SLAPSTICK

One Man Two Guvnors
Having thoroughly enjoyed the previous National Theatre Live film performance of The Cherry Orchard I vowed to go the Welfare in Ystradgynlais for the next performance. I almost didn't make it and was rewarded last Thursday by the most hilariously funny performance I have ever seen.  

The National Theatre Live is a video of a performance at the National Theatre in London on a prearranged night which is beamed by satellite across the world and shown simultaneously at cinemas across the globe. It attempts to give the impression that you are actually at the theatre and certainly it is far removed to a contrived film version of the play and the next best thing to being in the theatre. The nearest venues for us are in Cardiff, Milford Haven and Ystradgynlais, not much of a recommendation for Swansea. The charge is £10 per person, many times less than the cost of seeing it in the London theatre. By my count they were showing at 129 venues in the UK last Thursday, one of which was an outdoor showing next to the south Bank theatre itself,where the cast were seen taking a bow in person shortly after the performance, rather like viewing the tennis action at Wimbledon from the Hill or the PROMS on a large screen. I think they claimed 400 venues worldwide. 

As to the show itself it was five star rated by almost all the quality newspapers and its success is demonstrated that when its season is completed at the National and following touring England and Edinburgh the production will transfer to the Adelphi in November. But for the difficulty of finding actors able to carry out the parts I could see it outliving the Mousetrap. There was lots of very funny sheer slapstick, lots of clever quips and something between a Shakespearean comic plot and a scat on a gangster scene from The Lavender Hill Mob. A skiffle group complete with washboard player, though the T-chest looked very much like a genuine double base, amused the live audience whilst it took its seats, and then slowly modernised to emerge in different forms each time the curtains closed for a change of scenery, even transforming into the Beverley Sisters at one stage.

Shakespearean, for Roscoe mysteriously appears in flesh having apparently risen from the dead two days after his murder, 'thus having broken the previous world record by a day' only to turn out to be his 'identical twin' sister Rachel in disguise who ends up marrying the very gangster Stanley who murdered her brother. This couple, both men at the time, are the two guvnors whom Francis Henshall milks and panics for all he is worth. Francis is played by the star of the show comic actor James Corden.

An east-end criminal, with a daughter 'so dumb they can't make bricks thick enough' to compare is kept out of nick by a fat cat lawyer with an unworldly actor son who ends up with the actor, and Dolly a real life Dolly Parton is paired off with Francis in the finale. The play on which it is based was written in Italian in 1743 though in this adaption it is Brighton and 1963, just 'before intercourse was invented'. See if Shakespeare had lived another 100 years he might have pinched the plot.


The next National Theatre Live event is The Kitchen 6.30 (beware- the early start almost fooled us) on 6 October. These performances now include performances of ballet by the Bolshoi in Russia the first being Esmeralda (based on Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris) on the 9 October at 4pm. I read on my previous visit the scheme hoped to include performances of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, so Opera lovers watch this space. 


One more memory of the evening was a woman smiling and saying she found it difficult to recognise me without a grass skirt. I have only twice trod the boards this pantomime was one and the other was an all night carnival at college when I and seven other rugby playing savages helped give a woman an excuse to perform the dance of the seven vales - well we were nearly naked as well.


One more comment the couple sitting next to us told us they were from Gower and kept up a habit of going to theatre in London. Nice to know we aren't the only theatre enthusiasts in Swansea.



U3A GROUP NEWS

I have been following the fortunes of two of the most recent new groups.


RAMBLING
Talking to Harry I find him happy with the progress of this new group which he tells me he now has core support from 9-15 members, an ideal size for a rambling group. He is clearly throwing a great deal of thought and energy into group leading which is obvious from the information and photo records in his regular email feed to the group, including me. Hence the use of a few of his photographs.

 Battling the breeze

 Lindsay concentrates

 Facing the gale

After lunch

SPANISH LEARNING
Another group which has gelled extremely well as currently obvious due to the absence of their excellent tutor Keith Barry because of sickness. None of us have further information at the moment, but I have just sent a handwritten note on behalf of the group to his home address hoping it will be forwarded. (Keith is one of the few members with an aversion to computers and delights in receiving handwritten letters. (I could name some other prominent members sharing this view - but won't.)

Christine Broomhall the convenor is determined to drive the group on and there is a strong response from the others who will share in leading future sessions. I like the emphasis on verbal communication, so far without mention of grammar, and that will continue in self led sessions with the help of recordings.

What started a few months ago as a Course of genuine near beginners is of course moving on and the group will have to wary of too much addition in the near future whilst the new teaching approach is bedded in. I must say it is refreshing to see a group responding via shared self help.


SAVE the HISTORY GROUP

This course has had good attendance and is attempting to reorganise now that Margaret Winter has retired from the role as convenor after 11 successful years. Their September meeting is traditionally the time the group agree the programme for the following year (2011/12). It will be this Friday 23 September at 2.30 in the first floor meeting room of the Environment Centre, Pier Street which runs beside the Evening Post Offices.

Rob James, who organises the Annual Outing, has agreed to act as contact and convenor providing some other member(s) agree to be fully responsible for the monthly lecture programme.

Please attend if at all interested in the future of this group which will fold immediately after the meeting in the absence of the support to take it forward. 

GARDENING 
Just a few shots I took when the group visited our garden. Last year rain kept us all penned indoors, this year it seemed like a fine day but the heavens opened just as the first visitors arrived with their umbrellas on high. Luckily it turned out to be just a short a sharp shower and the Gazebo had its first outing in a miserable summer. Thinking to make further use we left it up only for the tail end of a hurricane to finally destroy it. The steel frame lives on so we plan to use as a cage for soft fruit next year. 'Waste not want not' is our usual message to the grand children - if anyone can translate that into French please let me know, my attempts brought increasingly increasingly strong guffaws from my Franco-Anglo grandchildren.

 Rear view of Joan with Marnie, Margaret Cross and Vicky

 My Gazebo on its last legs

 Sun at Last

 Old timers corner

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Just little publicity I am down for a travel presentation on Friday 4 November on our last trip to the state of Karnataka in southern India. I have just reissued the blog of our two months of travel with a myriad of photographs. Anyone interested can view it at
http://karnataka2011.blogspot.com/


GRAND THEATRE
In what is for me a promising new departure they have circulated a DRAMA Newsletter for Autumn 2011 featuring the genuine drama offerings. We are sorry to have missed Bred in Heaven with a well respected director Michael Bogdanov, from the Royal Shakespeare and Wales Theatre companies.


I fully thoroughly recommend Cymbeline by Shakespeare which will played presumably with minimal scenery 'in the round' (square), by and here is the important point the local professional Fluellen Theatre Company Tues 4 to Thurs 6 October in the Arts wing of the Grand Theatre.

Others to have caught my eye include Of Mice and Men in the main theatre on Friday 14 October, a wonderful short story by John Steinbeck, the Lord of the Flies on 20 to Sat 22 October in the Arts Wing.

