Murderous Hate in and around Gaza

On Saturday 7th October, with complete surprise, Hamas fighters broke out of the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza and attacked Israeli soldiers and settlements in the area. There was also a rave going on which turned into a bloodbath.

The attack was without mercy, and it showed the extreme cruelty that indoctrinated young men are capable of when well led and motivated. No Israeli citizens were spared; men and women, the very old and even babies - all killed. Think about your worst nightmare and the reality of what happened that day is worse. With over 1,300 people killed, the vast majority Israeli, it was the biggest single lost of life in a day in Israel's history. 

The Israeli Army and the armed Israeli police force reaction was slow and hesitant. Incredibly it was several days before all the Hamas fighters were killed or forced back into Gaza. The world response was faster, instant condemnation of Hamas and offers of help. President Joe Biden, hopefully the last of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong democratic presidents pledged full support to Israel, American military support and extra ammunition. Much of the media, especially in the USA devoted itself to parroting the pro-Israel line. 

Israel's response is depressingly predictable and familiar. An orgy of bombing and shelling the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world. This has been the standard Israeli response to any act of Palestinian resistance since the state's bloody and morally dubious foundation in 1948. The result is also depressingly predictable and familiar. Thousands of innocent Palestinian men and women, the very old and even babies - killed and maimed. The survivors and relatives will of course hate the country, society and people that has done this to them, and not a few will look for opportunities for revenge in the future.

It's tempting to write on, but fortunately there has been some outstanding writing already done on the situation. Sarah Helm has written a brave article on the dangers of Netanyahu's extreme nationalist government ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip by expelling its population to Egypt. And the ever reliable Andrew Sullivan has written an outstanding article on this episode that is the best I've read so far.

Here at home, our doomed Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has shown unprecedented levels of support for Israel, including the offer of some ships and a unit of Royal marines. I assume these will contribute to the blockade of Gaza so that countries like Iran cannot ship weapons into the enclave. Perhaps as a British Indian he feels he has to do twice as much to avoid accusations of antisemitism. 

Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer has built his power base in the Labour Party by accusing people like me of antisemitism. So it's no surprise that he's given Israel unqualified support, to an extraordinary extent. As Marina Hyde writes: 

[It was] pretty unedifying to note Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry seemed unable to stand behind the idea of international law in interviews this week (particularly given the suspicion they might have said the diametric opposite four years ago). Well quite.

The media have also been irritating. For the first few days there was reporting that seemed to assume that this attack had been completely unprovoked and come out of a clear blue sky. Antisemitism was the official Israeli explanation for the whole thing. Belatedly, perhaps as a result of fury from people like me, there is now a lot more context given to the attack and more explanation of the general situation and history of the conflict. But there is a horrible, pervasive assumption behind much of the coverage that Israeli Jewish life far more valuable than any Palestinian Arab one . 

My own feelings are ones of deep sympathy to anyone who's lost anyone in this conflict. But coupled with that are feelings of anger and sorrow that my and many other good people's efforts to get a political solution to this conflict in the early years of this century failed. If there had been a just and fair negotiated solution to the conflict back then, I have no doubt that all the Israelis killed last Saturday, and all the Palestinians killed then and and being killed now would be alive and well. 

Hell of a Year

 2022 is now over, to almost universal relief.

It featured the worst war in Europe since 1945, the sacking of two Prime Ministers and the death of our Queen, who had reigned over us since the mid 20th Century. 

On a personal note I left Worldpay in February after nine years, then lost my job at the next company after six very stressful and unhappy months. But luckily, the current UK job market is the best it's been for decades. I managed to find a new job within a couple of months and (so far) it seems to be going OK.

The outlook is not good for 2023 - the war in Ukraine has disrupted the world energy market. It seems that we're in for a recession, and the stupidity of Brexit isn't exactly helping either. Hopefully the experts are wrong and things will pan out well in 2023.

The Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

Today we watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the second. 

It was a brilliantly choreographed and performed piece of high ceremony, replete with soldiers, sailors, and countless other uniformed staff and dignitaries. 

To begin with I found it funny and rather ridiculous, like some Gilbert and Sullivan rubbish produced with a billion pound budget. But gradually, as the ceremony, or rather ceremonies progressed, I found myself immersed, and eventually quite emotional.

I never met the Queen, and was only ever in the same room as her once. It was the ballroom at Buckingham Palace in 1997, and my father was receiving the OBE for services to agriculture. The Queen was a small lady, conventionally but immaculately dressed. She asked my father a question, listened politely to his answer, and shook his hand. Prior to the ceremony, he'd been briefed that she had a firm handshake - he confirmed that she had.

