Mr Brown at Auschwitz

Nick Robinson at BBC On Line reports on Gordon Brown's visit to Auschwitz. Following in his footsteps will be a school party on a trip organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust. Robinson states that the aim of the HET is

... to send children from every British school here - to learn, and to pledge not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Are we talking about a literal pledge taking here? I don't know. If we are, leaving aside the issue of how long it will be remembered for, as laudable as a pledge not to commit genocide is, asking anyone to make it smacks of a kind of political indoctrination to me.  

Robinson continues,

After a visit to the gas chambers that claimed so many, Gordon Brown wrote in the visitors' book: "As we remember the worst of our past, we must each commit ourselves to serve the best of our future." He is planning to create some form of memorial to those British Schindlers who gave their lives trying to preserve the lives of others who were murdered by the Nazis.

Taken in a particular way, Brown's statement could be taken to be pro-eugenicist, but it would, of course, be simply mischievous to suggest that. I applaud his sentiment, but he must realise that his words are empty. For as long as Brown supports culture of death as evinced in Britain's contraceptive, abortion, stem cell research etc etc policies he supports the destruction of those who might have been part of the best of our future.

Calling British people who helped Jews escape the Nazis 'British Schindlers' is a testament to the media's enduring inability to resist pigeonholing people. That aside, a memorial to them is a splendid idea. But if Brown was really serious about promoting those who protected life, rather than destroyed it, well, from the paragraph above this one, you can guess what I would suggest he does. 

Pullman and Plutarch

In his account of Alexander the Great, Plutarch (c. AD 46 - 120) states that Cleitus the Black, the Macedonian warrior who saved Alexander's life at the Battle of the Granicus River, was lead by his 'evil genius' to criticise the king in such a manner that caused Alexander to kill him.

In this context, 'evil genius' should not be taken to mean that Cleitus was a criminal mastermind. As the footnote points out, the ancients believed that at birth, every man received a 'daimon' which might be good or evil but which would stay with him for life. 

It seems to me that to understand what the daimon was we should turn to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books. In them, humans are accompanied by an animal - called their daemon - which is a physical manifestation of their soul. 

Although the daemons were not indicators of the individuals morality (although they might be more or less aggressive according to the person they came from) I think that Pullman must have borrowed the idea from the ancients. I wonder if anyone has any other ideas? 

State of Play - dir. Kevin MacDonald

Here be spoilers!

A few evenings ago, I went to see State of Play, the new thriller starring Russell Crowe. Crowe plays Cal McAffrey a journalist at the ailing Washington Globe newspaper. One day, a Congressional researcher named Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer) dies after falling under a tube train. Did she fall or was she pushed? The CCTV cameras can't tell as at the time of her fall, she was standing on the platform's one blind spot.

Baker worked for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). When he tearfully announces her death, the media begins to suspect that he was more than merely her employer. And on this occasion, the media is correct. Collins is the chairman of an official enquiry into the workings of PointCorp, a defence contractor. Baker was his chief researcher into the company and also his mistress. But she was even more than that...

McAffrey is a down at heel journalist who is investigating a seemingly unconnected murder in the capital. Rachel McAdams is his colleague Della Frye who is in charge of the Globe's online content. And at the outset, never the twain shall meet. Not for the first time, the old school media holds the new in disdain! However, when it is found that the death of Baker is connected to the murders that McAffrey is investigating, he and Frye are forced to work together.

State of Play is a competent thriller. Not of the quality of a Ridley Scott film, but has enough twists and turns to keep one interested in the story. Most importantly, there is also some good humour to lighten the dark mood of the story. That story gives us a congressman who is not all that he seems (but really so bad?), a newspaper compromising its editorial standards for money, a corporation that will let nothing get in the way of its pursuit of money and people at the mercy of the powerful. 

The performances of the actors are uniformly good. Russell Crowe really does grizzled well but I must say that when Brennan Brown (Andrew Pell) appeared, he had uttered not a word before a ripple of laughter spread throughout the cinema. This is because Brown is the lead character in the ubiquitous pre-performance Orange Mobile Phone adverts. Brown's character in State of Play was a serious one but with the Orange advert fresh in one's mind, it was simply impossible to take him seriously in his role. The Orange adverts are splendid but if Brown wants to have a career in film, he needs to quit them ASAP.

