Colonel Blimp

It is still cold but the snow has departed, time for Scottish porridge oats breakfast and lots of French onion soup. It is became a day for one new film and one old.

In 1993 the BBC produced an engaging escapist mini TV series starring John Thaw as Peter Mayale, who after 15 years in advertising had packed up and described his first year as a writer in Province in Southern France, entitled a Year in Province, based on his seventh book. This was followed by a sequel Tourjours Province. I have both books which are delightful with black and white line drawings. I had stayed in province in 1991 and my novel written in 1991 an 1993 was based on a hill town in the same area.

When the film based on his book. A good year came to motion picture screen in 2006 I intended to view and it has been on my list for sometime. It is romantic Peter Mayale where the South of France hinterland is always summer and locals work hard but have a great time when not working. Russell Crowe is convincing as an unscrupulous city trader but his conversion into a romantic small vineyard estate owner is less than convincing. Some who is as ruthless and successful as portrayed odes not change that easily. However if the story is to believed that he had a wonderful childhood with the now deceased owner of the villa it is equally difficult to understand how or why he became such a ruthless market operator and general exploiter and user of anyone and everyone. However having said this was very enjoyable and aroused much hankering to have been a Peter Mayale is some parallel dimension instead of having only made five visits during my lifetime, two weeks in a caravan neat Saint Tropez, to weeks in camp site Las Salisis, one week there and another further towards the Spanish Border, a few days camping in a car and two week is Villa with its private swimming pool. Just thinking about I feel the sun, remember going for the crusty bread and spending days in and out of the pool eating the bread with salami, olives and cheese, drinking wine.

Sign, sigh, sigh. Oh to escape again the sense of responsibility and duty for those who presently starve and are sick, exploited and persecuted.

The second film is a British curiosity which can be taken two ways and was the subject of controversy, the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Idealism versus contemporary reality.
My impression that that the British and the North Americans remain two collections of people who retain a strong sense of romantic idealism and chivalry in their character, Christian based. Of course if you examine the history of both nations the practice is very different and during the evening I watched another side of Boris Johnston London’s Mayor programme on The Crusades in which Christian and Muslim the two great slaughtering religions of the past two thousands took to exterminating religious ethnic cleansing on a scale which we were only to see matched by the Christian German people in World War II, While during the Crusades the main slaughtering in the tens of thousands was between Christian and Muslim and Christian and Christian both Christian and Muslim took the opportunity to slaughter as many of the Jew as came their way. Interestingly is was during the 300 years when the Moors occupied most of Spain that the Muslim learnt to live along the Jew to a degree.

In Colonel Blimp Roger Liversey un unlikely Errol Flynn Gary Cooper type of hero plays a high principled military officer who wins the Victoria cross in the Boer war and on an official visit to Germany is forced to fight a point of honour duel with someone he has never met selected by lot. To disguise the real reason for the duel so as not exacerbate Anglo German relations after the Boer War , a German speaking English Governess is required o pretend to be his girl friend , the faked cause of the dispute, the period of weeks in which he and the German officer convalesce in a nursing home from their injuries which led to the duel being declared a draw and honour satisfied.

To pass the time the female friend played by a young Deborah Kerr, Roger. the German Officer, played by British Cinema Screen heartthrob Anton Walbrook and the female friend of the German spend the evenings playing Bridge and become great friends. When it is time for Roger and Deborah to depart too late Roger discovers that he has fallen in love with the English woman, because she and the German officer have become engaged, and she remains behind , marries and has two sons.

Then when World War I breaks out Liversey clings to the military code of honour while this post World War 2 film argues that it its Germans who introduced indiscriminate bombing, the use of mustard gas and the torturing of prisoners. And thus began the British and USA dilemma of the past 100 years.
Does one fight fire with fire or try and maintains standards which help retain the moral high ground. This is something has divided the British nation strongly as seen by the number of people on the streets during the Suez Crisis and the decision to go to War in Iraq.

As the armistice is signed Roger makes his way home and sees a nurses who looks identical to Deborah Kerr, which is not surprising as she also plays this part and he makes great efforts to find her when he returns home and they marry, arranging a house in London, but postpone a Paris honeymoon, when he finds that he German friend is still a prisoner of war of England. They go to see him but he refuses acknowledge, humiliated and ashamed in defeats, However he contacts Roger as he is about to be returned home with the disbandment of the army and Roger invites him to his home during a dinner party of senior officers in the armed services and colonial government and they do their best to raise the moral of their recent enemy. When he rejoins his comrades on their way back to Germany he mocks the attitudes and standards of the British, suggesting that it will be easier for the Germany win the war to come when they regain their military strength.

The film then jumps to just before World War II when the German officer is seeking asylum in London and is before a hearing in which he is question why it took him so long to reach against Hitler to which he rejoins that while it took him several months it took the British five years. He refers to the loss of his wife and that his two sons have become loyal Nazis. And he speaks of his admiration of British standards and way of life in contrast to that of the new Germany. Liversey arrives to confirm his friend and to take him home. Only to find that first he is prevented from making a BBC broadcast and then is retired from the services. Meanwhile we learn that his wife has also died while making a an unexplained visit to Jamaica. He appointed to lead the Home Guard in London and he finds drive who looks exactly like, you’ve guess it, played by Deborah Kerr who has boyfriend who is on the other side in a training exercise between the Home Guard and would be invading army. The exercise is due to commence at midnight but the boyfriend leading the exercise attacked in the evening rounding up the officers who are having Turkish bath at their club. The film ends and it began with the modern British army about to start to win the Second World War by brining itself up to-date with weapons and tactics against the old older of Colonel Blimp. The film can be interpreted as a statement that the old value need to be retained but applied in contemporary situations making use of the best available equipment, intelligence technology, and British ingenuity and determination as well as skill.

