want further proof at the Government's contempt for local democracy look no further than their response to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee: ‘The Government is quite clear that councillors are and should be volunteers and does not wish to see any move towards professionalism through becoming full time’ Local councillors should ‘not qualify for extra allowances to make up for lost income’. Graham Sharp, the former housing minister and Tory party chairman likened calls for additional allowances to paying scout leaders for voluntary work. Councillors are also going to be banned from inclusion in LA Pension Schemes.
Thus do we blight and diminish the prospects of local leaders, so that when our councillors prove less than adequate, as now and then they do, it’s they who get the calumny and not the authors of the new feudalism – Ministers and MPs with salaries, expenses and perks and final salary pension schemes. This is hypocrisy of the highest order – a demonstration of how deeply undemocratic some MPs really are, not to say arrogant and offensive. This is the beast we are dealing with.
Unless some of these issues find their way into Political-Managerial relationships the future is bleak but how to do it require some reflection and finesse. To illustrate further the Parent-Child relationship, look at how the Heseltine recommendations are being implemented. First of all, the Sponsor will be a civil servant rather than a minister and then Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) will be banned from contacting their Sponsor directly and can only do so through the local official of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Perhaps capturing this absurdity in fiction or play format could better convey the reality of the current state of play than a more formal academic approach.
If there ever was a time for Heroes or Sleuths it must be now. The more I read of the literature and history of the Weimar Republic the more relevant and real it becomes. It wouldn't be that difficult for a ‘perfect storm’ to arise.

9/4/13 Simon. Read your description of your experience with the Greek health service with great interest. Interesting to see how European countries apply charges. On Localism…re-assuring to see that others share our general wish to see much stronger Localism (as long as this is based on stronger local democracy. The two are not identical).These are some of the ‘vehicles’ I have referred to previously to drive this agenda forward. I think it is important that LAs engage with these as long as they have a clear agenda of their own and a ‘narrative’ of their own commanding strong local support…However, there are some important omissions in all these articles.
Firstly, there  are no analyses or comments on the link or otherwise between localism and democracy and how this will work in practise and to the benefit of the locality. This is important otherwise it may be perceived as merely one bunch of seedy and discredited politicians trying to grab power for themselves from another bunch of seedy and discredited politicians. You can well imagine how sections of the press and TV would portray this, aided and abetted by those opposed to it, hence why I carp on about a ‘narrative’ all the time especially a ‘bottom-up’ one.
Secondly, there is no attempt to bring into the debate the civic pride and public service dimensions we've talked about. These are crucial elements in any narrative as they are linked to culture and behaviour i.e. the how (being ethical, incorruptible, objective, transparent, open, accessible, selfless, etc). It’s in this context that your suggestion about bringing in an ethical dimension to the reading and carrying model is so crucial. I'm still thinking about what that would look like both conceptually and practically, but agree with you that ‘critical incidents’ form an important part of it in terms of bringing together both skills and behaviours (these are of course overlapping). This is why governance is so important.
Thirdly, there's no mention of how LAs can develop a much stronger independent tax base, without which local democracy cannot flourish. It is noticeable that this topic is avoided – a lot of moaning but no serious attempt to offer an alternative to the present distorted system. Given that there are so many models on the continent which could be tailored to our circumstances this is a grave omission. Is this the ‘Stockholm syndrome’ again or are we incapable of rising above the parent-child model of licenced localism?
Fourthly, there is no attempt to offer a view on who localism applies to and who the ‘drivers’ will be (LAs?). The new feudal elite does not belong, nor is it attached to any locality, flitting between the financial capitals of the world…yet the decisions made amid this elite can have huge impacts on communities (e.g. closing or opening factories) Where do we place these people on the localism-democracy map? At the other end of the social scale there is a class now being referred as the ‘precariat’ (in older days we referred to the lumpen proletariat) whose connectivity with their localities is slim. In most case non-existent. What role if any do these people have in localism? Passive recipients? This latter class is growing and is likely to do so in the future.
I am trying to absorb the impact of all the benefits changes coming in this April (e.g. Housing Benefits, Council Tax Rebate, Social Fund). Fiendishly complicated, but people in the know seem to agree that the further down the economic food chain you are the worse off you will be. Secondly it will place LAs directly in the firing line, paradoxically through being given more devolved responsibilities. Is this localism or an imposition or even an abandonment - devolved functions for implementing national policy deemed difficult, controversial, unpopular, can hardly be seen as devolved democracy, especially as there appears to be strong political motives to ‘dump’ toxic issues on LAs. All governments have indulged in this. This is no more than local administration of central policy, making LAs the agents of central government, drawing them closer into a centralised system and in the process becoming more dependent on central government and less autonomous (there are a few LAs who are resolutely fighting this, e.g. Leeds City Council and the implementation of the new Housing Benefit). Others seem to relish being the local agent of government.
Despite endless grumbles, there has been very little serious debate among LAs about the above issues, let alone achieving a common ground or a common ‘manifesto’ for how to move forward in re-calibrating the relationship with central government. I accept this is very difficult given the numbers involved, the big differences between LAs and the ineffectiveness of the LGA. The debate seem to centre on narrow issues of functions and where they should be located within the overall central/local spectrum. In recalibrating this relationship we also need to recalibrate local relationships. LAs will need to become very different to just being local councils which, at the moment, are desperately trying to find a new role and purpose for themselves in the new political climate.
They are (as I did ) seeing this from ‘inside the box’. I think we need to take a step back and look at concepts like local democracy, representative democracy, democratic accountability, participatory democracy, to identify building blocks for future direction and build up an evidence base for these, but most importantly identify the political vehicle for driving the necessary changes through. The obstacles are enormous but worthwhile conquering.
I fear many LAs are actually in denial about the big picture; certainly in public where they adopt a (commendable) ‘we can do it’ attitude (with grumbles) without really tackling head on the fact that the tectonic plates of LAs are being rolled back and at best a minimalist or residual role (the new poor laws or local agent for government?) is being prepared, based on ideology not evidence.
No amount of being able to prove yourself will change this significantly. Yes, there are new powers and responsibilities but this feels a bit like handing over the responsibility for the restaurant menu and orchestra play list to the passengers of the Titanic after it’s hit the iceberg, when new skills and strategies are required to reach port or at least survive to fight another day. How would you incorporate this into the three dimensional model of carrying-reading-ethical and how would this ‘play’ in the managerial-political relationships? Fascinating.
I have droned on too long. Hope you are enjoying Corfu. I am now reading  the second volume (out of 3) of Professor Evans’ History of the Third Reich; strongly recommended especially seeing how politicians-managers-professionals interacted and related to each other during the Wiemar Period and subsequently during the Third Reich and the role the two latter groups played in ‘delivering’ the worst crimes in history (often willingly and enthusiastically or through cynical self-interest or indifference; coercion playing a surprisingly small role for most, other than as a powerful backdrop); a salutary lesson which should be compulsory in all management and professional training and proves how important the ethical dimension really is and how easily it can evaporate. On that cheerful thought I‘ll finish. Best, Jan