FLUELLEN at the DYLAN THOMAS CENTRE
Peter Richards, wife and son Hugh, who played Hamlet so well last year in the Arts Wing of the Grand, run a monthly Saturday 1 am presentation of a different playwright, and script in hand perform a section of his work, ideally a one act play. A week ago the subject was George Bernard Shaw and the play was O'Flaherty VC a young Irishman recruiting soldiers for England. Anyone familiar with the history will realise how the Irish hate the English, with good reason So O'Flaherty's line is not that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with the English against Germans (an unrealistic proposition) but that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with Belgians and the French who everyone knows are sworn enemies of the English. His mother has to be kept in the dark or she would explode with anger but she is also two faced in dealings with an English lord (O'Flaherty's boss) to his face and behind his back. Add a second young actress playing the money grabbing girlfriend who is happy for O'Flaherty to bring home the wages, by the only way open to him to earn a living in impoverished Ireland, and you have a scene full of comic possibilities. 

Well worth the £5 and well attended again including by a quite different set of U3A members than for the last time I reported. It is a delight to see that Peter, with worldwide experience of directing plays, and Fluellen Theatre are beginning to get the following they deserve. He was also the one doing whole day presentations on Shakespeare plays last winter at the Dylan Thomas Centre which Joan and I enjoyed so much for the humour and demonstrative depth of his insight, but which were embarrassingly poorly attended.

Next lunchtime session Saturday 15 October 'A Celebration of Ibsen' with excerpts from several of his most famous plays. See you there ? 

SWANSEA JAZZLAND
This club has to be one of the jewels in Swansea's crown. A weekly stream of one night stands from the best jazz musicians in Britain, at well below London prices where they are mostly based.

I'm returning to one of my first loves after not having the energy to attend for some time, a result of months of intensive modification to house, garden and contents. No we are not about to sell!

This Wednesday 21 September at 8 for 8.30 be sure not to miss guitarist Luis d'Agostino & the Argentinian Connection. Pete Oxley - no less - as a second guitar, an ace trumpeter John Hoare and a British rhythm section make a unique line up.  £10 entry reduced to £7 for members. 

They will play Jazz of the 50's and 60's. The era of the invention in New York of 'Beebop' by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and pianists galore, followed soon after by invention of the 'Cool' in California by Miles Davies, Gerry Mulligan and others. A high point, perhaps the high point, in the development of jazz, my preferred period anyway, it should be a great night.

25 YEARS NOT OUT

CELEBRATION


It was a joyous day my contacts clearly showed the day exceeded everyone's expectation. When put together on stage you realise what is being achieved collectively, what fun it is, what satisfaction, what friendliness, and not a little talent. I wouldn't dare to summarise. I didn't come prepared to Blog with not even a pen and paper to take a few notes, but luckily Joan had had brought a camera which I promptly seized, so when I add photographs they may help point up my memories and yours, but they won't be of my normal quality, because of the lack of light coupled with the need to zoom from the rear of the hall, though I hope they capture the emphasis.

The last and only previous time I had seen or heard Jean Goodeve was at the rather tedious U3A National AGM at Swansea a couple of years back, and I formed and filed an impression to match. But how well she set off this day with her vision and enthusiasm. Two themes remained with me the first was the clear distinction she drew between Learning, which by almost by definition everyone enjoys, and Education which we all suffer until released better prepared for life. Personally I enjoyed school immensely but when the time came I was ready to leave, I enjoyed university rather too much and all but failed except on the sports field, but how impatient I was to leave and move on to productive work.


I was taught engineering but virtually all I know now I learned on the job. Computers and binary and digital techniques never figured in my degree, yet by the time I retired in 1996 almost all industrial automatic measurement and control was digital. The earliest (arguably the world's first) Digital Computers did exist in locked rooms at Manchester and Cambridge, but at Imperial we were told, by one enthusiastic lecturer with a key, the future was Analogue Computers - they couldn't produce precise answers to simple arithmetic but were excellent at solving differential equations and modelling motion, things like the swinging of pendulums.


But digressing further, the real lesson was learned after I retired. I expected like so many to miss the challenges, the satisfaction which comes from earning your way through life, the personal interaction, even the routine of work - but I didn't. Joan and I decided to start anew. We turned our attention to slow cheap travel across the globe, to learn how quite different (much poorer) peoples live. Our first model was two Austrians met in Sumatra within weeks of retiring, older than us, who returned home for Christmas each year only for an annual health check and to renew their camper-van driving licences as a safeguard against less fortunate days.


When Joan's health (rheumatic arthritis and knee replacements) turned our lives turned upside down, we should have immediately turned to the U3A like many recently bereaved now do - but we didn't. When the clouds lifted we were able to resume our life of slow travel on artificial joints though less intensively than before, and in between trips drifted into U3A membership but only by attending the Wednesday lectures. The more we got involved, the more enthusiastic we became and the more we enjoyed life. That is not to say that having retired as Groups' Coordinator it won't be a nice change to get involved in the Groups I want to, rather than those I think I ought to.


The second point highlighted by Jean was the inclusiveness of learning. When a child learns to walk it's a challenge, when oldies like me learn Jive steps or Tai-Chi sequences they are greater memory and physical control challenges than they would have been earlier in life and much better for that. Learning to paint, to discuss or argue, to write better, to get more out of reading, to recount and present better, to develop presence and act - there were a lot of surprisingly good examples on the stage today. These are not the first thing that comes into mind as learning. A mind ever open to continued learning and new points of view is perhaps the first requirement of a fulfilled life.


Having said that I still regard my biggest achievement as Groups' Coordinator is to have overseen the creation of active weekly language learning groups in European languages (not my forte) of French. Italian, Spanish and most recently German because they are exceptionally demanding by U3A standards for tutors and pupils. As Jean suggested maybe Mandarin next, I once boasted 200 words of survival Chinese and a similar amount of Thai and Indonesian - long forgotten soon recovered. 

If Jean Goodeve got us off to a sparkling start then Dr Edwin Lewis, the very first Chairman of Swansea U3A, was a revelation in the closing address. Helped onto the stage, he enthused the audience with the stories and tribulations of the homeless early days whilst amazing us with his humour. No-one could better it as a demonstration that being active in the U3A example is the best way to delay ageing. 


Jamie Owen gave the Keynote lecture after lunch summarising the history of and contemplating the future for TV. He kept most of the audience amused with what at times was more like a polished after dinner speech.


For me the revelations were the presentations on the stage in the morning and the amount of effort and enthusiasm had gone into them.


I started this posting the evening of the event as you may observe from the date but rapidly ran out of steam, so now (7 Aug) I am taxing my memory more than is wise, though pictures help.

STAGE PERFORMANCES


Creative Writing Groups
Jill Govier kicked off with a suitably lively, seemingly limitless, recitation of' nothing but '-ations' (celebration for example). Any Music-Hall compere would have been proud of the introduction to the performance by the Creative Writing Groups. Her enthusiasm is catching and the whole group performed well.