I watched part of the X factor where the voting public continues to demonstrate that popularity has nothing to do with ability, skill, creativity, excellence and more to do with likeability. It also high lights the generation gap between those with minimum standards and those without, The 15 year old of limited ability but will be liked by children and their mums and won through tot he final against four female singers of international quality and potential. Similarly an ordinary group of boys have been pushed forward because no group has won the competition and because of the ethnic origins. This week the semi final the most original and unique of the females was consequently discarded, admitted by the public. Democracy is a hard task master.

Merlin was interesting this week because it reinforced the need for everyone to make their own decision, after taking Counsel, even wise counsel. My long lost friend, the author of Smallcreeps Day used to and may still do hire out his authentic alchemists laboratory. Alchemy was in part the subject of the programme this week aided by Magic.

I listened to Newcastle playing Stoke and alas after a splendid first half with two Michael Owen goals their opponents rallied to achieve a draw in the last seconds of the game. I was impressed with Roy Keane during the period when he rescued Sunderland who were sliding back into the old third division and took them to the top of the Championship playing frenetic cut and thrust traditional football. During their first season back in the Premiership when they only survived because of pressing hard until the end and scoring crucial goals in the final minutes, often in extra time. I understood the need to experiment with players in an attempt to find the best balanced team which could make progress, but the extent of the changes and the nature of some of the changes did nor herald a good season when it commenced in summer. The idea that Cisse and Kenwyn Jones could work together was a major error and with the loss of six games including three at home his departure was only a matter of time, oddly as a volatile character on the field of play he was too laid back, too cool on the sidelines to establish himself as a personality who could move players to perform several notches above their natural level. Whereas I was not in favour he move of Sam Alladyce to Newcastle he may be the man now for Sunderland/ Yesterday team held out for 90 minutes at Old Trafford without making one serious attempt on the Man U goal. Fortunately I could do other things while the one of those most entertaining matches oft he year took place.

My work is progressing at a good level, but not great way, although I have put in many hours on my writing over recent weeks at the expense of other project work. I continue to try and increase the number of friends to match the number of Blogs but I am still significantly behind with some 494 friends and 576 Blogs completed. I make time to enjoy the wonderful art work, information and music that is on the majority of the additional sites and which puts my own effort to shame. Hieronymus Bosh, Paul Gauguin, Diego Rivera, Henri Rousseau, Salvador Dali, Degas, De Chirico, David, Toulouse Lautrec and Bernini are among recent artist, Marcel Proust, Allen Ginsberg, Thomas Grady, Lord Byron and Albert Camus from Literature, and a wide range of music from REM, Diana Krall to Billy Bragg, Beethoven and Elton john and Miss Sophie and the Dixie Chicks. I have not succeeded with the cinema as hope so will try further, but additions have included Robert Altman, Antonioni , Hitchcock, Sophie Loren and John Houstin who merited some Blog work mentions, with Orson Wells and Edward G Robinson still to do. Their are two President Elect Barack Obama, one his official MySpace site and Daniel Pearl and the music days.

I was successfully in only one of the four computer games selected in achieve 101 wins without a draw and defeat in Free Cell but stopped the run until I have succeeded in at least one of the others. At chess my best run is 46 wins and current at 97% overall, with some 110 games played back to level one; at Spider the best run was 71 with at present 31 games and 95% of some 130 games overall. Heart was my Achilles heel with previously an 11% percentage increased to just under 50%. I am much better but still 89% with a best run of 11 games from the 47 played.

Ed Balls appears to be taking an increasing grip on child acre social work and to be explaining why they allowed the situation at Harringey to go on for over a year after Baby P died. First they have placed the blame squarely on Harringey who provided incorrect information which let to the three star rating of the department, but they also admit it was scandalous of the Inspectorate have relied on written data given the previous horror and have immediately introduced the annual spot check on all departments. He also appears to have worked out that training bodies, supervised practice while in training, close supervision during the first year of practice and continued supervision of everyone undertaking direct client contact or direct decision taking is essential and ordered a national review. Hopefully he will ensure that his Inspectorate take a close look at what happened between 1970 and 2000, especially on the influence of the Newcastle Mafia on the direction of child care with the strangle hold on both the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Association

Later Ed Balls appeared at the beginning of the politics show and I continue to be impressed both with his understanding and proposed action. Both the Politics show and the World at one featured David Cameron saying that he wanted to have confidence in the Speak of the Commons which is not the same as saying that he had confidence and about a quarter of over 100 Labour backbenchers surveyed expressed significant reservation about what ahs happened. I had reservations about the way he appeared to be passing the buck to the Sergeant at arms and the Police and at lunchtime there was an impressive contribution from a former deputy Speaker which said all there was to say on the subject, It is odd that some Members of the Government, The Prime Minister and now Ed balls have come out in favour of the Speaker while others Harriet Harman notably appeared to adopt the role of Pontius Pilot on all aspects as had the Home Secretary. I suspect a lot will depend on whether the present amendment to for the government to have a majority on the investigation committee and for it not to sit until the police come to a decision on the issue of criminal proceedings. If it is upheld I doubt if the Speaker will survive into the next Parliament, If a compromise can be reached including the opportunity for all those who wish to comment to have their say in the subsequent debate then. The Executive will need to also handle the proceedings and debate with care if they are to maintain the this is largely a party political divide, similarly Mr Cameron and the Senior Tories must concentrate on the role of Parliament and Members of the House of Commons. The issues raised are above Party politics.