Dominic Bradley SDLP MLA has offices in Armagh and Newry. The Armagh office is situated at Cathedral Road. It was closed (lunchtime yesterday). Essentially there are two kinds of “Constituency Office”. One is styled as an office (in this case) or a shop-front.
The same two posters appear in the three panels of the bay window.
The latest in a line of SDLP special conferences/seminars took place in Armagh yesterday. Previous conferences have taken place under the radar but this one was arguably the most high profile. It may look from the outside that not much is happening within the SDLP these days…but actually there is quite a lot happening, most of it quite properly outside the public gaze.
A lot of local economists (John Simpson) and journalists (Jamie Delargey) in attendance. Typically not every platform voice was SDLP …Dan O’Brien (Economics Editor of the Irish Times) and George Quigley (banker and occasionally a local Conservative) gave very sobering analysis of the current crisis. There were however more upbeat assessments.
It is of course all part of a “listening” process. And will reap benefits later on.
Of course these occasional get-togethers are good for morale and networking. I am more at ease in SDLP than I was in the transition period before I joined and just after I joined. It helps of course that the atmosphere is extremely upbeat. It helps that people know me…by name and reputation…rather than merely the guy who posts on blogs. And of course it helps when somebody says “I like that blog you posted on…….”
The full SDLP Conference for 2012 is now actually closer than the full SDLP Conference for 2011 and already something to which I am looking forward.
I dont suppose Jimmy Carr welcomes the spotlight now on him. It is unlikely that he thought his tax affairs would be a subject that David Cameron would address.
Yet my memory is long. Max Wall was a famous comedian in the 1950s. But was untouchable when his love life became the subject of tabloid attention.
It is hard to see how a comedian who pokes fun at celebrity and hypocrisy can survive being the subject of headlines which seem to suggest he is a celebrity hypocrite. Coincidently he fronts a topical news quiz……just like Angus Deayton (Have I Got News For You) who was caught with prostitutes and drugs…..by a tabloid newspaper. He was promptly sacked by the BBC in part because it was deemed he could not credibly present a topical comedy quiz. Can Jimmy Carr credibly present “8 Out Of 10 Cats”.
More obviously can he credibly present “Comic Relief” as he did earlier this year? Can he credibly stand in front of a TV audience and appeal for donations from people who pay a higher percentage of their income in tax than Jimmy Carr.
In the 1950s tabloids reflected an obsession with fidelity. No celebrity can be brought down by allegations of infidelity as Max Wall was. In the 1970s he re-surfaced for a new audience…thanks to an appearance on Parkinson…..and enjoyed a brief revival in serious drama before his death.
But in 2012, the biggest crime is Hypocrisy. Will Jimmy Carr fall from Grace?
How long will it be before he is re-habilitated?
Comedy is a strange thing. I remember the 1960s….Arthur Askey, Tommy Trinder and Ted Ray. I remember the 1970s and the racist/sexist “humour” of Bernard Manning, George Roper and Stan Boardman. I remember the 1980s and the alternative comedy of Ben Elton, Harry Enfield and Alexei Sayle. I remember in the 1990s that the comedy of Rob Newman, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner was heralded as the new “rock and roll”.
The 21st Century Comedians….Frankie Boyle, Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr are a curious throwback to the politically incorrect humour of the 1970s.
It is….we are told….about Irony. We must not confuse Al Murray with the Pub Landlord…his xenophobic, homophobic alter ego. Yet the suspicion remains that the audiences who watch Murray are seeing the joke on two levels. The Pub Landlord says things that the Audience would like to say…..so they laugh or post on Twitter. Jimmy Carr says offensive things in his routine and mocks the audience for the guilty laugh.
We make the mistake of thinking that Comedians are……liberal lefties. But it strikes me that todays generation of comedians are as right wing as Askey, Trinder, Ray, Manning, Roper and Boardman. So a fortnight ago Jimmy Carr is hosting the Jubilee Concert for Mrs Windsor at Buckingham Palace. A curious journey from Channel Four to the Establishment.