Sorry but this first performance, and perhaps others, preceded my gumption to use the camera, though there is a shot of Jill at work with Dylan Thomas later. 


French Group

Keith Roberts links a sketch of friendly rivalry between French and Welsh Rugby Fans. I can't help noticing that husband and wife Jan and Ifor were on opposite sides. On the far left Nesta, another excellent French speaker, whose soprano voice shone through later with the choir.


In an earlier sketch Keith translated into English what reserve tutor Jean Cunliffe (3rd from left) was saying in her excellent French.


Tai Chi Group
Tutor Mike Hart was out in front doing his own spectacular things, even with a sword at times - too fast for my camera. The rest of the Corps de Ballet impressed by their precise moment and synchronism. It was very effective visually and showed off the excellent control of movement which results from practising Tai Chi.

Cecily's Under Milkwood Sketch

Chairman Anthony Hughes by introduced singing with his guitar unfortunately his speed on the keyboard defeated my camera which only recorded blurs. He sang a tribute to Dylan by Ralph (Streets of London) McTell

Ten performers and a narrator John Oats on a well thought out series of episodes with impeccable South Wales accents! They stood forward in ones and two to recite their lines script in hand.

Cecily shows emotion in exchange with Stephen

? and Rosemary do their bit

Jill gets her chance, and her photo!


Italian Group
Rather than use an on stage translator they used the screen, particularly successful for the gusty sing-along. Tutor Carolina used her skill as a creative writer to write some sketches.  Patricia Morgan, group convenor, displayed her acting skill as well as impeccable spoken Italian. 

A Court Scene

Eleanor and Patricia, with translation above

The Italian Sing -along with Eleanor at the piano and Carolina hurrying her along!


MOTO
Rosemary Brangwyn, convenor with her script but insufficient involvement of the rest of the group.

The Welsh Group - White Haired Stars of the Show
Five old timers with an aggregate age of 430 (average age 86) some had to be helped onto the stage where they outshone the rest of us with their vitality as they led the audience in Welsh songs and hymns - well remembered from my Rugby playing days, we English responded with clean play and 'dirty' limericks. 

Marjorie Vanston, convenor, introduces the program whilst Marjorie Knight, Josceline Edwards, Nancy Thomas and Margarete Wilkinnson look onf

Imaginative use of the screen

Welsh Sing-along with guest pianist Ann Looker and words on the screen 


BACK ON STAGE after lunch

Singing for Pleasure Group
Margaret Collier led her popular choir with Ann Looker as pianist. I can only offer apologies for not taking photographs - no slight intended. It applies also to Jamie Owen.


They presented a full program the second half was a sing-along which like the previous ones went down particularly well.


MILLY DOWLER and NEWS of the WORLD
I have been so long putting off writing this blog posting that big events have come and gone. I was in France when the affair of Dominique Strauss Kahn was still hot and very interested in a piece in Telerama (a rough equivalent to the Radio Times) 'Menaces sur la Justice' by a French lawyer a theme later taken up by Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian. I guess this is a theme which got away, but I cannot resist the scandal of phone hacking.

The hold Murdoch has had for two decades on the political scene in Britain was widely known, starting with help for the like-minded Margaret Thatcher it continued through Tony Blair's belief he would only get elected once he had secured the backing of the Murdoch empire to Cameron's out blairing of Blair. The latter was so nearly followed by pay back time, 100% Murdoch ownership of Sky TV now by common consent deemed totally unacceptable.

The British public seemed quite relaxed about phone hacking by the press so long as it was used to publicise the private lives of film stars and footballers which made good reading. Only when it impinged on the Royal Family did the politicians get upset. Only when it was shown to impinge on personal grief did the public become convinced of the illegality let alone morality of most phone hacking, even though that too was aimed was aimed at press scoops. 

But what a can of worms that totally indefensible intrusion opened up, corruption at the highest level in the police and ruthless undermining of the democratic system. Democracy we tell the less developed world is the answer to all their problems, what has been going on here should make us reflect on where power really lies. 

In the US it was likened to Watergate, a New York Times columnist thought 'a kind of British Spring is under way' in clear reference to the presumed 'outbreak' of democracy in Egypt and the Middle East, and then again 'Democracy, aided by sunlight, has broken out in Britain'. Exaggerated rhetoric for sure but here it is still merely regarded a phone hacking scandal. In all these countries we will have to wait and see whether power eventually resides in freely elected democratic parliaments.

Why do I see it in much larger dimensions, because control of politicians and other public figures resides in the FEAR of Adverse Publicity, a form of blackmail. One has only to listen as universally liked figures like Paddy Ashdown recount their experiences to see how 'fear' results when ruthless media tycoons, with blind eyed police on the payroll, are intent on holding representatives such as him to heel, backed by private investigators, criminals, and illegal phone hacking.

LIBYA
No doubt about it now we, the West, are intent on regime change - anybody but Gadafi will do. Are we unthinkingly inviting chaos?


SYRIA
During last years six week travel to western Turkey we got to know two Japanese girl students who raved about how well they had been received by the people and how easy it was to travel around. Joan and I resolved to go there this autumn. Another project bites the dust!


DOUBLE DIP RECESSION

I remember Peter Black, Liberal Democrat AM, boasting to the Politics group several months ago that a double dip had been avoided. I also remember commenting in this blog that it was unwise to draw any conclusions before the end of the financial year in April 2012, re the effects of severe cut backs. Today's stock market panic emphasises the risks are not behind us, though currently I couldn't blame the sharp deficit reduction strategy of this government. So simply observe that all countries seem to be at it now, increasing the likelihood they will pull each other down for want of the global employment and earnings to create sufficient demand from the populace.


NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE
Returning to a happier topic I remember highlighting the single day worldwide satellite transmission of performances of the National Theatre in London, which now apparently will soon extend to performances the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


Previously the nearest cinema offering these transmisions was in Cardiff but I highlighted that that Joan and I intended to go to the now refurbished (Miners) Welfare Centre in Ystradglynlais. We went to their first such showing to see Zoe Wanamaker in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard which we really enjoyed and intend to go to the next quite different performance of One Man, Two Guvnors on the 15 September a very successful slapstick comedy starring James Corden.

FLUELLEN THEATRE
We can recommend the monthly Saturday lunchtime peformances, script-in-hand, in the Dylan Thomas Centre. To our surprise there were no less than seven U3A members in the front row of the last performance of a one act play by Thornton Wilder. Next Saturday 13 August at 1 pm (£5) they will discuss French playwright Jean Genet and then perform The Maids.
Fluellen also gives Theatre-in-the-Round performances in the Arts Wing of the Grand Theatre, recently Hamlet and then Checkhov's Uncle Vanya, look out for Cymberline this autumn.


SWANSEA JAZZLAND at 8.30 this Wednesday 10 August  feature Lee Gibson (one of Britain's best jazz singers) with the Dave Cottle Trio. 