I'm no ardent Royalist, but believe in the madness of a constitutional monarchy. People, often very ordinary people, seem to love it. I like the way it absolves our politicians of having to pretend to be acting in the interests of the whole country - in our system they never do. I've also been lucky enough to live in two republics, France and the USA. In both, the citizens didn't seem to be any happier or freer than in the United Kingdom. 

Andrew Sullivan has written a brilliant article on Queen Elizabeth II and constitutional monarchies. I urge you to find it and read it yourselves, but here's an extract:

You can make all sorts of solid arguments against a constitutional monarchy — but the point of monarchy is precisely that it is not the fruit of an argument. It is emphatically not an Enlightenment institution. It’s a primordial institution smuggled into a democratic system. It has nothing to do with merit and logic and everything to do with authority and mystery — two deeply human needs our modern world has trouble satisfying without danger.

The Crown satisfies those needs, which keeps other more malign alternatives at bay. No one has expressed this better than C.S. Lewis:

Where men are forbidden to honour a king, they honour millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead; even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.

The Crown represents something from the ancient past, a logically indefensible but emotionally salient symbol of something called a nation, something that gives its members meaning and happiness. However shitty the economy, or awful the prime minister, or ugly the discourse, the monarch is able to represent the nation all the time. In a living, breathing, mortal person.

The period of mourning for Elizabeth II lasted 10 days, and with the funeral today comes to an end. It's been a strange slightly disorientating time. There have been ceremonies in Edinburgh, and a prolonged lying in state in the medievally atmospheric Westminster Hall. An estimated 300,000 people queued up to pay their respects. The BBC had a 24 hour live feed going the whole time, and it was weirdly compelling viewing. 

I'd hoped the funeral today would bring a sense of closure, but instead I feel sad and still slightly disorientated. Hearing "God Save the King!" and a national anthem that now starts with "God save our gracious King, long live our noble King..." feels very strange. Likewise seeing "E II R" emblazoned on the outfits of trumpeters and other royal functionaries, probably for the last time. I wonder when a brown envelope will arrive through the door that says "On his majesty's service" and when I shall see my first post box with "G III R" on it? 

Historic Week

Yesterday at 6:32pm it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II died in the afternoon. M noticed the news on her phone about 6 minutes afterwards.

"Oh god, she's dead," M said. We were both shocked and saddened. 

Three days ago Liz Truss became Prime Minister, yesterday the Queen died. In between, M and I were heavily involved in the marriage of J, M's eldest daughter to a diplomat. Quite a week.

When you think it's all over, it's only begun...

 

The dreadful COVID epidemic finally seems to be over. 

Last week the final restrictions were lifted. We no longer have to wear masks anywhere and public gatherings are back to normal, like football matches, nightclubs, restaurants and so on. 

But the next crisis is already upon us. Vladimir Putin, the thug in charge of Russia, seems to have lost his mind and invaded Ukraine. That deserves a separate blog post all of it's own. 

Resigned

On Tuesday September the 13th 2005, I resigned from the worst job of my life. 

20 days later I started a new job as a contract technical writer at a British fintech company called Worldpay. I'd never worked in the sector before, but I could certainly write user guides, and at 40 was still just about young enough to learn.

Worldpay were an outstanding company to work for in an office of brilliant people and a friendly supportive atmosphere. This isn't just rose-tinted nostalgia either. Look at this blog post from the 15th of March 2007:

It's time to acknowledge the kindness of the team opposite.

Despite my having (officially) nothing to do with them, they constantly invite me to their lunches out, evenings out, and even their corporate fun day (today) which includes a river trip this afternoon.

I declined to join them but they still managed to sneak me into their free lunch just now.

Believe me, not everywhere is like that. 

That contact was initially for three months, and was extended several times. When it finally came to an end on Friday the 28th May 2007 I was unusually upset. I'd asked the manager at least twice if I could join the company as permanent employee, but for whatever reason(s) the answer was no. 

Fast forward to February 2013 - I'd just finished another rather unsatisfactory contract, but in January an agent had contacted me about a permanent job at an outfit based in Cambridge called Worldpay. Would I be interested...? Two tough interviews followed - tough because they were quite demanding, and also tough because I really wanted them. A very nice manager somehow remembered me from six or seven years previously and somehow I got lucky enough to get taken on again. 