As a comedian….Jimmy Carr is no Ken Dodd (see what I did there?) . Maybe Laughter is enough. Maybe what passes for humour in a ladies sewing circle is different from what passes for humour in a military barracks. Maybe the art of the stand-up comedian is about delivery….professionalism as much as the joke itself. And what exactly is a joke anyway. Two contrasting ideas coming together in one sentence.
Yet Jimmy Carr is no Ken Dodd……so talking about the Inland Revenue.…(see what I did there?)…..Jimmy Carr has an interesting relationship with the Tax Man.
He is “employed” by a firm in Jersey, the off-shore tax haven. They earn £3 million from Carrs work but “pay” their employee £100,000 on which he pays tax. The rest of the £3 million (untaxed) finds its way to Carr thru loans which do not have to be re-paid. Tax Avoidance is of course not a crime.
Yet I think many of the people in the Carr audience might not be appreciative of his use of tax law. Or maybe they would. Becauseit would be a mistake to think that 21st century audiences at comedy shows are …liberal lefties.
Yet Jimmy Carr hosts a successful Channel Four programme……the panel show “Eight Out Of Ten Cats”. My impression is that ….Eight out of ten cats would like Jimmy Carr to be paying a lot more tax.
Much to the annoyance of LetsGetAlongerists and supporters of IFA-Land, the Irish team at the European Championships wore black armbands as a mark of respect to the six Irish supporters murdered by the UVF terrorists in 1994.
Of course the gesture is a new bond between the Irish team and their supporters in the Six Counties. And thats what really annoys the LetsGetAlongerist community. Shame on them.
My views on the International Eucharistic Congress are somewhat mixed and although I was in Dublin three times last week…I feel my original opinions somewhat refined (distorted?) by last nights excellent RTE “Would You Believe” Special presented by the peerless Mick Peelo.
My first observation is that the grainy footage we have all seen of the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress show Ireland just ten years after Independence and reflect the overbearing presence of the Catholic Church. The 2012 Congress was a “Church” rather than “National” occasion reflecting that Church and State are more seperate than before.
Of course the Congress itself was controversial. The Irish Catholic Church is still reeling from scandals and a large number of people in secular Ireland are apathetic or even hostile to the Church. All entirely reasonable……but some people have a hatred which is less reasonable.
The “Would You Believe” special highlighted the involvement of many Faiths other than Catholicism in the week-long Congress. This is probably not something I would have noticed but I did notice that several aspects of Catholicism presented itself. There was more than one “model”. The official programme spoke of “workshops” to discuss various aspects of Faith. And while it would be unfair to categorise this as controlling the conversation..it did mean that discussion was within certain set boundaries.
The “fringe” meetings in and around the RDS were actually much more interesting as this was the main focus of the Media. Indeed the middle aged casually dressed men were priests advertising their liberalism, while other priests (and indeed laity) dressed in more traditional robes advertised their devotion to the old ways.
It was an odd mix. There are I think already two Catholic Churches operating in Ireland. A Schism has already occured and probably the fault line is on the issue of Women.
For the moment at least, the “official” Church seems to be in some kinda control. The rift with the Vatican was emphasised by the disconnected big screen image of Pope Benedict XVI……a recorded message to the Congress. Ireland is not his favourite place and easy enough to work that out from his body language. A Pope more favourably disposed to the Irish Church would have attended the Congress.
Of course within certain sections of the Irish Church……the Pope is hardly an inspiration.
And within Ireland……….a poll for most unpopular German would be a close run thing between the Pope and Angela Merkel.
And the International Eucharistic Congress was all going so well until the Pope showed up.
The darkest day in the History of the English Catholic Church was in 1993 when Ann Widdecombe and John Selwyn Gummer left the Anglican Church and became Catholics…..mostly over the ordination of women. Neither …..as Ministers in Thatchers Government struck me as being life-enhancers. ……a charge which might also be levelled by English Catholics watching IRA funerals in Norn Iron.