GROUP NEWS


We attended two a early 25th birthday celebrations firstly by the combined book reading groups who hosted a talk by Swansea University's novellist Stevie Davies.

Second was a special Open Day in the Singleton's Botanic Gardens by the Gardening Group.

Both were well attended and both offered tea and cakes and a celebratory atmosphere. Only at the second did I carry a camera hence the shots below.

Margaret Cross centre number1 leader withcommittee members Joan Powell and Lyn Phillips

Vicky Woods number 2 leader of the committee member who also runs Reading 5

Me and Margaret Massey, both on Early Retirement from Swansea U3A main Committee



FAILING GROUPS
It is just a year ago that the Gardening Group was facing failure in spite of being well attended when Margaret Massey retired after 17 years as convenor. 

Exactly the same problem is now being experienced by the hitherto successful History Group (although Margaret Winter can boast of only 11 years at the helm!). It is on the edge of failure because no one person is prepared to take it forward. The solution at Gardening was to form a small committee and that is working well but only because it is headed up by two committed energetic leaders. The best solution would be to find someone younger willing to breathe new life into the History Group, help should plentiful.

GET WELL SOON
To Chris Gilson, the main committee's minutes secretary and an active  member of many groups including Yoga, CreativeWriting and Family History.  He apparently needed an operation to insert stents but is now recovering at home.

Conclusions on AV & Assembly Elections - for now ++

AV
The people have spoken in a referendum. But what was the referendum about, Nick Clegg and his Liberals?

It doesn't matter which side you look from this was unthinking politics at its best! To think the No campaign was supported by our so called intelligencia from our most famous political school and what used to be our finest university without the slightest attempt to deal with the issues or the slightest respect for the Liberals who have delivered them a stable government. What a calamity! Give me London University and LSE any day. Well I would say that, wouldn't I?

One of the jibes on the literature that came through my door said 'there's nothing progressive about the Liberals'.


Personally I would conclude 'there is nothing progressive about the Labour Party either'! Fifty percent of them are brain dead, at least the other side knew what they were doing, as a party they are sleep walking into a lifetime rout unless Events intervene, eg a slump. I can see the Liberals will bounce back if they hold their nerve, I am not so sure Labour deserve to yet. Labour, pre-Tony Blair, was my ever constant preference. 

Not a single party presented the case for AV here in Swansea. If they did I saw no sign of it. That was what fired me up a couple of postings ago to explain how AV should work to make a parliament more representative picture of people's preferences.


Nick Clegg shot himself in the foot by saying much earlier that AV was 'a miserable little compromise'. I think AV has considerable benefits not least its simplicity! and that voting is for named/known candidates. Its weakness is its unpredictability in any one constituency, which varies from precisely the same result as 'first past the post' (FPTP) if every voter nominates only his first choice to something akin to proportional representation if used positively.


Turning to the Welsh Assembly elections with one exception all the local parties ran negative campaigns. The exception here was Plaid Cymru, and for only the second time in my 45 years in South Wales did they get my vote. A dyed in the wool Englishman I can see sense in having a Welsh Party in the Assembly, personally my only negative thoughts are that I think the adoption of the Welsh as the Prime Language (even worse the language of privilege) would be a disaster. That is my honest opinion, but it is a side show here so I will return to it later in this blog posting. The only other wholly positive campaign in the UK was apparently for the SNP in Scotland. I don't think the Plaid will have similar success until they get a leader who can match Alex Salmond's charisma on TV. (Come back Adam Price all is forgiven).


Look a bit closer at the Assembly elections in both countries. The Scottish situation I have dealt with, and the demise of Labour there is probably the consequence of a complacent Scottish Labour Party having failed to update, plus failing like Plaid in the TV personality stakes.

Welsh Labour in contrast stood up to Tony Blair, refused to accept his place men as leader, and that helped them develop confidence, unity, and modernise - though not yet anywhere near enough.

But what fascinates me most is the effect in both countries of a degree of proportionality. Take that away and use only the first past the post constituency results and a very different picture emerges.

In Wales under our proportional system the results were     
Labour/Conservative/Plaid/ Liberal  being 30/14/11/5 seats            

FPTP Constituency results alone the results were
Labour/Conservative/Plaid/Liberal (constituency ratio) 28/6/5/1

We don't hear much Conservative squealing about that. The fundamental question for Democracy is which is the truer reflection of the peoples wishes? I personally believe our FPTP model is failing and certainly not being adopted elsewhere in the world. Also valid is; which produces the better government?


Turning the same analysis to Scotland where there is a much higher ratio of proportionality purpose designed to thwart the SNP!
Under their proportional system seats were
Scottish National/ Labour/Conservative/Liberal 69/37/15/5

Based on FPTP constituency results alone the results were
Scottish National/Labour/Conservative/ Liberal 53/15/3/1

We don't hear much Conservative squealing about that either. The fundamental question for Democracy is which is the truer reflection of the peoples wishes? Also valid is; which produces the better government? 


If leaving the UK was judged on a FPTP system then there is little doubt Scotland with a 2+:1 overall victory ratio would be leaving the UK soon. A Referendum would have been fairer and much closer, but note the SNP elected in spite of a proportional system have large overall margin. Fingers crossed my counting is correct

WELSH LANGUAGE

I have not the slightest doubt that bilingualism learnt young is an aid to the development of the brainpower, that applies to equally to Welsh children, as to half my grandchildren whose first language is French but are uncommonly verbally skilled in English as well; or to the Indians who learn first the language of their State, then Hindi and many English as well. The current ascendancy of English across the world is not the point, I can well see it may well be challenged by Mandarin in future, probably in the romanised alphabet form of Pinyin, which is the way the Chinese find their way about Personal Computers.


Neither have I any doubt of the importance of keeping Welsh alive as a means of remembering the country's cultural roots and its literature. But as a way of progressing an economy and reducing the focus of printed information I believe it is a dead end. Two examples spring to mind, post colonial India turned its back on English but its current rapid emergence on the world stage owes much to the benefit of reviving that language. A few years after Joan and I left Canada General de Gaulle made his 'Vive le Quebec libre' speech in Montreal 1967, which produced a resurgence of thoughts of partition of Canada into an Eastern French speaking nation and the English speaking West. The Canadian government of the day reacted with a determined effort to make the whole country bi-lingual, for government jobs in particular, to what extent that remains the case today I do not know. But the 2 May 2011 Canadian general election, as Muriel Chamberlain reminded us, saw the once proud French speaking Parti (now Bloc) Quebecois trounced to just 6% of national vote.

ARTS
I have just bought tickets for tomorrows theatre 7.15pm 12 May in the Arts Wing of the Grand. It is for Chekhov's Uncle Vanja a masterpiece about wasted lives, since I have yet to see it can't say more except to note the recent local Fluellen Theatre's production of Hamlet 'in the round' was excellent. Incidentally getting involved in Swansea U3A is a perfect anti-dote to feeling ones time is wasted.