State of Play is informed by the American action in Iraq. It joins Syriana, Body of Lies and goodness knows how many other films it that catagory. The West's post '9/11' engagement with the Middle East is our new cold war. When The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (1963) was published, it introduced a readership more used to the glamour of James Bond to a much earthier vision of the cold war struggle. Ever since the 11th September attacks, we have been used to seeing bleak visions of the world in which we now live. I wonder if someone will reverse the trend and give us a new James Bond. Or should I say 'old James Bond' as the new one is part of the bleak trend.

THe Government and the Gurkhas

Last week, the Government announced new rules that would allow a greater number of former Gurkha soldiers to settle in the U.K. Unfortunately, these rules did not go nearly far enough. For as many Gurkhas as they would allow in, many more would still be denied entry.

In response to the Government's announcement, the Liberal Democratic party tabled a motion condemning the decision and this afternoon, saw it passed by 267 votes to 246.

It seems to me that the Government has made a rod for its own back on the issue. Who is more brave than a soldier? Any man who is prepared to put his life on the line for his country deserves the finest treatment that it can offer. If he comes from another country but wishes to settle here, then with the greatest speed, his papers should be processed and he should be met at the airport with a fanfare.

This point of view is not unrealistic but a simple fact.  Gordon Brown has defended the decision to continue to restrict the number of Gurkhas entering the country by saying, 

"We have got to balance our responsibilities to those who have served our country with the finance that we need to be able to meet these obligations - and not base our offer on money we cannot afford."

Of course, we must be mindful of our money but how dare we expect men to die for us when we will not give them a home afterwards. If we really cannot afford to pay for these soldiers then the only honest option would be not have them in the army. 

I cannot understand the Government's attitude in this matter. Of course, there are two sides to every story. I look forward to seeing Labour bloggers defend the Government's point of view - if they can. 

Quins' blitz seals victory

Harlequins 31 Newcastle Falcons 12

Rugby matches usually last for 80 minutes but this one was over in less than 30 thanks to a try blitz from Harlequins. It was great. Right from kick off, Quins played aggressively and with a single minded determination to score the four tries that they needed to secure a bonus point win and second place in the final Premiership table. 

Once that was done, Harlequins took their foot off the pedal. Newcastle scored a try of their own but as if to warn the visiting side that if they tried too hard, Quins would respond, Harlequins stuck another over the try line. At half time it was 31 - 7 and the match was over.

The second half was very much, as one paper put it, a 'stop and start' affair. Having finally dragged themselves into the game (in terms of possession and territory if nothing else) in the latter half of the first half, Newcastle tried to build upon their good work in the second, but they were never good enough to pose anything like a significant threat to Harlequins.

Of the Quins players, Danny Care shone out - at fly half. One would hope that one of our three established fly halves make a return from injury for the play off game in two weeks but if they don't, it is good to know that Care could take the role on. It was good to see Ugo Monye, fresh from his selection as one of the British and Irish Lions. And when I saw the arm go up as he swept down the wing to score his try that was even better!

The win means that Harlequins finish the regular season in second place in the Premiership on 66 points. The winners of the league are Leicester Tigers on 71 points. London Irish finished third on 66 points (but behind Harlequins on the number of wins - 14 vs 12) and Bath fourth on 65 points. What a close league this is! 

A week on Saturday then, Harlequins will play London Irish for a place in the Grand Final at Twickenham. By virtue of their second place, Quins will enjoy home advantage for this game. What is our record against the Exiles this season? Well, back in September, we lost 27 - 28 at the Stoop. In October, the two sides played again in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, again at the Stoop, and this time Quins lost 17 - 32. In February, Harlequins travelled to Reading for the away match and this time beat Irish 9 - 14. So what we have are two evenly matched teams. Let's hope the home advantage pays off for Harlequins so that we can book a place at Twickenham and, blimey, a chance to win the league title! 

