If you are planning to see the exhibition, the very strong advice is book ahead. (You can buy timed tickets – although that does mean a booking fee.) But it seems you are unlikely to get in otherwise. They’ve even had to make a couple of special opening times so that staff can get in. (It continues until June 25, and I am planning a write up soon – after the election…)
They are full today, of course, of John Prescott (no that isn’t meant to be a pun, although it could be), but I thought a tongue-in-cheek text read out on the BBC’s Broadcasting House was apt. It ran, roughly:
“Standards have slipped in the Sunday papers even more today. There’s not one single give-away DVD.”
It will be interesting to see the comparative circulation effects of a good old-fashioned political sex scandal versus the old-and-therefore-cheap copy of a movie.
Placed there, historians are told that they have to write a national history, to be given to people who are becoming citizens of that state, that will tell them everything they need to know, and be acceptable to all interested parties. Every day they submit a new draft; every day it is thrown back to them. They beg instead to be given the task of pushing a bloody great rock up a hill, only to see it roll down again, just to get something easier and less frustrating to do.
One has, therefore, to sympathise with Sir Bernard Crick, “a biographer of George Orwell and former mentor to David Blunkett”, who got the job of writing a pamphlet guide to the history of Britain for immigrants.
The Historical Association, which represents historians at schools and universities, is outraged at some of the “facts†in the booklet and is proposing to write its own account — but is hampered by the very concept of having official historical accounts at all. “Official histories are a bad thing because they can be used for establishing government purposes and can be reinvented to support the official Establishment,†Barry Coward, president of the Historical Association, said. “This has been shown throughout history, as we saw in Hitler’s Germany. We think this is the thin end of the wedge and that history shouldn’t be used as a tool of Government.â€
True, but then at the end of the day, perhaps someone does have to write such a document.
They might at least get some help in that, however, with the news that British History Online has got a further tranche of money from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. From an email source (doesn’t seem to be online):
“Phase II of the project, from 1 August 2006, will see the expansion of the British History Online digital library to include the National Archives Calendars of State Papers, Domestic (1547-1704, 1760-75), a further 40 volumes of the Victoria County History and a range of sources for the social, administrative, economic and political history of Britain.”
That swiching noise you can hear is my rubbing my hands together with glee. I’ve often wished those State Papers were online, particularly when dealing with inadequately footnoted stuff from the Twenties and Thirties.
A horrific story in the Sydney Morning Herald: the headline “A prisoner of family and the state” sums it up perfectly. Kylie Fitter was just 15 when she helped her father and brother kill their mother. That makes her sound like a monster, but in fact she was pure victim.
Kylie, born three months premature, already remained to her parents fragile and vulnerable. Sheltered from life, she was an introverted girl with no friends, or self-esteem, and little ability to think for herself. Her mother waited on her. Her father filled her head with extreme Christian beliefs. He was domineering, passionate about his God and his family. … Both Kylie’s parents suffered abuse as children. Out of love for their children, they kept them close and fiercely protected. They moved a lot; there were several schools, and charismatic churches. By 13 Kylie was on Prozac. She left school at 14, a social misfit, believing she was stupid, and in isolation filled her days playing computer games. Her brother was spiralling into schizophrenia, hearing “demons’ voices” and becoming fixated on harming his mother.
Where in the hell, one wonders, was social services? But the state’s role gets worse. Kylie was locked up (but not convicted on the ground that she was mentally ill) after the killing, for an indefinite term. Three times now, (and soon to be a fourth) medical experts have said that her mental state is basically healthy, and she is no threat at all (if indeed, removed from her family, she ever was). She has a family that has informally adopted her, is studying for a university degree, and after that horrific beginning has some sort of hope of building a life for herself.
One thing stands in her way. Politics.
In NSW, the power to release a forensic patient lies with politicians, who are subject to lobbying and voter backlash. …effective power resides with the Minister Assisting the Health the Health Minister, Cherie Burton. … This year she rejected all six recommendations for conditional release, insisting on more conditions, and more information. … In 2000, the Government released on strict conditions 70 per cent of those recommended by the tribunal; last year it freed only 30 per cent.