Tommaso Starace Quartet will appear at Jazzland next Wednesday 25 May £10 (£7 members). Anyone citing Cannonball Adderley and Charlie Parker as role models (instead of sprinkling names like confetti) should be another way of spending your time profitably. I will be watching the way our unique Louis Armstrong voiced announcer Berry Ray, pronounces Italian - thanks to the tuition of Carolina Rosati Jones.  

GROUPS
I have written enough this week except to give the latest news on the proposed German Group, the interested now numbers 10 - far better than expected, including drawing in two new members, making this years membership 772. Gislinde and I are about to set up their inaugural meeting. Once this is done time will be freed to turn my attention to Half Day Walking and Dinghy Sailing Day, and I haven't finished my ideas yet.

CLYNE IN BLOOM

CLYNE GARDENS
1-31May is advertised as the best period to visit Clyne Gardens but I took these photos as I walked through from Blackpill this very morning and it seemed at its best to me. Don't delay your visit too long.

BUSES TO HAZEL COURT

At the time I was assessing the practicalities of getting back from Hazel Court by bus, my wife having a doctors appointment at the same time as Spanish Beginners class. I was lucky leaving at just after midday to immediately catch an 82A bus to Fulton House at the university. In fact I now know I should have got off earlier at the Singleton hospital since the minutes saved could have got me an earlier bus west along Mumbles Road whereas coming from the University I had just missed one, but the maximum delay between buses would be around 20 mins.  In fact I decided to walk to Blackpill but it would have been quicker to wait.

The advice thus is transfer to/from the 82A at university or hospital, whichever is closer to home. For some the ideal combination could be the Metro and 82A. For others like me go to Mumbles Road for the quickest transfer to city centre or Mumbles.



THE WELFARE, YSTRADGYNLAIS
Following Tuesday's monthly committee meeting I was browsing at the Civic Centre and came across the display being erected in the foyer The Josef Herman Arts Foundation located in the Welfare Hall Ystradgynlais which holds a collection of his work donated by his widow Dr Nini Herman. This particular exhibition in Swansea was targeted at promoting the 10th anniversary of The Josef Herman Award for Schools whereby children from across three Welsh counties are given the opportunity to work with a professional artist. 

Still waiting for my wife to finish our shopping I picked up the latest copy of What's On and was quite impressed by it current presentation which provides in modern advertising style the current leisure attractions in Swansea including of course restaurants but also the Taliesin, The Grand Theatre, Swansea Jazzland, and various Events - such as organised under the name Swansea Bay. A big step forward from the earlier style largely of small ads. Swansea U3A still has a small add promoting only the Wednesday lectures at the University - we could do much better than this. 

But what struck me was not just the full page advertising activities at The Welfare, Ystradgynlais but the imaginative program they had compiled. Something is clearly on-going there which deserves attention. Box Office 01639 843163, www.thewelfare.co.uk , and Facebook 'The Welfare, Ystradgynlais'. 
Finally the boast 'A new generation of digital 3D Cinema and satellite technology has arrived at The Welfare!' I feel they deserve support.


First to catch my eye on the program was the Live by Satellite transmission of Jamie Cullen's Solo concert at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, but that has gone it was last Sunday and was reviewed in Tuesday's Guardian. Followed by a number of live events of music and theatre. The other which stood out for me was the National Theatre  production of 'The Cherry Orchard' by Chekhov and starring Zoe Wanamaker (also live via satellite) at 6.45pm on Thursday 30 June for £10, concessions £8. I knew that such transmissions were available at a cinema in Cardiff, indeed I intended to go but couldn't get to the previous event of its type 'King Lear', though I know Jill Govier did.


Four interesting films including 'Song of Freedom' starring Paul Robeson, 7pm on 9 May and 2.30pm on 13 May. This was featured earlier this year by Andrea Symonds in her presentation to our U3A British Film Studies group. 



ALTERNATIVE VOTE AV
I do not intend to go over the same ground again which was mainly to try to clarify how such a voting system to select the most liked candidate works when no one starts with an overall 50% majority. However I do believe it is a vital vote which could change the future of British politics. It very unfortunate it comes when the vote will inevitably be effected by the current unpopularity of Nick Clegg, disgruntled Liberal voters, many Labour voters and, to judge by the vindictive campaigning of the No camp, by the Conservatives as well. Somehow we have to rise above the present day situation and consider whether to vote Yes or No to Progressive Reform, on the merits of the serious long term issue it is. There is unlikely to be another opportunity to move towards a more representative house of Parliament in the near future, nor towards the more inclusive style of politics it will encourage.





SPANISH CONVERSATION
Last posting I was so concerned to promote the new Spanish Beginners Language Course that I forgot to mention my visit on the 5 April to the other Spanish group formed almost single handedly this year by Alison Burns, 290260  alisoneburns@yahoo.co.uk


On this occasion there were 13 members present at Starvin' Jacks cafe in the centre of Swansea, a very convenient location not far from Swansea City's new Bus Station. It was a lively meeting helped by an attractive theme, 'Talk About Things You Hate'. It will be no great surprise to those who know me well to learn my hate is the bane of our life, Sheep, those hefted baa'ing animals that think they have territorial rights to follow their traditional path through my garden in order to reach Clyne Common. Complaints from others varied from the way Tesco treat their customers to Ironing, Joan's pet hate as well, to many more I have forgotten.

The recent email enquiry about a potential Improvers language course identified 11 people (of whom I am one) and I have kept a record of the members who replied positively but there is no way of proceeding until we can identify someone and willing to lead such a group. In the meantime I would advise them to try out this conversation group, I very much enjoyed this last session.

It was good to be listening to Spanish for only the second time this year. For me as a traveller learning that language opened up the Latin America continent from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Argentina to Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel the point of departure to Antartica. Experiences spread over many months and several years that I would not have wanted to miss. 

BEGINNERS SPANISH LANGUAGE

I attended this morning to find the class has already grown to 11 and was very impressed both at the speed the class has gelled as a unit and the style of teaching. Almost a case of forget the complexities of grammar but listen and speak fluently, learn vocabulary relevant to today's exercises, and above all make the vowels and the accentuation sound Spanish. Very simple still, but very good for me who speaks Spanish with a mix of English and French sounds.


YOGA

I slipped into Edna Jones's 9.30 Wednesday morning session on my way to Spanish just to take this photo. I go to Christine Bryan's Thursday class because the timing suits me better, this is restarting after their Easter break at 10am 5 May. Joga is a big help to retaining suppleness.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Bumping into Margaret Massey after today's superb lecture contrasting the English and French approach to colonies by Professor Muriel Chamberlain I was reminded Margaret is presenting to the group this Friday 6 May at 2.30 in Hazel Court her recent travels to North Africa.
Bob Hughes is taking over as convenor of this group for 2011/2 and already has a program arranged

GROUPS, ALTERNATE VOTE (AV), and BIG ISSUE

 Almost time for planting
 'Don't cast a clout till May is Out', I know it's Blackthorn now but May (Hawthorn) will soon follow.