The Chinese Grand Prix

A belated note on the Chinese Grand Prix, which was held last weekend: how nice it was to see a race go the distance! Unfortunately, the rain that ruined the Malaysian Grand Prix turned up again to do its best to turn Shanghai into a skidfest.

I have just been reading an excellent article on the BBC website regarding McLaren's appearance before the F.I.A next Wednesday. In case you aren't aware, McLaren are charged with lying to the Stewards in Australia over the fact that it told Lewis Hamilton to let Toyota's Jarno Trulli repass him during the safety car period when Trulli ran his car wide allowing Hamilton to pass him and then failed to tell the stewards this when they investigated Trulli's otherwise illegal manoeuvre after the race. 

The man who told Hamilton to let Trulli pass him and then not tell the stewards that he had done so was Dave Ryan, McLaren's Sporting Director, was forced to resign as a result of the matter. The team's former principal, Ron Dennis, has cut all ties with the F1 team. Ostensibly this is because he has moved to another part of the McLaren Group but it is popularly believed that Dennis' exile was part of McLaren's attempt to placate the F.I.A.

Previously, I argued that Ryan had been dealt with too harshly, that his 35 years of work with the team surely outweighed this single error. I still hold that view. If Ron Dennis has been forced out by the FIA then that too is shameful.

The BBC article asks how the F.I.A will regard 'Ryan-gate'

The issue will be how seriously the World Council takes it. Is this akin to a footballer diving in the penalty area, or should it be seen as bringing the entire sport into disrepute - a catch-all phrase in the F1 regulations that has been used in any number of cases in the past?

To my mind the matter is clear. McLaren sought to gain a simple competitive advantage through lying to the stewards. Therefore, what they did was the Formula One equivalent of the diving footballer. That people should be losing their jobs over the matter is ridiculous.

I suppose if nothing else though we should be grateful that in Formula One we have a governing body that has the muscle and willpower to stand up for the sport. If only the F.A. were able to do the same towards footballers who dive. 

Boris Johnson and Cincinnatus

Boris Johnson has said in an interview with the London Evening Standard that he may only serve as Mayor of the capital for one term. Further to this, he has also given notice of what will no doubt be interpreted as his ambition to be Prime Minister. 

Or has he? The Evening Standard reports,

Asked if he might serve as Prime Minister [Johnson] said: “If like Cincinnatus I were to be called from my plough, then obviously it would be wrong of me not to help out.”

Cincinnatus (c. 519 - 430 BC) was a former consul in the early Roman Republic who had fallen on hard times and was eking out an existence on his little farm when he was made dictator by the senate in response to the threat posed to Rome by the Aequian tribe with whom it was at war. 

Cincinnatus is notable not so much because he accepted the senate's request to become dictator but because after defeating the Aequians he promptly gave up his dictatorial powers and returned to his farm (more on Wikipedia here). 

Boris Johnson, therefore, is saying that if the Conservative Party fell upon hard times, he would be prepared to answer her call for a new leader to guide her to safety. Whether Boris would give up his leadership straight afterwards or, perhaps more to the point, the Tory party would wish to have him as leader in the first place is quite another matter. 

At any rate, if Boris really was ambitious to become the leader of the Conservative Party, there are better dictators of Rome with whom he could compare himself (most notably, of course, Julius Caesar).

Paul Burgin, whom I thank for mentioning the Standard's article on Mars Hill, regards Boris's comments as 'thinly veiled warnings towards David Cameron', but if Boris Johnson is serious in comparing himself to Cincinnatus he would not be thinking of himself as a rival to Cameron but someone to whom the party could turn should Cameron have to leave the leadership. Cameron, in this case, is analagous to the consul and senate in Rome which gave its power up to the dictator.

Jack Jones and the Spanish Civil War

Further to Iain Dale's post on the Trade Unionist Jack Jones who died aged 96, yesterday. Jones also fought for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war. He may have been 'one of the great trade unionists of his time' as Paul Burgin describes him (here) but did he ever regret the atrocities committed by the Republicans, for example, against the Catholic Church, in the civil war? I very much hope so.

Of course, the Nationalists committed atrocities as well. Neither side, therefore, fought justly in that war and no one who supported them without qualification can really be acclaimed a hero. With that said, requiescat in pace.