11/4/13 Dear Jan. I’d like to make up a list of about a dozen (maybe less to start) ‘critical incidents’ that might be drawn from the settings we’re striving to map. 'For instances' help develop narrative and v.v.
You may recall what my critical incidents looked like. We need some from rather different political-managerial-professional settings...I try to get the people who are experiencing these to give me the basic story which I can turn into something that is more general, which poses a dilemma and calls for a judgement - about action or inaction - based on what is read and what is carried.
I would draw some of these from experiences in the Handsworth community. Have you any one sentence settings I could develop and refine? I’d like some that touch on benefits complexity, on the parent-child relationship and Stockholm syndrome that you suggest characterises central-local relations, also the effect of actions by the new ‘feudal elite’ on a local population, also something that addresses the ‘precariat’ (from inside)…
On a related point, the understandings that can develop inside a working political-management relationship represents one of the most reliable classrooms for politicians and managers working in government. I hear rather little on the process of ’negotiating the overlap’, yet it’s through such negotiation that individuals and organisations develop agency (i.e. capacity to understand and act in the world, take part in governance). Current trends encourage political deskilling. Deep desperation and misery and rage is kept just at bay through compensatory ‘bread and circuses’ and anaesthetising media, drugs (of many kinds), and a high level of intelligence gathering by the police in which many of us participate as part of our commitment to ’social cohesion’.
Possible criticals: 1. Story of a failure of care for a neighbour in connection with an outlandish building extension into a next door garden, 2. Local volunteer group unable to bid for local work because of the increasing complexity and scale of procurement rules by local social housing agencies, 3. Local volunteer group unable to use power tools (normal domestic DIY things most individuals use in their homes and gardens like mowers, hedge trimmers, strimmers and hand drills) as a result of stringency of health and safety rules and need for expensive training - a difficulty which local councillors admit themselves unable to ease or even negotiate. Many such local handyperson services now becoming defunct because regulatory framework favours much larger organisations. Why could not LA help form a co-op or syndicate of small volunteer groups? There are also problems created by expense of checking criminal records of anyone employed in local voluntary work as well as complicated sets of rules (all entirely reasonable in view of events) re protection of children and vulnerable people. Schools, nurseries and care homes can no longer use volunteer help with garden clearance, waste removal etc., 4. Local councillors ineffectual at getting information about grant frameworks for localism or clearly favouring issuing of neighbourhood funds to party political patrons. Could be an ethnic dimension to this problem. It could also be one of perception rather than reality but damaging to social cohesion, 5. Local council explores setting up fair-loan bank for the poor and other groups that would make good use of low interest loans delivered fairly, but finds the idea impossible because of banking rules. This problem made greater because credit unions are finding it increasingly difficult to survive (many declaring themselves insolvent) under new legislation intended to ensure propriety of such local ‘banks’, 6. Local groups unable to tap into rural parish funds as the process is tightly influenced by a small clique of villagers who have known each other for many years, 7. XY council under financial pressure has cancelled all free waste disposal permits for volunteer groups so that they can no longer remove waste cheaply after garden clearance, fly tipping clearance and street and park litter picks, 8. (Can you do one on effects of departure of a large local industry to another country?), 9. Local committees are being ill-attended because ’they seem unable to make decisions’ and they are unable to summon senior officers or councillors to explain city wide/county/district wide strategies and budget procedures (e.g. decreasing local transparency spreads despondency as new feudalism takes hold), 10. Local groups frustrated with ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘so-called local democracy’ and starts to ’take the law into their own hands’. Play on links to ‘intelligent criminals’. Greece’s fascist party - Golden Dawn - now demands proof of licence to trade from ‘foreign’ market stall holders, and issues free food etc. but only to those of their racial preference (i.e. not black)….how am I doing? Come up with a few more - starting with one liners. I realise the ones I’ve come up with in a few minutes are all pretty negative. We need some hopeful ones don’t we, even though of course there should always be a political-managerial-professional dilemma of some kind? Best S

15/4/13 Simon. I think the critical incidents in your attachment are excellent. They stand on their own merit in terms of being topical and universal and as such they can be applied to a range of contexts. As well as testing reading and carrying (i.e. political nous and skills) there is an underlying theme of morals and ethics which needs to be ‘tested’ strongly. This  can be wrapped up around the notion of governance. In theory many of your critical incidents should be ‘resolvable’ through adopting a governance approach to underpin the reading and carrying aspects. The reality of course is more messy than that, but that's part of the learning.
In many authorities especially in the North, but not exclusively so, I believe there is now a possibility that we are moving away from a ‘managing the overlap" model of political-managerial relationships to a ‘maintaining the bridge’ model. To illustrate: it has been calculated that the new welfare reforms now being introduced will removed £19 billion from the economy. Northern England will be hit the hardest, the worst affected being places like Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Glasgow; whereas Cambridge, Surrey, the Cotswolds, will see the lowest financial impact. The three worst affected regions are the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. A similar pattern exists in respect of the Local Government Grant distribution creating a ‘double whammy’ whereby the combination of welfare cuts and local government cuts impact disproportionally on the most deprived areas and widens the gap between the best and worst local economies (north/south divide).
These are not only economic issues. They are political and ideological in that they are underpinned by the fact that the negative impacts are felt by individuals and communities outside the government's own political heartland; by a policy objective aimed at rolling back the public sector and penalising (almost demonising) the poorest and most vulnerable people as a means (incentive) to force (encourage) them  to come off benefits or obtain as little as possible.
These developments will seep into the political-managerial relationships and place them under strains proportionate to the impact of the ‘double whammy’. The gap between political aspirations which in theory are almost unlimited and managerial reality and deliverability - rapidly becoming even more constrained - will, unless some fundamentals are attended to, widen more and more as the ‘double whammy’ impacts.
There is a danger that the ‘overlap’ maybe about to be overtaken by an ever growing ‘gap’ which needs to be managed in a different way to the ‘overlap’, hence my phrase ‘maintaining the bridge’. In this context, as political ambitions are floundering and managerial manoeuvrability diminishing, the ethical dimensions may be tested to breaking point or beyond. Governance may no longer be able to patrol the boundaries of what is acceptable or not, or the boundaries themselves may shift either deliberately or imperceptibly.
On a more positive note, would it  be possible to turn all these developments into a ‘Dunkirk spirit’ in political-managerial relationships? (the ‘enemy’ being the government). I have my doubts, for reasons mentioned in my previous e-mails i.e. parent-child relationship, licenced localism, Stockholm syndrome)...It would be good to draw out some of these issues in the application of your critical incidents… It is at this level, in the  granular structure of local communities that LAs have to deliver if localism is going to have any relevance. You have posed some meaty issues here. I think it may be a good idea to put these in the context of The Localism Act which provides  among other things ‘new rights for communities and individuals’, including: right to challenge, right to bid, right to build. I enclose a report on this (On the Ground: Localism in Practice. Final Report, March 2013. Ed Poulter, Rural Policy Officer, Yorkshire and Humber Rural Network), which you may find interesting. It seems to indicate that co-operation and relationship building are better than competition and confrontation (how quaint and old-fashioned!).
It is at this granular level that the ‘intelligent’ criminal and/or extremist organisations (very often the same people) can take hold as a vacuum is created by the rolling back of the public sector. There is a challenge for LAs here, but more so for local communities and local organisations. Can they fill the vacuum? Do they have the resources (compared to the ‘intelligent’ criminals’)? As you say ‘how can democracy and transparency survive?’ …I wonder whether it would be possible to include some of these dilemmas and challenges in your community based critical incidents. I think LAs have been oblivious to the possibility of vacuums being created and filled by highly ‘undesirable’ elements or pent up local frustrations spilling over and then being manipulated (e.g. Golden Dawn). Given the dramatic increase in food banks in certain localities you can see that vacuums are being filled. Others may be less benevolent. At the other end certain communities are almost immune from any of the current policy developments. In fact given the continuing rise in billionaires some are benefiting.
As you know I am reading Professor Evans’ trilogy on the Third Reich. What is striking and frightening is how quickly and comprehensively the Nazi Party was able to ‘incorporate’ almost  all local organisations, clubs, associations, interest groups of all types. None of these were political in any form and had long histories in their communities, but within a short period they became tools of the government. The role of public servants and local authorities is fascinating…I am not suggesting that we have reached a similar stage here or that this is likely in the foreseeable future but nevertheless there are lessons to be learned for any serious supporter of localism.
We need to remind ourselves that the so called impossible can and does happen. It was Impossible for banks to bust but they did. It is impossible for countries to go bankrupt but they do.
I think there are a number of ways the new feudalism can manifest itself in a locality (e.g. no physical presence at all or living separately with likeminded people). In general terms we are dealing with people who determine the following: a) Relocating a company overseas (e.g. Dyson to China), b) Overseas buy- up (e.g. Cadbury's), c) New local development but overseas buying (e.g. IKEA having their goods manufactured in China, Taiwan, Bangladesh etc.) creates some local employment in local outlets, d) Repatriation of profits and no tax paid in Britain, e.g. Starbucks, Amazon, etc.)
Given the high priority LAs place on economic development it is important to factor these dimensions into political-managerial relationships. As LAs are trying to argue the case that they should be at the forefront of economic development at local level they need to understand these forces and have strategies for them. The overriding characteristic of the new feudalism is Inequality on a scale not previous heard of for a very very long time.
A metaphor for what we are talking about can be found in football, especially in the top division. Originally the teams were factory based (e.g. Arsenal, Man U), then becoming locality based teams owned by local business people and consisting of mainly local players so the teams were integrated into their local communities and were part of them. This has turned into multimillion PLCs trading on the stock exchange owned by foreign multi-billionaires from Russia, Thailand, USA, Brunei - some of whom hardly ever come to Britain let alone attend matches, though they appoint chief executives and managers, many of whom are foreign and very few, if any, local people. They have huge TV income and sponsorship deals. Sponsored players come from all over the world, paid salaries beyond the wildest dreams of most people. They live miles away in gated communities among likeminded people and drive to and from their training grounds and stadiums in cars worth hundreds of thousand. They do bring money into the local economy and many of them will do good deeds in their spare time or as part of their sponsorship agreement.
Put simplistically something similar has happened to the economy in general. If so what sort of localism are we talking about? Transparency and accountability combined with powers (mainly but not exclusively  economic) to improve quality of life, and powers to determine or have a real say in taxation policy at local level. This is a tall order. Since the Poll Tax debacle no political party or politician dare to raise the issue of local taxation. It is seen as an out of bounds toxic issue; but without some real economic clout localism is dead in the water; no more than pressure groups chasing government or any other vested interests for a few economic crumbs. I hope this makes sense and that it is of use to you. Enjoy Corfu…See you when you are back. Best Jan