ALTERNATE VOTE for the next GENERAL ELECTION?

Politics and Citizenship discuss the Welsh Elections and AV

Those who, like me, favour Proportional Representation should vote YES to the Alternate Vote (AV) as it will get us a considerable way forward and is the only system on offer for the foreseeable future.

Those who prefer First Past The Post should vote NO to AV. If there is a No Vote to AV any question of having a more proportional voting system will be put on the back burner.


Most Western European countries including Wales and most New Democracies have some form of proportional voting. This piece is written by way of explanation of the AV system and not to make a political point......honest.

Why do I dislike First Past The Post so much, it is because it often results in unfettered power to the winning party. Think of the decade of huge majorities first to Margaret Thatcher and then to Tony Blair, and what they were able to do with such impunity. Both those governments would have been improved by having to take other views into account. Love or hate the Liberals at the moment you have to admit they are rubbing some of the rough edges off Tory policies and have so far negated the Tory right wing. By going into coalition they saved the country from being forced into the chaos of a second election, at a time when stability was the absolute key.

The big advantage of AV is that it aims for a fairer contest at each constituency.  AV thus retains the link with each MP representing a single constituency, whereas pure Proportional Representation considers only the total national votes. The Welsh Assembly is voted for by a half way house in which 2/3 of the AMs represent a constituency, and 1/3 have no constituency link but move the national result closer to proportionality with the total national votes. 


The best example of how turn-overs can work in practice is given by the recent election of the Labour Leader. (I was travelling in India at the time so please forgive me if the details are wrong, but the sense is correct.) Labour MPs, Unions and Constituencies were allowed to rank the candidates 1, 2, 3, in order of preference. candidate. 

David Miliband led after the first ballot but crucially failed to get 50%. So the second choices of loser Ed Balls were added and in it was his brother Ed Miliband who emerged as the winner. That's an example of a 'Turn Over', and is not typical of the norm which is that the leader in the First Choices goes on to win with over 50% of the votes. Whatever you may think of the final outcome in this contest is irrelevant to this example but what you can deduce is that Ed had broader support in the Party than his brother, the difference I understand being mainly with the unions.


For what it's worth my own choice would have been Ed Balls (even better his wife Yvette Cooper who was not standing). I guess David suffered from being too close to Tony Blair and Ed Balls from being too closely associated with today's pet hate figure Gordon Brown, whose role in leading the world in face of the credit crunch I still expect to be recognised in retrospect.


This example was to consider only a single election (Leader of the Opposition), though a rather important one! In a General Election there are hundreds of constituencies and in the vast majority the winner who wins on first choices will emerge as the eventual winner. In a closely fought seat it is quite possible that the second or even the third candidate will emerge as eventual winner if they have broader support when the balancing act of adding in the second and lower choices is done. It ought to (probably will) vastly increase the number of Liberal Democrat MPs, making their number of seats closer to their proportion of the vote..


Lets now see how four quite different voters might vote for a single typical Welsh Seat in a GENERAL Election. There are four main parties in alphabetic order Labour, Liberal (Democrat), Plaid and Tory. Purely as an example let's see how a sensible person might vote, adding in a couple of other thoughtful choices such as UKIP and Green.

      Voter A       Voter B      Voter C     Voter D

1)   Labour        Liberal       Plaid          Tory
2)   Plaid           Tory           Labour       UKIP
3)   Liberal        Labour       Liberal       Liberal
4)   Green          Green         Green        Green


Note neither the Labour or the Tory inclined voted for the party he detests most and no-one has a voted for a party he doesn't want to have a voice in parliament, for example BNP, Communist, Monster Raving Lunatic.



Labour (in the old days at least) would have the most First Choice votes but nowadays it may well be less than 50%. This situation is merely meant to be an example. So let's emphasise that we are considering only one seat, in others Plaid or Liberal or Tory might have the biggest vote on First Choice. On probability it is likely that the Green party would be last and drop out but then their second choice votes would be transferred to the other three candidates probably boosting the Labour or Liberal vote. Assuming no-one has reached 50% the lowest party remaining would now drop out and it's choices 2nd and lower choices would be added in to the remaining parties. And so on, until one party passes the winning 50% post.


My wife asks what if there are 12 parties how do I rank them, the answer is that you rank only those you want to have a voice in parliament, just two choices, better still three or four, is capable of making a big difference in a close contest. Then she asks will this rule out success for say Independents or Greens, and the answer is if they have really popular (good) candidates then their chances may well be enhanced by being the second choice of most of the others. Think for example of two recent examples, a well loved ex Labour candidate running as an Independent against his own party, or say the talented Green candidate Caroline Lucas. On the other hand a party without broad support, say the BNP, is unlikely to emerge the winner under AV.

How many spider's webs can you spot?

GROUP LEADERS for NEXT YEAR
Always at the end of the year some leaders will want to hand over. In Swansea U3A this has been mainly those with a large number of years in the position wanting a well earned rest. Last year we had to find replacement for Margaret Hammond in the Politics and Citizenship Group, Margaret had reached 90 but sadly is no longer with us. Margaret Massey decided 17 years as leader and instigator of the Gardening Group was long enough. Luckily we have good replacements for both highly successful groups with 20 to 30 regulars Gabrielle Suff is doing an excellent job with Politics and a team of three or four lead by Margaret Cross are running Gardening.


This year a couple more long standing Groups seek renewal under a new leader, Barbara Brimfield is handing over the 'Local History' group after 13 years and Margaret Winter is standing down from the History Group after 11 years at the helm. Both groups are highly successful and shown by turn outs with 30 to 40 a session. Both meet in the city centre. We cannot afford to allow such well attended groups to go to the wall.

Margaret Hammond has been replaced as leader of the Research Group on a temporary basis by Marjorie Vanston, who also runs the Welsh group. They deal with projects selected by the staff of  Swansea Museum, and in the interests of space are split into two small teams who meet in the Museum on alternate Wednesdays.

In addition Margaret Webster is standing down as organiser of the Sunday Luncheon Group having completed the 12 months she agreed to as a stop gap.

It would be true to say that members of all these groups are in the higher bracket, long established groups tend to grow older together, but this should be no deterrent to a new younger leader for there is plenty of incentive to work towards a younger age profile and to modify the way the group is run.

I would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in helping in any capacity with any of those four groups. Please simply reply to the Blog Alert email from me, Brian Corbett the Groups' Coordinator. Enthusiasm is the main pre-requisite, advice and guidance will surely be available from the present incumbents, and remember shared responsibility will work, you are not committing yourself to be present every session (look at me disappearing for two months at a time).

The U3A is a self help organisation, or nothing, from those according to their abilities to those according to their needs. Are you happy that you are contributing as much as you can? 