There’s an election this year. The only hope might be that even in the increasingly rightwing, authoritarian Australia, the profound injustice here will lead to a change in the law, taking control out of the hands of politicians.
Meanwhile in Massachusetts, parents are suing a school for reading out a story in which two men – prince and prince (nice) – find each other and live happily ever after. This, remember, is in a state that allows gay marriage, so this is perfectly in line with societal norms.
The suit filed in the US District Court in Boston on Thursday alleges violations of the federal civil rights of the two sets of parents, David and Tonia Parker, and Rob and Robin Wirthlin. All are devout Judaeo-Christians.
“I was concerned that I had not broached this topic with my young child yet and I was concerned that the point of view that was being presented was different from our family’s personal moral values,” Robin Wirthlin told a news conference.
All the more reason for your child to be given an independent moral framework, to learn that however odd and twisted his or her homelife, there are other options. Otherwise that child might end up separated from the world, unable to function in it, just like poor Kylie. Your child is not your possession, to be shaped into a form you think is appropriate. They are an independent human being who can, and must, develop a mind of their own. Any other result is tragedy.
Welcome to the first Femmes Fatales on the new site: you know the drill – 10 great posts from 10 new (to me) women bloggers.
To begin, an immensely powerful post from Witchy-woo on Well, I’ll Go To The Foot of the Stairs, about the fate of her cousin, Catherine. She was savagely attacked, but the even worse villain of the piece is the teachings of the Catholic Church…
Then Lelyons on Femivist offers a powerful and deeply personal explanation of Hetero-privilege. “Without a doubt, I could exercise privilege if I decided to go with the flow. I would have to stay in good shape and learn to cook, but some might say that is a small sacrifice to make to have a bottomless credit card with which to shop with.”
After that a bit of light relief: Boinkette specialises in the short and sweet, and often pictorial. She’s glad to note that Bill Clinton is well hung. (But what I want to know, in the post above that, is why George Bush is wielding what looks – in fact I’m sure it is – a cricket bat?)
It is early days, but in the “one to watch file” is Laura on Sheffield Fems who is introducing her group, formed by a group of women eager to capitalise on the success of the national feminist conference, Fem05, which was held in Sheffield in the same month. Mo Pie on Big Fat Deal has meanwhile been expressing a wish – not a really huge wish really – for an overweight woman to be shown on television as sexy and desirable.
Turning to the less overtly “political”, Kaka Mak has some pleasant, and some considerably less pleasant, road encounters, accompanied by a fiery steed.
On Healthy Policy, Kate provides a vivid account of her progress from two crutches, to one crutch, to freedom.
Then ‘Nika has, I gather in reading between the lines, two small children and another on the way. A post about her day might be usefully employed as a contraceptive, for anyone getting a bit clucky. And the effects of the arrival of a baby on a relationship is explored by Shannon on It’s Shanntastic. “Having a baby has been THE most challenging thing our marriage has ever had to withstand.
Finally, one for the word mavens among us: JCarwen on TruthSpiral would like to apply restraint to some copywriter’s keyboard. I could think of a few other nominations – particularly the bank I walk past nearly every day that has abandoned hyphens. “Old fashioned” looks very odd without a hyphen.
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If you missed last week’s edition, it is here. (If you’d like to see all of them as a list , click on the category “Friday Femmes Fatales” in the righthand sidebar. That will take you to a collection of 540 (and counting) women bloggers.)
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Please: In the next week if you read, or write, a post by a woman blogger and think “that deserves a wider audience†(particularly someone who doesn’t yet get many hits), drop a comment. It really does make my life easier!
The Tory leader David Cameron is cycling to work every day. It is part of his new green colouring. But, it emerges, his chauffeur is driving behind with his shirt. The true colours aren’t far below the surface. But I have a helpful suggestion – panniers. If I can get 10 books from the London Library in mine, I reckon he could get the papers he needs, and the space for a clean shirt…
Now I think that micro power schemes are much better than macro, but it still has to be considered a forward step that Europe’s biggest onshore windfarm has just been approved in Scotland. It will produce enough power for 200,000 homes.
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