Dear J. I suspect that as April's welfare reforms begin to bite, we will encounter, even more than usual, the ugly habit of demonising the poor - about which I know no better remark than this - from the great American writer, Herman Melville, who spent time on a US warship in the 19th century and encountered the justification of the officer class for flogging the lower deck. Such cruelty was essential given the dangerous and depraved behaviour such punishments were designed to quell.
‘Depravity in the oppressed is no apology for the oppressor; but rather an additional stigma to him, as being in large degree, the effect, and not the cause and justification of oppression’ Chap 14 ‘White Jacket’

Simon. Have you seen the results of Local elections? Extraordinary results for UKIP who took 25% of the votes. In Lincolnshire they now have 16 councillors, having had none previously and the Conservatives lost overall control…This may be paradigm change or just a protest vote but I feel it is part of fundamental changes in the political landscape in Britain which the main parties are struggling to understand and respond to. I don’t think they are prepared to acknowledge the following or know how to deal with it. There is disconnect between the main parties and a large section of the population and this vacuum has been filled by UKIP. 

a) We are now entering the post-welfare society. The welfare state created after 1945 is quickly being dismantled. This is now irreversible. We have crossed the tipping point. There is no narrative for this (yet). The alternatives are emerging by default through a strong emphasis on ideology.

b) Continuous Growth is no longer possible along historic lines. At best we will bump along the bottom with a few temporary ups followed by downs. We have entered the post growth society; again without a narrative or alternative models being formulated. This will bring equality/inequality to the fore. 

c) For the first time in very long time, the next generation will be financially worse off than the last. This runs contrary to all our expectations. We are very badly prepared for this. There are some grave inter-generational implications. 

d) Democracy in its current form becomes unable to shape events; may even struggle to respond properly to events, increasingly becoming just a battle field for competing interests among the new feudal elites or even just their mouthpiece. The narrative is centred on persuading the population that what is in the interest of the new feudal elite equals the national interest. Politics becomes narrow, oppositional and, to many, irrelevant, focusing on what is perceived to be controllable or the cause of malcontent (e.g. immigration, welfare benefits, EU membership, etc). Evidence is replaced by ideology in policy formulation. 

e) The so-called Third World is overtaking us in the economic field. Our political clout is waning; theirs is increasing. This will play into domestic politics. 

I am trying to weave this into the dialogue we have had so far. I am trying to create a framework which can accommodate these trends and hook the other points we have made on to it but I am struggling a bit. When are you back. I am happy to make the trip down to Birmingham. Could do with chewing these things over with you. Best Jan

Dear Jan
Linda and I were at the midnight ceremony of the resurrection, an event marked with special delight across the Orthodox world and, in Greece, deemed more important, until its commercial potential raised the profile of Christmas, than the latter. We’ve been speaking of narratives. I’m not about to betray my atheism – an unsatisfactory label if ever there was, but I’m gripped to the soul by the economy of a story that can fit so much truth into less than a thousand words; one that holds its plot as a magnet attracts iron filings; oil for bathing feet, water for washing hands, nails, darkness and light, palm leaves, rapturous displays of public adulation turning, terrifyingly, into the midnight howl of a lynch mob; calm, kindness and generosity as cues for mockery, execration, torture and judicial murder; fear of pain, temptation to escape, resignation, betrayals by the closest of friends, the mingling of secular and religious politics, conspiracy and bribery, establishment fear of the mob, the feebleness of a career administrator, despair, desolation and sorrow, acts of sudden kindness, courage and love. This inspiration of artists is endlessly fertilised by experience - war, crime, persecution, domestic and public drama. Irrespective of time and place it’s a narrative, more gripping than any I know. Its truth, for the faithful, is tied to time and place, yet the bell tolls and the cock crows in a story that renews itself outside time and place, gathering abundant evidence, including our hope for magic - the joyous ending Lin and I celebrated with fellow villagers amid chimes, singing, fireworks, kisses, embraces between family, friends and, proffered shyly but genuinely, to foreigners, often with the excuse to relight a blown out candle with a fellow flame, as a stranger said, “brought to Athens by plane from Jerusalem this morning” adding, with a rueful smile, “so they say”.

So you and I are in tune on the matter of narrative – the need for one that can get some grip on the reality of our current circumstances. To borrow from Lord Grey“plots are being lost all over Europe” - probably beyond – and we may not see them recovered in our lifetime. The many headed public is gathering snake-oil narratives with enthusiasm inventing the facts to make them work, as we can all do so well. ‘Intelligent criminals’, mountebanks, hucksters, profiteers (especially) and populists are enjoying the confusion, fashioning common-sense interpretations of what’s going on from rumour, speculations, distortion and amplification – the common vice of gossip. The shadows they make real include a profusion of lurking invasive ‘others’; proliferating foreigners, a continent of bureaucrats, a mass of work shy benefit thieves, neighbourhood fanatics plotting destruction, malign and invisible forces conspiring to contaminate and destroy what matters to decent folk. Best wishes, Simon

Hi Simon. Remembering our exchange some years ago (Feb 2012) about cultural continuity in Greece (Ancient, Modern), I came across this poem by Aristotle Nikolaidis, 'Word', translated by Kimon Friar in the US poetry journal Poetry, November 1981. Hope you're enjoying the boat and the weather. Not very exciting here, especially with leg in cast!, Jim

WORD
I first came upon it in Homer
and then for years afterward pursued it
through various texts. Disguised at times,
it surfaced in neglected choniclers (chroniclers?)
or was it wedged tight but breathing in compound words.
I found it again in a somewhat altered meaning
In distant dialects of the Greek,
and in chemical laboratories transformed
into specialized terminology; barbarous lips stammer it
in a variety of pronunciations.
                                                    Oh yes, it never died,
but traveling throughout the centuries, rooted
in the deep mouth of the Poet, it will be preserved
with unsuspected leaves and branches, with secret
flowers – a word that had perhaps been articulated for the
first
time by the lips of devious Apollo.

Γράφει ο/η Σαββανής Σπύρος

18.05.13

Παρά τις σοβαρές ρωγμές της κοινωνικής μας συνοχής και παρά το κλίμα δυσπιστίας και χαμηλού επικοινωνιακού επιπέδου, που σημαδεύει τις μεταξύ μας σχέσεις, η φετινή Λιτανεία της Δευτέρας του Πάσχα έδινε μία εντύπωση αναγεννητική και πάντως ήταν καλύτερη από πολλές προηγούμενες Λιτανείες. Δεν ήταν μόνο η παληά Εικόνα της Παναγίας που προστέθηκε. Ήταν τα παιδιά του Σχολείου που πήραν μέρος με φροντίδα της κυρίας Ντίνας Σπίγγου και της κας Σπυριδούλας Τσηλιάκου. Ήταν η Μπάντα και η Χορωδία που έκαμαν μία από τις καλύτερες εμφανίσεις τους. Ήταν το μεγάλο ποσοστό των νέων ανθρώπων που σήκωσαν τα λεγόμενα (παληά ορολογία) «έπιπλα» (εικόνες, φλάμπουρα, σκόλες, σταυρούς κλπ). Ήταν όλα αυτά, μα πάνω από όλα ήταν η υποσυνείδητη διάθεση να δοθεί συνέχεια στην παράδοσή μας με , όσο γίνεται, πληρέστερο και σοβαρότερο τρόπο. Γιατί αλήθεια, θεωρούμε την παράδοση σαν σημαντική έννοια; Σ’ αυτό το ερώτημα μπορεί να αντιστοιχούν περισσότερες της μιας απαντήσεις. Και θα ήταν ενδιαφέρον να ακουστούν. Μία πάντως από αυτές θα μπορούσε να είναι και η εξής: η παράδοση είναι η κιβωτός ανθεκτικών στο χρόνο σημείων αναφοράς και αξιόπιστων στιγμάτων στο χάρτη της ατομικής και συλλογικής μας πορείας. Είναι η φανέρωση και η περιγραφή του Συλλογικού μας υποσυνείδητου. Συμφωνείτε; Αν αυτή η άποψη είναι σωστή, τότε η παράδοση αποκτάει «προστιθέμενη αξία» σε ιστορικές περιόδους σαν αυτή που διανύουμε τώρα σαν Λαός. Μιας  περιόδου σκληρής, οδυνηρής, εχθρικής και άκρως επικίνδυνης για την ΑΚΕΡΑΙΟΤΗΤΑ μας. Την σωματική, ψυχική και πνευματική μας ακεραιότητα. Συνεπώς, η παράδοσή μας σαν μέσο στήριξης και σαν οδηγός πλεύσης αποκτάει επιπλέον σπουδαιότητα. Συγχρόνως, φαίνεται να αποτελεί, αν όχι το μοναδικό, τουλάχιστον το ισχυρότερο όπλο άμυνας απέναντι στον καταιγισμό των απελπιστικών γεγονότων που έχουν σαν σκοπό τους να μας καταποντίσουν και εν τέλει να μας εξαφανίσουν. Χρόνια πολλά (και καλύτερα) σ’ όλους τους συντελεστές της φετινής Λιτανείας και καλήν αντάμωση του χρόνου, με ακόμη μεγαλύτερη, καλή διάθεση. ΣΠΥΡΟΣ Π. ΣΑΒΒΑΝΗΣ