“English” Catholics are different. Aristocratic….posh……they even have the Duke of Norfolk as unofficial monrach, a kinda legacy to their recusant past. The better Churches in London …those “embassy churches” or “with links to a Jacobite past…have posh “English” priests in charge. They rarely fall into the hands of priests with (say) Italian or Irish heritage. Going to a service in Westminster Cathedral …..its a “whos who” of English Conservatism……the late Auberon Waugh, the late John Biggs Davison.
Catholicism seemed to be doing alright without Ann Widdecombe and John Selwyn Gummer. We had our traditional wings and our liberal wings. But the liberals took a hit with the exodus of traditionalists from the Anglican community.
The breaking point for Widdicombe was……women priests. Unfortunately Catholicism became the last resort of the “conservative” rogue. This set back the cause of women priests in the Catholic Church. But oddly boosted the cause of married priests…many of the ordained ministers who left the Church of England are in fact married.
In Ireland we tend to link the causes of “married priests” and “women priests”.
But there is in fact a difference between “married priests” which has a Biblical tradition and “women priests” who have no Biblical tradition……not that we should focus too much on the social mores of two thousand years ago when adopting to the 21st Century.
A summer day last year and I walked into the Stormont Assembly Building. Kinda puffed up and proud with my invitation to a Reception in the Long Gallery in my hand. There for the first time in my own right, rather than part of a group invite to any organisation to which I belonged.
It was of course a few months after the 2011 Election and I am not actually sure if I was a member of SDLP at the time. If not, I had almost certainly made up my mind to join and might well have been waiting on my membership card to arrive.
I had of course spent the best part of two years on the fringe of politics…party conferences, launches, receptions, fringe events, hustings, fundraisers. But going in to Stormont via the famous Michael Stone Memorial Doors felt like I was in a different league.
Reception/Security gave me the bog standard “V” (for Visitor) Pass…..I had worn one before…but it felt different. Because milling around in the building were MLAs, journalists, press officers, Special Advisors, Secretariat Staff, political staffers, catering staff, work placement young people, interns………..and I seemed to be the only person there with that telltale “V” pass. I did not quite belong.
It was just after the Summer Recess. Several MLAs were meeting for the first time. Cross-Community hugs all round…..loud talk about holidays and the May Election results. I was taking it all in……thinking this might be a great place to actually work. A MLA who I was meeting for the first time that day seemed to best capture my mood. “This place can suck you in”. It was a reality check and I think good to be reminded that some politicians can keep their focus better than others. That going thru the Stormont Doors…….it is easy to enter a world of the Politician, the Journalist, the Press Officer etc.
Upstairs just beside the Long Gallery is the Members Dining Room…a reminder of the hierarchy in the building. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the building there is probably a cafeteria where the ordinary folks eat……and socialise.
Because I think Stormont can actually “suck in” the intern as much as the MLA. No General is a hero to his Batman. And essentially interns in the DUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin and UUP offices have more in common with each other than they have with their bosses. They are the people who actually do the work…phoning their opposite numbers in other MLA offices on behalf of their bosses. Well at least they THINK they have more in common.
It is important that much of the work of a MLA is simple representation of a constituent. Also important that much of the work of a MLA is on committee with other MLAs. But I think it goes too far to see a football team of cross-party MLAs lining up against a football team of Journalists (including Stephen Nolan!!!). For me that is simply too cosy. And counter-productive.
What is to be gained by this cosiness. It produces a breed of hangers-on at Stormont. Lobbyists who are just too often in the Long Gallery, getting a word with Conall or Fra or Basil or Nelson.
Keep it real guys and girls. Know your friends. Know your enemies.
Dont let this place suck you in.
I went to Dublin yesterday. It was a choice between Friday and Saturday……and I chose Friday because I wanted to avoid “Bloomsday”…….June 16th when Dublin City is taken over by Joyce scholars, some in Edwardian costume who re-create the walk of Mr Leopold Bloom, in Ulysses.