SPANISH LEARNING

Keith Barry teaching, Christine Broomhall (Convenor), Joyce Marris, Lyn Jones and me (photographer) 

Keith Barry is teaching the Spanish language to a group of eight in Hazel Court every Wednesday morning, not even currently a U3A member he simply wants to 'keep his hand in'. He has many other interests such as Badminton and keep fit in the gym. Their third meeting will be Wednesday 20 April, the class is starting entirely from scratch so if you have no fore-knowledge then the sooner you start the better. If you have some fore-knowledge consider joining next University Year.

I attended his second lesson and as promised the accent was on speaking and it was a very effective method of teaching the like of which I had not previously encountered the objective being instinctive fluency in the spoken language through repetition of responses in pairs. It put me in mind of Professor Michael Thomas, whose subject is Psychological Sciences, not languages in the grammatical sense, at Birbeck College London University, though I may be utterly mistaken since I know only of his standing not his methods. His style is characterised as 'learn a foreign language the way you learnt your own'. 


I have produced a simple spreadsheet which provides an easy way of keeping track of attendance and money, the 'kitty', which this group I hope will trial. They already have a Convenor so this is looking like the smoothest start-up yet. My swan song, or is there time for one more?


ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Bob Hughes is to replace Brian Davies who was around five years as Convenor, the same Bob as put new life into Bridge classes. They have already got a program out for next University Year and this represents a change in emphasis from one speaker per session to two half an hour slots, to get as many as possible involved. Most of us have holidays so why not join in and talk about yours.

MOTO (Members on Their Own)
Rosemary Brangwyn 202029 now runs this group replacing the founder Gerwyn Thomas who had to reduce his load following a severe heart attack. She phoned in to give me some news just as I was about to publish. The group now meet at 10.30am on the first Monday of each month in the Coffee Shop in the Dragon Hotel to plan future events.


They have recently had a visit by train to Narbeth, and seventeen of them had a 'brunch' of Paninis and coffee in the Grand Hotel. A party are going for a holiday together at the Bosworth Hall Hotel with day trips to Stratford and Warwick my beautiful home town.


SPRING OUTING to Welsh National Botanic Gardens
Joan and I were part of the coach-load who spent 6 April at the gardens and what a delightful day it was, all the more special by contrast to the day before when it rained and rained.

                                                                               




Barbara Garnham (Outings Organiser) and Margaret Winter, History Convenor








Barbara Ellis and Joan in the Hothouse












BIG ISSUE
I have long been a supporter both in a terms of a small annual donation to the underlying Big Issue Foundation, but above all by buying, and reading, copies from the street sellers. So if you see a man with the latest Big Issue under his arm then that's how to recognise me! The magazine is increasingly worth reading but the last one I purchased was their Twentieth Anniversary was special and contained an article by founder and Editor in Chief John Bird. He is the original exponent of the idea of 'tough love'. He makes the telling point that street sellers (vendors) have to prove their housing status get their first five magazines free, but thereafter they have to buy them at £1 each. They cannot return magazines they do not sell. He is encouraging some of the most deprived (homeless or vulnerably housed) to learn the business ethic. 'A hand up not a hand out' is their ethos, 'self help' their way. Decriminalizing homelessness is one of their big aims, better to earn than steal even if it does go on drink.


The Big Issue Foundation is a charity, its major functions are to provide training for vendors and help them build skills, but also to provide access to health care and dentistry, for many do not have the ID needed to register with a GP. It is one of the charities acceptable as beneficiary of Waitrose's 'Community Matters' monthly local initiative.
www.bigissue.org.uk

I did not know that Gordon and Anita Roddick of Body Shop supported Big Issue from its inception. John Bird met Gordon Roddick when John was hiding from the police aged 21, he was then a rough sleeper and petty thief with a drink problem. Twenty years on he met Gordon again, by then the co-owner of successful Body Shop. It was Gordon who asked him to start a street paper, 'who carefully took some , and that business nouse - and sprinkled it on the poor'. But it is to deceased Anita that he gives the greatest plaudits, 'she had the fire of social justice burning in her'. 

FORM IMPROVING AT LAST

NEW BEGINNERS SPANISH  GROUP
A New Group set up from nothing in two weeks, why didn't I think of using my email address bank in this way before? I know I had to trawl the whole list  of members with email in the attempt to find the 2% who were interested - most declared their interest within two days of me sending out the broadcast.

First the facts the group set up to teach beginners will meet for the first time in the Dry Side of the Craft Room at Hazel Court at 10am next Wednesday 6 April under the tuition of Keith Barry, tel 795672. He was keen to form a group which will learn from scratch with no members previous knowledge daunting the genuine beginners. If you've always wanted to learn the language here is your opportunity.

It looks as though the group will originally number nine, sufficient - but a few more would be welcome. A small amount of rusty fore-knowledge several years ago should not put the anyone off trying the new group out so long as they do not flaunt it. One member declares she now has young grandchildren in Madrid, if she's as lucky as us with our French connection she will have a few delightful years being spoken to in Spanish whilst she replies in English until the kids overtake her and speak English as fluently as she does.

The group will meet weekly and looks set to run through the summer, though that as usual will be for the group to decide themselves. 


SPANISH CONVERSATION
Alison Burns run this informal group which meet alternate weeks at 2pm in the basement at Starvin' Jacks coffee shop in the town centre, more precisely in Portland Street opposite the HSBC bank just up from the Oxford Street entrance to the market. I have only attended once when they wee still searching for a suitable venue but intend to go there this Tuesday 5th April where the topic being prepared by members will be 'Things I Hate'.

At the same time as I trawled for interest for beginners I tried to establish a list of people interested in Improvers a more advanced potential course. The ten positive responses to this were slower coming through and quite a lot were from members who joined our U3A this year. I formed the impression that most were motivated by the need to improve or to maintain their speaking skills. They have been invited to Tuesday's meeting with Alison's blessing.

TRAWLING FOR INTEREST
I hope members are not unwilling to receive such bulk mailings, because I intend to do a couple of other topics soon, emails are easily discarded and in any case today's Inboxes have huge capacity.

ITALIAN
Complaints that Carolina, our diminutive octogenarian Italian tutor, has finally lost control of her group keep reaching me. The latest complaint is that she is now apparently conducting her own Male (well almost all) Voice Choir as they prepare to top the bill in Italian voice at our silver birthday celebration. So much so that in a delicious irony, to me at least, I hear that two of the Arty-Farty Wets are thinking of jumping on the band-Wagon next door. For the uninitiated Wet and Dry refer to the two halves of the Craft Room  at HazeI Court. I wouldn't put it beyond her, for she doubles in the role of leader of Swansea Writers, to have them reciting specially home crafted poetry as well, and maybe coming out in favour of her fallen hero, the fascist 'Il Duce' - Mussolini to you lot.


JAZZ
The best concert I've heard this year was two weeks ago from the Geoff Eales Quintet who are on a 25 concert 60th birthday tour of the UK. Small matter that it was my first visit of the year to Swansea Jazzland, for Geoff will still be there or thereabouts at the top by December. A hard working unit who specialise in puffing and blowing together in ensemble, unusual for modern jazz players who usually take it in in turns to show off in solos, but a feature of the best Trad Bands, I'm thinking here of post-war stars like Black American George Lewis and our very own Ken Collier.