Wed 29 May 2013 The Irish Times: Greece’s Balkan identity may obliterate Brussels link - Specific regional geopolitics lurk behind the goal of a unified Europe

Imagine an EU member state where the public service relied, for its efficiency, on bribery and corruption. Imagine a state where the hospital service was so under-resourced that patients had to bring a friend or relative to undertake their feeding, washing and basic nursing. Imagine a state where shops that traditionally sold handcrafted goods now promoted Taiwanese dreamcatchers.
Are we talking about Greece? Well no, actually. These are the thoughts of novelist Donna Leon’s Venetian detective, Commisario Guido Brunetti as he walks his native city, wondering how to bring to justice criminals whom the law and its administrators protect.
But they also apply to Greece, and one wonders whether they are true of the other ‘Pigs’ – Portugal and Spain. In a sense it’s a relief to read Brunetti’s disillusionment with his environment, since it suggests that Greece’s problems are not unique. Do all Europe’s southern states really have these dysfunctional characteristics?
Troika control

That question presupposes that we subscribe to the Eurocentric view of what constitutes a responsible and efficient member of the EU and the euro zone. Greeks seem to have become passive onlookers of the troika’s insistence on austerity measures, reduction in public service numbers and the sale of state assets. Trade union activity is at an all-time low.
There is very little to alert holidaymakers to the unrest which nevertheless festers beneath the social surface. To most holidaymakers, Greece represents sun, sea, and prices that remain low. But essential Greek characteristics are the signs of differences, as any holidaymaker from northern Europe will immediately recognise, and those differences are not only what makes Greece (and of course Italy, Spain and Portugal) attractive as holiday destinations but indicate precisely why Greece finds it so difficult to fit into the euro norm.
As I wrote previously, a former Greek president, on the eve of Greek accession to the EU, pointed out the time-warp between the southern and northern states, and the fact that they had a lot of catching up to do. If, that is, they wanted to be good members of the club. Former prime minister George Papandreou tried to drag Greece into the club – and failed, because there are basic elements of Greek society that cannot be changed. Bribery and corruption may be part of this, but they are ‘normal’ rather than exceptional.
Which brings me to the basic flaw in the Eurocentric argument: that what is being lost sight of is the geopolitics of Europe’s southeast, which for centuries has been a cockpit of east/west and north/south tensions. Greece is essentially a Balkan country, with the continuing – and growing – problems of Cyprus and complex relations with Turkey. The ‘Great Powers’ which brought Greece and most of the Balkan states into existence, were exercised by the threat of Russian influence in the region, a factor which remains a player in today’s geopolitics, with Russian investment in Cyprus seeping into Greece itself.
In April, the ambassadors to Greece of the 10 states which joined the EU in 2003-2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Cyprus) co-signed a letter to the Athens newspapers stressing the significance of ‘the vital strategic goal’ of unifying Europe in the aftermath of the second World War and the economic benefits of an open market. These are almost all countries still staggering from the effects of Soviet domination, with Cyprus becoming the only EU member state to have been illegally occupied since 1974 by a neighbouring force (Turkey).
Yet, as Paul Gillespie recently wrote in this paper (‘Loss of confidence is eating away at EU’), there are growing signs among the major players that all is far from well. The former Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, spoke of the “dramatically declining” public support for EU reforms and the EU itself; Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker foresaw the possibility of “a social revolution”; and France’s finance minister warned of a “loss of social and political confidence”. These have all been defining characteristics of Balkan history for 150 years, with fragmentation along ethnic and religious lines bedevilling any unity. 

To stress unity of purpose presupposes common characteristics and identity of skills and resources. If Leon’s Guido Brunetti sees Italy correctly, then at least two of the EU’s southern states cannot subscribe to Eurocentrism. Greece’s Balkan situation (especially with the Turkish dimension) suggests that its current misfit with the aims of Eurospeak will continue to be the norm.

Hi Simon. Don't know if you are in UK and can make it, but there is a Kaleidoscope event on this saturday at Stourbridge. We are filming interviews for a major BFI documentary about missing tv. We will be filming David King about OoT. Can you make it and be interviewed? Cheers Simon

Dave King, Out of Town DVDs and reels of archive film from the archive

Jack and his cameraman Stan

...I hadn’t only begun to grasp that the background sound on Jack’s programmes was added later – from sound effects in the library at Southern synched with events on Stan’s film. What was I to do with hours of such film? Jennie at SWFTA gave me a clue. She and her husband Roger, also working part-time at the archive, showed me a shelf of ¼” reel-to-reel sound tape in cardboard boxes. These for no obvious reason contained Jack’s voice as he talked in the studio from his set – a shed - and his commentary on Stan’s film for that week’s episode of Out of Town. It had taken hours to find the tape that went with the film. There was no order and no titles that allowed simple one-to-one matching. Roger, using a Steenbeck machine that could play separate film and sound tape simultaneously accurately splicing sound to vision. He then digitised the result and we had a 1975 episode of Out of Town as a gift for Richard Hill and his family. Well nearly. At the start and often at the end of each episode of Out of Town the viewer would see Jack  sat in his studio ‘shed’ from where he’d say “Hullo” before moving seamlessly into talking about Stan’s location film, run on a monitor in front of him in the studio. This all went out live. The location film would end. We’d see Jack again in his shed for a few remarks and a “cheerio” and the gentle signature tune Recuerdos de la Alhambra. So we had Jack’s commentary and location sound effects, but we had no picture of Jack in his shed. Richard’s film with which he was delighted came to him on a DVD courtesy of SWFTA with a stills of Jack inserted over the recording of his studio introduction. But what about the sound effects; of traffic, of cattle lowing, a fish splashing, wind in the trees, a bucket dropped? “People fill in the sound if you give them a clue” was Jack’s reasoning so I was told recently by one of Jack’s old colleagues, David Knowles. He’d certainly fooled me. I learned that my stepfather had made a point of asking expert sound people not to get “too clever”, inserting every possible event that might have had a sound. “Just make it sound like outside and synchronise doors banging and gun shots” I was slowly understanding why it was so tricky to trace whole episodes of Out of Town. “Jack loved to do high quality television on the cheap” added David who’d produced Jack’s successor programme - Old Country - for Channel 4 in the early eighties. My youthful memories of Jack musing about technical challenges were being jogged “I don’t want to go out in the countryside with a TV crew of half a dozen and a pile of kit. They frighten things away.” I learned after a bit that even Jack’s director George Egan stayed away, as Jack with Stan in essential tow went on location. “The finest outdoor cameraman in England” he called him, shooting silent, sound added later, and live continuity by Jack’s when broadcast. Jack knew that what made TV different from cinema and more than just lesser picture quality on a small screen was being live. He was stimulated by the risk of going out live but much more he relished the knowledge of talking there and then to his invisible audience. “We filmed nearly 1:1” explained Jack years later “The normal ratio of used to edited film is 10:I for the sort of thing I do. In commercials it can be 1000:1.” Jack and his team did minimal editing, had a minimal set and a minimal crew and it went out live with Stan’s silent location film plus library sound effects....