The Ulysses Trail is marked out on Dublin pavements (the one in the photograph is outside a McDonalds in O’Connell Street). James Joyce detested the narrowness of Ireland….he chose to live in Europe and is buried in Switzerland. Yet he is the patron saint of an alternative Ireland….a non-Catholic Ireland, bohemian Ireland, artistic Ireland, a secular Ireland……an intellectual (or is it elitist?) Ireland. And certainly there is an element of pretentiousness about it all.
Ulysses is of course a dirty book. And not that many Irish people have read it. It was after all banned for years. But reading it……or merely buying the book is a totemic gesture for many Irish people. Owning a copy suggests a “liberalism” and you dont even have to open the book to have any credibility. Just leave it in your bookcase or better still…..leave it on your coffee table ….it will impress your friends.
So many more people have actually bought the book than read it. I myself HAVE read it. I thought it was a necessary step to prove myself to be the intellectual which I obviously am. The book……is in fact a book which can be read in a sectional way……well thats what I did anyway. Chapters are in isolation from what has gone before and after. It is after all a walk thru Dublin.
It is a dirty book. But what matters is not what Joyce said. Or the way he said it. Merely that he said it.
He is the Jean-Jacques Rousseau of the Irish Enlightenment but essentially Bloomsday..the recreated walk…is an event started in the mid-1950s….by poets, writers and academics which was arguably the high point of the old “official” Ireland ….austerity,artistic repression, greyness…and aswe know now …..hypocrisy.
Now that Ireland lets it all hang out as easily as California…..and the twin pillars of “official” Ireland (state and Catholic Church) are discredited……James Joyce seems less important.
Bloomsday is increasingly not just a re-enactment of Edwardian Dublin….it is a re-enactment of 1950s Dublin.
A two hour documentary/explanation on RTE earlier this week probably captured the mood with contributions from the likes of Edna O’Brien, eseentially a literary figure who also rebelled against that 1950s greyness.
But perhaps one comment from the documenatry summed it all up.
“An Irish Catholic does not have to read the Bible as they already know what its about. And Irish people dont have to read Ulysses as they already know whats in it”.
It has always amused me that several members of the Alliance Party and a former prominent journalist thougt that I was Brian Feeney……..a notion that I did little to discourage for several months.
I briefly met Brian a few times in the 1970s when he was a prominent member of the SDLP and I was a very lowly member of the same Party. I have not spoken t him in over thirty years. Yet perhaps he is the most prominent “lost sheep” that the SDLP should be attracting back to the flock……….Having voted Sinn Fein for around fifteen years, I am already back in the flock.
Some of Brian Feeney’s recent commentaries in the Irish News and television appearances have indicated a softening in his line towards the SDLP. Notably on “Hearts and Minds” on Thursday, he was critical of Sinn Féins failure to bring on young talent (such as Daithí McKay) and a lack of the talent they have in the Republic (such as Pearse Doherty and Mary Lou McDonald) and commented favourably on SDLP young talent such as Colum Eastwood and the impressive Belfast councillor Nichola Mallon.
This seemed to be just the latest in a line of commentary which was sympathetic to SDLP.
Obviously Brian Feeney is a working commentator and may not be entirely happy about re-engaging with SDLP. Unlike me…he has some baggage. No doubt he has good and bad relationships with senior SDLP figures. That would certainly be my assumption. But its eems to be that Brian Feeney is the kind of voice to whom the SDLP should be listening. He has his finger on the pulse of mainstream nationalist thinking.
The SDLP seems to be a political party with whom Brian Feeney still identifies ……but obviously I do not know how to quantify that support.
Brian Feeney deserves a platform in the ongoing discussions SDLP is having…..he is at least more sympathetic to the philosophy of SDLP than Duncan Morrow, Rev Norman Hamilton, “journalist” Davey Adams (Davey Adams for Gods sake!!!!)…voices which have been heard on SDLP platforms.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 