The start date was Monday 4th March 2013 and amazingly, but given the culture of the company not that amazingly, I recognised several people still working there after all those years. My new boss was wonderful - a complete natural - the best boss I have ever had. The team of writers were excellent, both as colleagues and as friends. 

I stayed with the company from then until yesterday afternoon. That's nearly nine years. Nine years that included the:

• The best manager I ever had - see above - and later, and the 2nd worst

• Best training course I ever took, and by far the worst

• Best ‘out-of-office’ meeting ever. The taxi driver thought we might be drunk at 9am on the way there and the mood continued all day

• Best business trip I ever had, which featured semi-automatic pistols and a bunch of friends I’d not seen for 18 years

• Saddest day at work, when the team took the day off to attend a friend and colleague's funeral in Liverpool

• Best annual review I ever had

• Two of the most barking barking barking mad colleagues I ever worked with – they were both fired years ago, but not together

• Not one but two takeovers, which occurred less than two years apart. Those are two of several good reasons I had to leave...

The new job starts on March 1st. Let's hope the 'resting time' in between is as pleasant as the last time.

Get Back - The Beatles film

 The Guardian asked for reactions to the 'new' Beatles film, so here's mine:

A fascinating film, full of insights and revelations. 

Big surprises? Here are just a few:

History hasn't been kind to Beatles manager Brian Epstein - said to be a man out of his depth and responsible for some lousy business decisions and contracts. Yet the Beatles, especially Paul McCartney, miss the man and speak fondly of him. He had their respect and was someone they listened to - not so easy perhaps, in an outfit that featured one John Winston Ono Lennon. 

Yoko Ono is definitely a listener, in fact the surprise is that she rarely seems to talk at all. Far from being "the fifth Beatle" as John Lennon once described her, she's more of a permanent audience, often looking a bit bored, sometimes writing, sometimes knitting, but ever present. With the best will in the world, it's hard to respond to her occasional artistic performative "singing" as anything other than ludicrous. 

But in the film at least, the closest relationship is between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Between them they seem to get 80% of the dialogue and maybe 90% of the screen time. But it's easy to see why - that word 'chemistry' is inadequate to describe how well they get on - both personally and musically. This runs against the received wisdom, which has them growing inexorably further apart during this period. 

George Harrison is the most sympathetic of the four. Initially he seems a man who feels excluded from the creative process, and who lacks the confidence to assert himself. Then he goes snaps and walks out on the band, who respond with a musical version of a nervous breakdown that afternoon. Then Harrison returns and as the month of rehearsing and recording goes on, he seems happier and more confident. The negative comparisons to people like Eric Clapton disappear. A day or two before the rooftop concert, he's the one who's helping Ringo expand the idea for Octopus's Garden into a song.

George Martin looks and sounds like the leading man from some 1940s British romantic film. Like the colours of those films, he wears white shirts with black and grey suits that always feature immaculate pocket squares. He's so out of place, of such a different class and generation to the Beatles and almost everyone else hanging around. But the relationship is so much closer and friendly than you'd assume. He's also got great musical gifts and a willingness to help with anything - at one point he's lugging some big create around like any roadie. None the less it's surprise how much the much younger  Glynn Johns does in the studio control room compared to George Martin.

And so the film goes - surprising, fascinating, and occasionally frustrating - do the Beatles really have to degenerate into parody and mockery so often when they try and play a song from start to finish? Or are we getting highly selective edits because they're funny and the normal recording/rehearsal process is a bit boring? We're seeing arguably the four most famous men in the world in January 1969, and yet they're so grounded, and even at times (sorry Ringo Starr) quite ordinary. 

There's so much to discuss - I haven't even mentioned the effortless happy genius of Billy Preston, who revives the entire crew when sits at the keyboard and does his stuff, completely unrehearsed. There's also the happy accident that the Beatles of 1969 are currently looking more fashionable and contemporary than they have for 50 years or so. Equally contemporary is the misery of Britain's relationship with immigrants - perhaps the saddest and most shocking theme of the film. 

But it's wrong to finish on a bum note - the Beatles never would. This is life-affirming look at the best band in history towards the end of their amazing run. Yes, perhaps the second part of the three is a little too long. But we should thank Michael Lindsay-Hogg's team in 1969, and of course Peter Jackson today for viewing and re-editing all the footage. This is a priceless film of the best music group of the 20th century at work. From now on it will be appreciated and enjoyed by anyone who likes music.