The Narnia Code

Yesterday, I watched The Narnia Code on the BBC iPlayer (U.K. web users only, I'm afraid). The title, of course, is inspired by The Da Vinci Code because as with Dan Brown's book, the suggestion of The Narnia Code is that C. S. Lewis hid an extra layer of meaning in his seven Narnia books, namely, that each one corresponded to the seven planets that were known to the mediaevals. Not quite as exciting a notion as the idea that Leonardo's John the Evangelist in his Last Supper painting is not him but Mary Magdalene but then this was a documentary  and not fiction.

The Narnia Code is actually based on a newly published book, Planet Narnia, by literary historian, Michael Ward. In the documentary, Ward describes how, in his rooms at Cambridge University, he was reading one of Lewis's poems which contained the line 'winter past, sins are forgiven'. This is given verbatim as I am watching the Chinese Grand Prix as I write this so am not going to go and get Lewis' Poems to check the reference!

The above mentioned line inspired Ward to look at the Narnia books in the context of their references to the seven planets - sun, moon, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury. So, for example, Saturn is behind The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This is because Lewis always associates Saturn with winter, which as we all know, is what covers Narnia until the arrival of Aslan. The moon is the planet of The Silver Chair because of the instances of lunacy (think Prince Trilian (?) in the Silver - moon like - chair). 

The narrator made some far too bold assertions as to what the effect of Ward's discovery - how it would change man's view of God, the Cosmos etc - but really, what it is is a neat little discovery that allows us to appreciate C. S. Lewis's learning and literary creation that bit more. 

Regarding the latter, the programme contained some recreations of Lewis in action with the Inklings; mischievously - it really had relevance to the documentary- these included Hugo Dyson's famous 'Not another bloody elf!' retort to J. R. R. Tolkien.

Amongst the 'talking heads' was Brian Sibley, who really does look a very avuncular person. He also has his own blog here. Check it out. There was also a fellow named Malcolm Guite who was distinguished by a very bushy beard and admirably unkempt hairstyle. I have since found out that as well as being a vicar, Guite is also a folk singer. His website is here. The vicar - scientist Sr John Polkinghorne also appeared. I mistook him for Raynor Unwin from documentaries past.

As Michael Ward talked about how Lewis saw religious imagery in the stars, for example, the red spot of Jupiter referencing the blood of Christ, we followed him to America where he visited his publisher in New York and, most interestingly, Wheaton College in Illinois. This college has bought the papers of many famous English Catholics. It is disgraceful that they have been allowed to leave the country, but we may give thanks that there is an institution that has cared enough to bring them all together. Most amusingly, Wheaton College looks like a Cotswold Cottage - a product, I suppose, of Anglophilia; well, I may smile, but it sure beats them hating us.

All in all it was a fairly solid piece of documentary making. I do think they should have dispensed with the unseen narrator and got Michael Ward to present the programme, though. He was a good presence on the screen and I am sure we would have learnt even more about the book if he had had more screen time.

If you would like to read more about Planet Narnia, Michael Ward has a dedicated website here. Well worth a look.

The Tablet and the blogs

Mulier Fortis refers to the The Tablet's indirect attack on Catholic bloggers and, it would seem, Damian Thompson, author of Holy Smoke, in particular:

"In Britain, too, there are Catholic bloggers, again often right-wing, polemical and vituperative."

I can't but help agree with Thompson's retort,

[The Tablet's] strictures against character assassination would carry more weight if its deputy editor, Elena Curti, didn't try to ruin the reputation and pastoral ministry of fine priests who have the temerity to offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

And yet, it is hard not to have a certain sympathy with the Tablet's position. Albeit its poor quality of journalism makes a defence of it difficult, it seems to me that Catholic blogs approach anything it says assuming the worst rather than giving the paper the benefit of the doubt.

And that creates a toxic atmosphere between the disputants that can only damage Christian charity and, ultimately, cause a scandal before the world. I wonder what the Pope would say about it all.