...It was this wonderful marriage of fact and fiction that made him such a great broadcaster (and inspiring boss). Like so many men from that generation including George Egan (Director of OoT), who flew SOE agents into France aboard tiny Lysanders), Jack had been through something infinitely bigger and more scary than any of us would ever find in television and it gave him a breadth and a perspective and a degree of creative mischief that was utterly beguiling. I put a number of the Out of Town programmes onto tape (Stan shot mute film; Jack's studio musings became the sound-track) and after a while I began to spot where fact strayed into fancy. Viewers, and gobsmacked youths like me, loved him. Like Stan, truly a buccaneer...

Το παλιό αρμόνιο δίπλα στον Άγιο Γεώργιο

Φρεσκάροντας παλαιές αναμνήσεις καί γεγονότα πού έχουν σχέση μέ το χωριό,  βρήκα μερικές φωτογραφίες. Μία είναι καί αυτή πού συνοδεύει τούτο τό σημείωμα καί η οποία  αφορά τήν ιστορία της χορωδίας του χωριού καί την  εξέλιξη της, καθώς επίσης καί την χρήση του μουσικού οργάνου (αρμόνιο) πού  φαίνεται σ΄αυτήν. Η λειτουργία του σημερινού σχήματος χορωδίας, αρχίζει από  τήν εποχή του μεσοπολέμου του 1940 καί τήν οποία έστησε καί εδίδαξε ο αείμνηστος Τηλέμαχος Μεταλληνός-Τατσούλης, μαθητής τότε του Γυμνασίου  καί αργότερα καταξιωμένος καθηγητής Μουσικής. Το πρώτο αυτό σχήμα απαρτίζετο από άνδρες καί στην συνέχειά του συμπληρώθηκε καί μέ γυναίκες.    Οταν ο Τηλέμαχος έφυγε από την Κέρκυρα γιά σπουδές  καί αφού γιά λίγο η χορωδία, βασικά εκκλησιαστική, έμεινε αδρανής, τά παλαιά μέλη της, μέ πρωτοπόρο τον άλλον αείμνηστο καί αγαπητό φίλο, Γιώργο Ιωννά-Μανούρο  καί μέ την παρότρυνση όλων μας,  αποφασίστηκε νά αρχίσει καί πάλι η λειτουργία της μέ εκκλησιαστική μουσική καί αργότερα, όπως όλοι γνωρίζουν  καί μέ τραγούδι, συνεχίζοντας την δραστηριότητα της μέχρι καί σήμερα. Εδώ πρέπει νά αναφέρω καί χάριν της Ιστορίας ότι ο Γίωργος ο Μανούρος στήν ουσία ήταν αυτοδίδακτος μουσικός. Στοειώδη μαθήματα μουσικής είχε πάρει  λίγα από τον Διονύσιο Σγούρο, λίγα από τον Τηλέμαχο καί ένα πολύ μικρό διάστημα κάπου στην πόλη της Κέρκυρας .

(Apologies for my translation) I found some old  pictures to freshen old memories and recall events relating to the village. One came with notes on the history of the village choir, including musical instruments (harmonium) used. The choir as we know it now dates from wartime in 1940, when it was set up and led by the late Telemachus Metallinos-Tatsoulis, then a student at the High School and later an acclaimed music teacher. The choir started with men with women joining to complete the choir. When Telemachus left Corfu to further his studies, the choir, basically a church chorus,  remained dormant. Another late and dear friend, George Ionna-Manouro, urged by all of us old members, decided to resuming the choirs function of providing church music and later, as everyone knows singing, continuing these activities up to the present day. Here we should mention for the sake of history that George Manouro was essentially self-taught musician. He had taken a few elementary music lessons from Dionysius Sgouros, a few from Telemachus and at  a very small space somewhere in the city of Corfu...

Τώρα γιά το Αρμόνιο καί τους εικονιζόμενους στην φωτογραφία. Το όργανο αυτό είναι, απ΄ότι έχουν πεί ειδικοί, πολύ παλαιό καί αντιπροσωπεύει το είδος  πού  χρησιμοποιούσαν  στις  εκκλησίες οι χορωδίες πρίν κυκλοφορήσουν τα σύγχρονα. Ο Γιώργος, δάσκαλος πλέον της χορωδίας, αφού αυτοεκπαιδεύτηκε  πάνω σ΄αυτό, μετεφέρετο στίς εκκλησίες πού θά έψαλε η χορωδία.  Στήν συνέχεια χρησιμοποιείτο, γιά πολλά χρόνια, είς την εξέλιξη της χορωδίας μέ την σημερινή της μορφή. Η φωτογραφία είναι έξω από την εκκλησία του Αγίου Γεωργίου το Πάσχα του 1949 μετά την Λειτουργία, φαίνονται δέ από αριστερά πρός τα δεξιά τα μισά μέλη της χορωδίας, διότι ο φωτογράφος ήταν «ατζαμής». Πρώτος είναι ο Σταμάτης Θύμης–Τσουπής και ακολουθούν οι Σπύρος Ιωνάς–Λιάθης, Βασίλης Μεταλληνός-Παπαντώνης, ο γράφων Τάκης Σαββανής Στάθιος, Σπύρος Σπίγγος-Μπότσολος, Μιχάλης Θύμης-Μόντος, λίγο τό πρόσωπο  του Γιώργου Λάμπουρα (πατέρας της Κικής Δουκάκη) καί  καθισμένος ο Γιώργος Ιωννάς-Μανούρος (Μαέστρος). Κλείνοντας τούτο το σημείωμα πρέπει νά αναφέρω ότι, οι κόρες καί η χήρα τού Γιώργου, θέλοντας νά πραγματοποιήσουν μία επιθυμία του πατέρα τους, έχουν δηλώσει ότι το αρμόνιο αυτό τό δωρίζουν στην Φιλαρμονική του χωριού καί ειδικά νά τοποθετηθεί είς το  αναπαλαιωμένο κτίριο της Φιλαρμονικής, όταν θά λειτουργήσει, μέ οποιαδήποτε  μορφή. Θεωρώ υποχρέωση μου, καί γιά  χάριν της  μνήμης  του Γιώργη,  νά  επιβεβαιώσω τήν σκέψη καί επιθυμία του αυτή, διότι πολλές φορές την εξέφρασε καί είς εμέ, στίς συζητήσεις μας σχετικά μέ το παλαιό κτίριο της Φιλαρμονικής,  διότι ήμαστε καί οι δύο συναισθηματικά συνδεδεμένοι καί ευαισθηκοποιημένοι  μέ αυτό. Τάκης Σαββανής-Στάθιος 

...The Harmonium in the photo, experts say, is very old and represents the kind used by church choirs before the emergence of contemporary organs. George, now replacing me as teacher of the choir sang in the chorus. So over many years we have been involved in developing the current choir's repertoire. . The photo is outside Ag. Georgiou in Easter 1949 after a service. From left to right are just half of the members of the choir, because the photographer was 'clumsy'.  First is Stamatis Thymis-Tsoupas followed by Spyro Jonah, Liathis Vassilis Metallinos, Papantoniou, the present writer Takis Savani - Stathios Spyros Spingos, Michael Thymis Botsoli, the little face of George Lampoura (father of Kiki Dukakis) and seated George Ionnas-Manouris (conductor). In concluding this note I must state that the daughters and the widow of George, wanting to make a wish for their father, have asked that the keyboard by as a matter of course, donated to the village Philharmonic, using experts to set it into the renovated building of the Philharmonic when will work almost as new. Because of my emotional connection and sympathy with these wishes with them, I regard it as my duty, in memory of George, to confirm this generous idea - one that has been explored many times in the  discussions we have had about the re-building of the original Philharmonic. Takis Savani-Stathios

Jack with Bess, filmed by Stan

Roger and Jennie with my stepfather's films on shelves in Plymouth

Dear Chris.  I've managed to collate 8 tape-film pairs from which to select one (or more) for Francis to create a broadcast-quality tape which we can assess as a pilot for processing the rest of the archive. I know you're seeing Francis this coming Thursday, and I am going to Scotland for a week on Tuesday. The tape-film pairs are: 

JH526 Point-to-point & Apple grafting (sound dated 14 Oct 1986. Not original OoT) 

JH741 Broom maker & Saddle maker 30 June 1975 

JH762 Grayling December 1969 (possibly incomplete, with date variation)