The non-stop vigour of Geoff's piano playing put in mind that in  Trad jazz piano was always thought of in the role of percussion, that is not to forget that classically trained he was often tuneful, even reflective. This time his trio featuring excellent drummer Asaf Sirkis and Fred Thelonious Baker on bass guitar, was front-lined by Ben Waghorn, an exciting saxophone player (who never did pick up his base clarinet), and Carl Orr on guitar. They played standards, like Miles Davis's 'All Blues' from his landmark best-selling album 'Kind of Blue', mixed with Geoff's own excellent compositions.


The good news is that you have a second chance to hear them since they are playing as Geoff Eales and Friends at Porthcawl International Jazz Festival on Sunday Monday afternoon 24 April, the morning of the same day his trio will perform. 

The festival runs from 22 to 25th April with many fine performers across the spectrum spectrum from trad to modern and perhaps beyond including singer Jacqui Dankworth. We will not be there for we will be in France for a grand' daughter's 16th birthday. 


The very next week Karen Sharp, who won the 2010 British Jazz Award for tenor saxophone, Alan Barnes got the award for alto sax, reminded us how musical and tuneful modern jazz can be. I was so pleased she played one of my bossa nuova favourites 'The Dolphin', that when I got home I played the Stan Getz version and appreciated the edge and phrasing and changes in tonality which made him one the all-time greats on tenor. He like Miles Davis transcended the gulf with popular music and was so popular in the 60's with this form of jazz music - remember his recording with  singer Astrud Gilberto of 'The Girl from Ipanema' or the instrumental 'Jazz Samba' album with acoustic guitarist Charlie Byrd.


You have a second chance to Karen Sharp since she is playing with tenor Robert Fowler at the jazz festival at Upton on Severn from Friday 24 June to Sunday 26 June. We will be on our second trip of the year to France. Robert Fowler was playing in Alan Barnes band not so long ago at the Taliesin, I think to perform Alan's then new 'Sherlock Holmes Suite'.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
We had an excellent lunch out in the Brasserie, Wind Street, on Thursday attended by around a dozen group members. It was arranged that day so we could go on to the public gallery of the Council Chamber to hear the Monthly? plenary session of the Council, the topic for discussion at the next meeting of the group. More joined us at the Civic Centre having come from the Gardening Group meeting, an unfortunate clash - but then there is so much going on these days such random clashes are unavoidable.


It's the first time I have been to a council meeting anywhere and in general I did not hold a good view of local politics and councillors. I must say the experience modified my view and some of those who spoke were most impressive, the fact that many such came from the senior members of the Cabinet benches was encouraging. On the downside there needed to be better amplification from the floor, although unlike say my wife Joan I have no acute problem with hearing some of the special presentations in particular were difficult to follow.


I must say I found many of the exchanges about the problems of Swansea's most deprived areas and concern about the education in these areas was moving and it was good to hear the discussion of professionally prepared planning documents. A few members fitted my previous buffoon image of councillors, none more so than the one who seemed more concerned to get photos with to promote himself on Facebook than the business of the chamber.


ARTS
I was heartened to read that my favourite Tobacco Factory Theatre in Bristol was given a grant from the Arts Council for the very first time (after twelve glorious years) and that in a year in which there were 15% cuts in the London based top end and savage cuts in the rest of the country making a total budget cut of 30%. The Bristol Old Vic also held onto the whole £1.2 million of their grant, another of my favourite venues and one which is currently closed for stage two of its rebuild. 

The choice of enterprises to support and those to drop had clearly been re-evaluated from scratch - and from my admittedly limited observations it has been done well. Appropriate targeting, including cutting out dead wood, is vital but it is a shame that there had to be a cut at all in this most vital area of British excellence, there aren't too many other areas where we are at the top echelon of the world league these days.  Certainly not manufacturing industry, football or cricket! Is investment banking really the best we can do? 


EDUCATION 
Question Time this week unusually had a complete panel who were prepared to argue logically and even Boris Johnson showed he was prepared to lend his support to sense talked by those of normally opposite views. 

To my mind that applied to the discussions about the Libyan crisis and education. The bit that pleased me most was to find most of the panel agreed that support so that talented but poor students could continue their studies was vital, previously called the EMA (educational maintenance grant) under Labour. There  was also a universal acceptance that the recently revised (narrowing) targeting was a step forward, but as with the Arts Council many expressed the view that it was too important an area to be cut at all. Education of our young is our future, without matching the importance that India and China give to this area our grandchildren will be dead meat.

I have many times in this blog returned to the belief that our grand'children's generation that suffers most from this crisis, even The Guardian is now belatedly preaching that theme. Just as our children's generation suffered most in the 80's. Many never recovered from their experiences in the 80's we called it the lost generation, the greed of us older generation will see it re-enacted. 


Mark Serwotka, a name new to me, was that unusual thing a trade unionist very clear about his personal philosophy and willing and able to use that to express eloquently the opinions derived there-from. You may take it I was heartened to hear logical argument by a member of a lobby which so often seems blinkered, and so often, usually for good reason, comes over as being simply defensive. He is a free thinker a breath of fresh air for Labour politics.

WAR and LIBYA
Anything I say about this crisis is more than probably to be overtaken by fast moving events, especially tonight because I haven't even listened to today's news. But here goes!


My opposition to war is clear, I believe the use of military force is nearly always counter-productive. We went into Libya to protect a population from undeserved violence, an arguable position I admit. Having largely achieved that aim what could be worse than arming the 'rebels' so that they can prolong the killing.

The only beneficiaries of that are the manufacturers of arms, like ourselves, we should aim to wean ourselves off such a dirty, overpriced, corrupt, trade.

CRICKET
I think I n must be the only one in Rugby mad Wales who has regularly stayed up till One pm to listening to the exciting World Cup games. 
Don't miss the climax tonight with the final in Bombay between Sri Lanka and India. Seen another way it is Master Batter  Sachin Tendulkar, indisputably the best since Bradman, who hopes to make his swansong his 100th Test Century today versus Master Tweaker the ham-strung Muralitharan (with  Shane Warne one of the two best spin bowlers of all time). He will fight through an injured hamstring to sign off from Test Cricket with a triumph.


Since England tied with India in one of their sequence of exciting close finishes whilst they were trashed by ten wickets to Sri Lanka the result should be a no brainer. But it won't be. Remember the sub-continent is even more crazy about cricket than Wales and New Zealand are about Rugby. Remember also that Tendulkar by his own admission used five (of his nine) lives in top scoring against Pakistan in their semi-final or they wouldn't be there at all. Home advantage should be a huge advantage to India in Mumbai, but the level of expectation may get to them as it does so often to England's football team at Wembley, if it doesn't and if Sri Lanka also perform to the standard they can reach expect a classic cliff hanger.