JH764 Foxhounds & Marlborough horse fair 17 March 1977 

JH765 Roach & Pub Games 10 March 1977

JH782 Seasons in the garden 31 Jan 1974 

JH811 Casting champions 23 July 1973 

Any chance I could bring over these pairs to decide which might be the best pair to work on. Perhaps Sunday or Monday? I have a preference for JH741, JH764, JH765 and JH782. Given variation in the state of film and tape Francis may appreciate a larger sample from which to select the pilot. Best wishes Simon

Reply: Excellent news Simon! I am delighted if you want to drop in all 8 pairs of film/tape for P&FN to do for you. ...So glad we can help with this exciting project. c 

Dear Chris. I’ll try to drop over after lunch with the material, on my way to the allotment. So so glad of your help. I can’t quite believe we are on the road again as it were. I just hope the material doesn’t prove too unwieldy in one way or another. We have had so many slips betwixt cup and lip in the last few years of recovering Jack’s material that I don’t expect anything to be straightforward so far as this project is concerned. But I’ve also met and been able to depend on so many friends and interesting people, real persevering enthusiasts (of the kind that Jack so admired) on the journey.
I occurred to me that if Francis is able to marry sound and image on one of the pairs from the sample, we will still need to add still images for the places (usually start and finish) where Jack is musing in the studio shed. Can I suggest Francis leave this blank on any pilot DVD produced. I can then rip the DVd and add stills later as in the ‘exploding’ bait box sample DVD made from the only tape-film marriage so far at South West Film and Television Archive in 2010. Could you perhaps - if Francis can go ahead with the pilot - ask what he thinks it might cost to go ahead with up to ten tape-film combinations? I can start thinking more seriously about future funding for recovering the archive. Best Simon

Mum and Lin dancing with the young men on the battlements of Qaitbay in Alexandria

The Lambourn near the place we dreamed (photo: Barbara Hargreaves)

Now and at the our of our death, τώρα και σε μας του θανάτου μας

• Simon Baddeley

  Canine community worker, Oscar, is one of our keenest volunteers...

  
  

  
  

  Like ·  · Unfollow Post · Share · Yesterday at 00:20

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  • John Richard Rose nice photo, and good to see he's had a wash **grin**
    JRR

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  Simon Baddeley

  A small back garden tidied and turfed and more work being planned - Linda, Mike and Taj in Grosvenor Avenue this Thursday...

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Like ·  · Unfollow Post · Share · Yesterday at 00:12

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  • Jill Darby Shouldn't stand on newly laid turf. It's all looking very good tho'. You should all be very pleased with yourselves. x

    Yesterday at 08:36 · Unlike · 1
  • Simon Baddeley Good point. They were checking if that yellowy piece needed replacing; also agreeing that earth was needed to fill some of the edges.

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  Simon Baddeley

  Clearing another garden...

  
  

  
  

  Like ·  · Unfollow Post · Share · Yesterday at 01:04

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  Simon Baddeley

  
  

  
  

  Like ·  · Unfollow Post · Share · Friday at 12:39

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  • Barbara Delaney Excellent job.

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  Simon Baddeley

  Sue and Lurleen - Handsworth Helping Hands volunteers - moving furnitures between houses in Handsworth

  
  

  
  

  Like ·  · Unfollow Post · Share · Friday at 12:41

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  Simon Baddeley

  'After' pictures of one of the gardens cleared and restored by Taj for HHH

  
  

  
  

  
  

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  Simon Baddeley

  Denise and Simon, working for Handsworth Helping Hands (HHH), took a van load of green waste from a garden in Maxwell Avenue, along with two discarded mattresses and a bed frame, collected from Francis Road, Handsworth, to the city waste depot at Holford Drive yesterday. The green waste was bagged up by Targe (also HHH) who had done a really good front and back garden make-over for an HHH client who met our criteria for free work.

  
  

  
  

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  Linda Baddeley

  Our first clearance and tidy-up of a private garden was completed while Simon and I were away. Thanks to Mike for arranging it. I'm awaiting photos to post here.
  
  We are now seeking referrals of clients in the Central Handsworth area who are eligible for free or subsidised garden clearance, tidying and planting work. Applications are invited from residents who have difficulty doing their own gardening for any reason such as age, health or mobility related issues. Relatives, friends or professionals such as social workers, health visitors, etc. may make referrals on behalf of clients.
  
  We may also be able to help out people on low income who would like to tidy up a previously untended garden and need help and/or materials to do this.
  ...See more

  Unlike ·  · Follow post · Share · 5 June at 03:28
  

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  • Jill Darby A laudable service - Hope you get lots of clients. I'll let you have some plants. Let me know well in advance of your next plant-up. x

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  • Linda Baddeley Thanks Jill. See you tomorrow. Plants welcome anytime, as Denise will plant them if I can't.

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  Linda Baddeley

  Denise, Learline (hope the spelling's correct!) and I spent this afternoon tidying up the bed we planted last year (was it really that long ago?) at Church Vale Triangle. Once we'd cleared the inevitable bottles, cans, bits of paper and copious weeds, we found that many of our plants have survived and are doing OK. We planted more things from our gardens and left in a lot of the little, bright green weeds that had done a good ground cover job in our absence.
  
  We still need more plants - preferably perennials that spread quickly. If you have anything suitable, please let us know.
  
  And if you fancy going and doing a bit of weeding in a week or two, feel free!

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Unlike ·  · Follow post · Share · 5 June at 02:27

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Another garden cleared, another mattress to the dump

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  • Jane Cochrane My husband has just got digital hearing aids and they have transformed his life in terms of conversing at parties or being able to answer questions when presenting on stage. 
    
    Be warned though that they are so comfy and non-visible that it's easy to walk into the shower with them on ... after a series of near misses I ended up making a laminated warning card that is kept by the shower tap!! Jx

    3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Zena Phillips You are hearing quite a lot. You are probably missing out out on certain wave lengths. I have suffered a certain amount of hearing loss since childhood, couldn't' t read till a doctor discovered that I was lipreading to a certain extent and had me sat...See More

    3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Jane Cochrane Aah ... Zena - my husband is an engineer/technologist and understands all the feedback issues etc ... he simply gets the audiologist to adjust the tuning to prevent the worst of the feedback or "clipping" on some of the sounds ... it might be possible to get some "fine tuning" that cuts down on the oscillation.

    3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Zena Phillips PS.I have found the NHS audiologists to be brilliantly trained and sympathetic.

    3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Simon Baddeley It's so strange that people used to be (perhaps still are) ashamed (perhaps mildly but often worse so) about hearing loss. I was prevaricating about a hearing test because I thought my 'hearing loss' was simply the result of being 'somewhere else' when...See More

    3 hours ago · Edited · Like · 2
  • Zena Phillips An awful lot of people are still embarrassed by hearing loss. Another lot of people, when you ask them to repeat something, think it's funny to say eh? What? Pardon? Etc. I just smile and say 'yer lips is moving but there's nothing coming out'. At checkouts assistants will talk while not looking at you. I say 'sorry' and indicate my ears. They are invariably polite and kind.

    3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Steven Lee Ive joined the club too. 

    2 hours ago via mobile · Like
  • Zena Phillips PPS. My smoke alarm is loud enough to bring the neighbours round to make sure I am okay.

    2 hours ago · Unlike · 1
  • Amy Elizabeth Hollier Dad we have put up with you being deaf and angry so long we whisper nasty things about you! So you see , you can't possibly get a hearing aid now else we will have to start writing notes to each other.

    about an hour ago via mobile · Unlike · 2
  • Zena Phillips My children solved that problem by facing each other with their hands in front of their mouths but looking at me with smiling eyes. (They understood at quite a young age that I could probably lipread what they were saying.) They always were imps with a wicked sense of humour.

    about an hour ago · Edited · Unlike · 1

Another row of spuds, beans, a marrow and spinach on Plot 14

My allotment is surrounded by unworked plots. Imran took over plot 13, west of mine, in May 2012. After a few day's enthusiastic work he disappeared. I've not met him, though, odd chance, someone called Omar was chatting to me in the park, asking about Handsworth Helping Hands (he'd seen the banner on my bicycle front pannier); said Imran was his friend.
"Next time you see him" I said "can you ask him to work his plot".

Chris R has left Plot 15 to work, since Christmas, a few square metres of Plot 14. What he's planted is being steadily smothered by lengthening grass, dock, nettles and wildflowers. I have made some slight progress on 14 since I took it in June 2010 on the opening day of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments, but there's far more to do. It's partly the limited time I have to give to it, partly my lack of gardening craft, partly my failure to find someone else to work the plot with me. Nearly everyone admits the topsoil, spread by the developer under the S106 Agreement that included all 80 plots, is rather unfriendly - full of spade blunting stones, bricks and other human rubbish, but I've cleared much of that. I've dug over the whole plot, so even where it's grassy digging is easier than it was. I've put up a shed, added a veranda, paved around it, set up a composting space, made paths, planted small fruit trees, made a small lawn opposite the hut; and looked after the flower borders that Lin laid out next to the path before removing allotment gardening from her long 'to do' list.

The thing that really matters is to grow vegetables. I persevere. I've managed to grow a few potatoes, some cabbage, and sprouts, a few onions, runner beans and broad beans - small crops only. Last year was especially wet. This year has been cold into May and even June; but those are excuses. Others have succeeded in growing plenty despite the wet, the onion fly and other pests. Right now I have a line of spinach, some Jerusalem artichokes, a few more potatoes and some garlic. I've just planted a marrow, some broad beans and runner beans, and more potatoes. Now and then I get morose, when I see the amount of uncultivated space on my plot and, despite my efforts, the spread of unwanted grass and wild flowers instead of neat and reliable rows of vegetables. I failed last year, but I maintain the hope that I can present Lin with vegetables from the plot to cook on Christmas Day.
On a more sombre note we have not been able to vote ourselves the local leadership an allotment site needs in this economy. Here we sit on land - a green field site - of great worth for building the new houses the government wants to meet current demand. If nearly every plot was being worked. and the site ran regular events to attract new gardeners, especially young people, using the VJA to draw attention to the importance of DIY cultivation of fresh organically grown vegetables we'd be less vulnerable. But as council's raise allotment rents, and plots get abandoned or hardly used, certain iron rules of land use economics may all too easily begin to apply. The VJA could be vulnerable to suggestions that plot size and numbers be reduced, and in return for certain community contributions, a further part of a site once given wholly to allotments may be the object of an application to build more houses. It's unlikely at the moment, given the political history of the space, but given my estimate that each VJA plot could be worth a good £25,000 as development land, I wish our association was infused with a greater sense of urgency.
"If you're so concerned why don't you get involved?" someone might say
I vowed to myself when I took my plot that my involvement with allotment politics - a ten year campaign to save the VJA from being entirely built over - would cease. That I wasnted to prove to myself that after being off the land since the start of the industrial revolution, the descendant of six generations of embourgeoisement, I could take over a relatively small plot of soil and make it grow me vegetables. I'm trying. There's little question that with few exceptions, the VJA is, like many allotments, a middle class place, rather than a site that reflects the historical purpose of allotments, a phenomenon of urbanisation as working people were driven from the countryside to the cities by modernised agriculture and industrialisation and needed to feed their families. Now on the VJA we see people arriving in shiny cars, using expensive gardening tools, strimmers and cultivators, garden centre sheds and polytunnels,  intent on leisure, recreation, exercise and fresh food free of commercial agribusiness additives and for some  a desire to play their part in creating sustainability!

What a culling there's been since the day three years ago when the place was finally opened and keen new applicants queued to sign up for plots.

Opening day of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments from Simon Baddeley on Vimeo.

My Australian friend John Martin, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities in Bendigo, said gently to me a while ago "I wonder, Simon, if you're not more interested in the idea of an allotment, than actually working one". That's proved too true for many.

In the sweat of thy face...

There are sheep who've persevered, who clearly draw food from well worked plots, but there are goats, once enthusiastic, separated from them by two bad summers, the ravages of insects and birds, the difficulty of our stony soil and most of all, I suspect, the contrast between idea and practice.

*** *** ***
I took the films and tapes of Out of Town back to the archive on Monday morning, having dropped off six film-tape pairs at Chris Perry's house over the weekend. I donated £10 of diesel. Denise and I drove to the Holford dump with the rubbish collected from Jo's garden in our road, and I took plants to an address in Havelock Road that volunteers will plant in a flowerbed in Leslie Road.

Named driver for Handsworth Helping Hands

In the afternoon I returned the van to the park compound and walked Oscar back through the park to the allotment, then home where we're preparing to head north on that once happy journey to the Highlands where there's melancholy work to be done at Brin Croft. Thank goodness for the company of Lin who always drives, and Oscar, who's prancing with anticipation at the familiar trek.

Simon.  Thanks for sending this and other links. It all confirms what we've spoken about - ideology driven policy formulation. Councils as we have known them "going out of business" (to be replaced by what?). The triple whammy of delegated powers over "toxic" issues; increased costs as a consequence of Welfare Reforms (e.g. benefit capping and bed room tax) and more draconian spending cuts to come (whilst the present ones are yet to fully impact) will test even the most competent and creative council to the limit and beyond. The limits of "innovation and transformation" will emerge quickly. Then what? Are we heading for a residual poor law type of arrangement, heavily dependent on charity? Are other models still feasible? Will councils become local administrators of central diktat to an even greater extent than now? It is obvious that we are beyond the tipping point. Irrespective of who wins the next election, further financial cutbacks are inevitable. This is not a temporary phenomenon but a permanent paradigm change in what local councils are all about against the background of "the end of the welfare state". Who is doing any serious planning or preparations for this scenario? It appears that everybody is floundering. The LGA is fragmenting. SOLACE is saying very little. The impact on managerial -pPolitical relationships are profound.  See you at the end of the month.  Best Jan.

Writing to the Council

Dear Sir or Madam
Re: Brin Croft, Inverarnie, Property No.**
On Wednesday 12 June I visited the Highland Council service point in Inverness, having just arrived to arrange the clearance of my deceased mother’s house at the address above and finding a council tax/water charge bill for £1650.24 for the financial year 2013-14 and also a ‘final notice’ for the bill. A very helpful council officer, Mary, took details and advised me to write to you to request your assistance in obtaining the council tax discounts to which I should be entitled.
My mother, Mrs Barbara Burnett-Stuart, passed away on November 1st, 2012, but, for reasons I will explain, the executors’ exemption was never applied. As this gets quite complicated, I will give the details in note form.

1. 01/11/12 - Mrs Burnett-Stuart died
2. 12/11/12 - My wife, Linda Baddeley, phoned the Highland Council tax office on my behalf, to inform them of my mother’s death. She explained that, because there were items of significant value in Brin Croft, which I was not allowed to remove until confirmation of the probate, the house being fairly isolated and it being general knowledge that Mrs Burnett-Stuart had died, the executors  (myself and my sister, who currently lives in New York) had employed a caretaker. The representative to whom my wife spoke said that in these circumstances the executors’ exemption might still be applied and that a bereavement form would be sent for me to complete.
3. 14/11/12 – I received a letter from the Highland Council operations team and a form to fill in with the executors’ details. I completed this and posted it by return
4. 16/11/12 – A council tax bill arrived at Brin Croft addressed to Mrs B Burnett-Stuart, for the period 2012 to 2013, indicating that £1096.08 had already been paid and that the amount still due was £548. The reference number for the account was 67-*******-12.
5. 16/11/12 – My wife phoned the Highland Council tax office to question the bill, in view of the fact that it was in Mrs Burnett-Stuart’s name rather than the Executors’ and that she had been told previously that the executors’ exemption might still be applied, in spite of the fact that there was a caretaker living in the house. The council representative informed her that it could not be applied if the house was occupied.
Mrs Baddeley explained that the caretaker, Mrs B****n, had a residence in xxx where she already paid full council tax and requested that the single occupancy discount be applied, as only the caretaker would be living in the house.
The council employee said that Mrs B****n would only be entitled to a 10% “second home” discount, as she had a home in Edinburgh. Mrs Baddeley pointed out that Brin Croft was not Mrs B****n’s  “home”, but her place of work, and that the nature of the work, i.e. being caretaker, required her to live there.
The council employee insisted that Brin Croft was Mrs B****n’s “second home”, and said that the council tax account must be put into her name, as the occupant and the person paying the bill.
Mrs B****n was not in fact paying the bill. As my sister had already returned to her home in New York and I myself live 450 miles away in Birmingham and am regularly out of the UK, Mrs B****n’s account was funded by the executors to pay her salary and all outgoings for Brin Croft, including council tax.
The council employee my wife spoke to would not accept that Mrs B****n was not personally responsible for the council tax. She insisted that the account would be put into Mrs B****n’s name and that only a 10% “second home” discount would be applied.
6. 16/01/13 - The Highland Council sent a bill to Mrs B****n at Brin Croft with “Reason For Issue: New Account”, reference number 62-06****-12. The bill for £617.10, rather than the £548.00 still due according to the previous bill dated 14th November addressed to my mother, was for the period 15th November 2012 to 31st March 2013. No discount of any kind had been applied. Mrs B****n rang the Highland Council and requested single occupancy discount. She was again refused the discount, on the grounds that Brin Croft was her ‘second home’.
7. 06/03/13 – Highland Council sent Mrs B****n a bill for £563.75 indicating that the 10% “second home” discount had been applied. Mrs B****n paid this bill on the 7th March 2013 – payment reference 6****2.
8. 12/03/13 - Highland Council sent Mrs B****n a bill for £1508.10, giving 10% “second home” discount, for the tax year 1st April 2013-31st March 2014. The first payment was due on April 1st 2013.
9. 17/03/13 - With all forms completed by the solicitor and Confirmation having been applied for, I was given permission to start clearing the house. I contacted Mrs B****n, who had taken the caretaking job in the knowledge that it could end with short notice, depending on when permission was given to clear the house, to inform her that her services would only be required until the end of March. All valuables were removed from the house by the end of the month.
10. 29/03/13 (approx.) - Mrs B****n rang Highland Council to inform them of her departure at the end of the month, asking for the account to be put into the name of “The Executors of the Late Barbara Burnett-Stuart”, and requesting that the six months executors’ exemption now be applied, as the property would be empty for the foreseeable future. She was informed that this exemption would only be applied if the immediately previous account holder had died. As Mrs B****n was regarded as the previous account holder and had not died, my sister and myself, as executors, had been deprived of our entitlement to the executors’ exemption.
11. 31/03/13 - All valuables had been removed from the house and Mrs B****n vacated the property.
12. 11/06/13 – My wife and I, having been out of the UK for the whole of April and May, visited Brin Croft to arrange clearance of the remaining contents. In the post there was a council tax bill addressed to Mrs B****n dated 17/04/13 showing that she had paid all council tax due until her departure at the end of March.
There was also a bill stating “Reason For Issue: New Account, reference number 67-*****-13” in the name of “Executor of the Late B Burnett-Stuart” . The bill, for 01/04/13-31/03/14, showed the amount to be paid to be the full £1650.24 council tax, first instalment due 1st May 2013. There was also a council tax reminder/final notice dated 16/05/13, threatening harsh penalties for late payment.
The Highland Council had been informed by Mrs B****n that the property would be empty from April 1st  2013, so must have been aware that there was no-one at Brin Croft to receive the bill. I believe the bereavement form I returned in November 2012 gave my contact details, but, as far as I’m aware, no-one tried to contact me.
13. 12/06/13 - My wife and I spoke to Mary at the Highland Council Service Point in Church Street, Inverness.

Mrs B****n has informed me that during her time at Brin Croft she phoned several times and wrote to the Highland Council twice regarding the council tax issues, but nothing was resolved.
As you can imagine, trying to deal with this has added to the upset and stress already caused by the death of my mother and sorting our all her affairs.  The letter sent with the bereavement form on 12 November 2012 expressed deepest sympathy and stated “Council Tax is charged on a daily basis and in the changed circumstances it is important to ensure you receive every possible discount to which you may have become entitled.”
In effect the only discount which has been received was inappropriate, being a “second home” discount in the wrong name.
Mary at the Inverness Service Point was of the opinion that problems had all stemmed from the account being mistakenly changed into Mrs B****n’s name from 15th November 2012, resulting in two accounts being issued, instead of a single account, from November 1st 2012, in the name of the Executors of Mrs Barbara Burnett-Stuart.
The original account was:
67-****-12 Mrs B Burnett-Stuart
A new account in the name of the Executors of Mrs B Burnett-Stuart should have been opened from 1st November 2012 when she died. However the new account was opened in the name of Mrs E B****n from 15th November 2012:
62-****-12 Mrs E B****n
When Mrs B****n left our employ at the end of March 2013 the new account was opened in the name that should have applied all along:
67-*****-13 Executor of the Late B Burnett Stuart
In order to right matters, I am making a request that the records should be changed to reflect the council tax responsibility of the Executors of Mrs B Burnett-Stuart from November 1st 2012, until such a time in the future as the property is sold. I also believe that the following discounts should be applied:

1. 25% single occupancy discount from 1st  November 2012 to 31st March 2013, when Mrs B****n was employed as caretaker by the executors, due to circumstances beyond their control.
2. Executors’ exemption for the six months, starting 1st April 2013, or until the property is sold, should this be earlier than 30th September 2013.

The full council tax bill for Brin Croft for the year 2012-2013 was £1644.08. My mother paid a total of £1096.08 and the executors, via Mrs B****n, paid £563.75 (£617.10 less 10%), making a total of £1659.83. As you can see, this is £15.75 more than the correct cost for the year, even without taking into account the 10% saved due to the second home discount applied November 15th-31st March. The total charge before taking off this discount amounts to £1713.18. Obviously, as my mother was paying a year’s bill over only ten months, she had paid more than was due on the day the account was wrongly changed to Mrs B****n’s name. The amount due should have been £1644.08/365 x 228 days which equals £1026.99 rather than the £1096.08 she had paid.
In total £1659.83 was paid in council tax and water charges for the year 2012-2013, firstly by Mrs Burnett-Stuart and then by her executors via Mrs B****n.  I believe that the correct charge should have been £1489.81. (Full charge for the year £1644.08.   Mrs Burnett Stuart 228 days = £1026.99. Mrs B****n 137 days = £617.09, less 25% single occupancy discount = £462.82).
I am therefore also requesting that the overpayment of £170.02, which belongs to the four beneficiaries of my mother’s will, be repaid to the solicitor dealing with my mother’s estate:....Mr **** can also confirm that the executors have been responsible for and have paid, via Mrs B****n, all bills at Brin Croft since my mother’s death on November 1st 2012.....I apologise for the length of this letter, but, as you can see, the situation is complicated and took a great deal of words and time to explain. I have been out of the country for most of the year so far, so this is the first opportunity I have had to make this appeal. I believe that Mrs B****n wrote to you more than once while I was away, but had no joy. I was very upset to hear from her that it had been implied, by Highland Council staff, that she was lying about the situation in order to claim a discount on her own behalf to which she was not entitled. I hope this letter (and the considerable time and effort taken to write it!) will show that this was certainly not the case.

I must say that I have been both surprised and disappointed at the way this has been dealt with by the Highland Council and hope that this can now be redressed.
I will be in the UK until September and look forward to hearing from you in due course at the above Birmingham address. If necessary, I can also be contacted by phone on 0121 *** **** or by email at ***@****.
Yours faithfully
Simon Baddeley

Arriving in the gloaming at Brin Croft

A weak signal

Mum's scooter bought new which she used once and didn't like (photo: Linda B)

Strathnairn - a fresh summer breeze from the south

14.06.13

ΨΗΦΙΣΜΑ Η Φιλαρμονική Άνω Κορακιάνας «Ο Σπύρος Σαμάρας», ως ένα από τα πολλά σωματεία της Ελλάδας που υπηρετούν τον πολιτισμό και την παιδεία και διαπνέονται από την πίστη στην ελευθερία της σκέψης, τη δημοκρατία και την αγάπη στην πατρίδα, καταδικάζει την μεγάλη προσβολή που συνετελέσθη στο πρόσωπο του ελληνικού λαού με την βίαιη και πραξικοπηματική φίμωση της Ελληνικής Ραδιοφωνίας Τηλεόρασης, εκφράζοντας παράλληλα την συμπαράστασή της στους απολυμένους της. Το κλείσιμο της Ελληνικής Ραδιοφωνίας Τηλεόρασης, του μόνου εναπομείναντος ισχυρού κυματοθραύστη απέναντι σε κάθε λογής προϊόν υποκουλτούρας και αποχαύνωσης αλλά και συνάμα πυλώνος έκφρασης και διάδοσης του ελληνικού πολιτισμού, στο κέντρο, τη διασπορά αλλά και πολλές ευαίσθητες περιοχές, αποτελεί πράξη εκβαρβαρισμού και γεννά πολλά ερωτηματικά, τώρα που όλοι είμαστε πλέον βέβαιοι για τις «πονηρές» ημέρες που διάγουμε και τις ζοφερές αναμνήσεις που πλησιάζουν απειλητικά από το μέλλον…                                       Για το Δ.Σ.  Ο Πρόεδρος του Δ.Σ.                                    Ο Γ. Γραμματέας  ΣΠΥΡΙΔΩΝ ΣΑΒΒΑΝΗΣ                                 ΣΤΑΜΑΤΗΣ ΑΠΕΡΓΗΣ