Lost up north

Sale 28 Harlequins 6

Hmm. Friday night rugby is as ephemeral as the wind. For a moment it is here and then before you know it, it has ended. Very unlike games played on Saturday which dominate the mind and heart all afternoon. Anyway, in their penultimate game of the season, Harlequins took on Sale for the second time in a month. The game at the Stoop on 23rd March ended 38 - 20 in Quins' favour. As you can see from the scoreline above, however, it was Sale all the way last night.

What to say about the game? Not much since I wasn't there and didn't listen to it on the radio. Here is BBC On-Line's report. It is a shame Quins didn't win, but the effect of the defeat is very much ameliorated by the fact of the game being last night. So, let's look forward to next week. In their last game of the regular season, Harlequins play Newcastle Falcons at the Stoop. A very winnable game. And if they do win, there is every chance that Quins could qualify for the play offs. They may win the grand final yet!

The society of saints

Last night I met with the Venerable Bede, Mrs Bede and Vin's Right Hand Man (to be) and the Better Victoria for a lovely meal in Sicilian Avenue in the West End of London. Towards the end of the evening, Ven. Bede mentioned a type of drink that I had not heard of before - the Italian Flag. It is comprised of a shot of amaretto, grappa and limoncello. Well, that sounded like a nice combination, so let's try it! Thus, as V. Bede covered his head in his hands, I ordered it. Individually, these are good drinks - and, especially in the case of grappa, strong too. In truth, they don't deserve to be drunk together as you lose the taste of each, but as a one off experiment it was very interesting drinking one after the after in honour of the beautiful country!

There was, of course, plenty of conversation throughout the night. Over the years, I have acquired for myself a reputation for being a kind of Ghengis Khan Catholic. Well, the Bedes and Vin's No. 2 will be so liberal! So, there was plenty of tooing and froing over the virtues of proper (i.e. pre Vatican II) Catholicism and the newer more insipid sort. However, I showed my magnanimity by drinking to the health of Vincent Nicolls, the recently announced new archbishop of Westminster. Let's hope he proves himself to be the right sort of priestly chap.

On a more serious note, it was great seeing the guys again after so many months and hearing about their doings. I hope they weren't too bored by my evocation of the joys of reading about Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. Venerable Bede, are you sure you don't want to join I Would Have Crossed the Rubicon With Caesar?!

Leinster sneak through

Harlequins 5 Leinster 6

On Easter Day, I watched Pope Benedict give his Urbi et Orbi address from Rome. He looked in good shape but his voice rather frail, although, admittedly, it has never been particularly strong.

In the afternoon, I visited the Duke of Hamilton pub in Hampstead to watch Harlequins take on Leinster in the Quarter Final of the Heineken Cup. What a fabulous game! What a shame about the result. Harlequins played their socks off in the attack but Leinster's defence was just superb, being breached only once. Unfortunately, Quins were not able to convert the try so it meant that Leinster's two first half penalties were the difference between the two sides.

Of the Quins players, Danny Care was, as they say, absolutely 'massive'. He has to be a serious consideration for the Lions tour to South Africa this summer. Nick Easter could have been the Zero of the day when he got sin binned for, I think, deliberately knocking on. Fortunately, Leinster were not able to score any points during Easter's ten minutes out of the game. Heroes were David Strettle and Ugo Monye who together stopped Leinster from scoring a try despite crossing the try line - Monye helped bring the Leinster player down and Strettle made sure that he got his body underneath the Leinster man's so that he could not ground the ball. Phew.

Harlequins are now out of the tournament, but, given how Munster demolished no less a side than Ospreys 43 - 9, perhaps we should be glad! Next year, however, I see no reason to believe that Harlequins can't come back to the Heineken Cup stronger than ever before.

Easter Triduum

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you have had a happy and holy few days. On Maundy Thursday, I went from work to pub to church. It was a good job that I drank slowly because not long after arriving at the parish church I was collared to act as a Eucharistic Minister. 

On Good Friday morning, I took a walk to the London Oratory. I should have gone on Saturday as it means that I missed the Tenebrae service. A shame as I have had a soft spot for Tenebrae at the Oratory ever since I read that it was not long after a Tenebrae in 1937 that Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan, Tolkien's guardian, died.

The Good Friday Liturgy in our parish is always a bit frayed round the edges, especially during communion. The church is always packed to the rafters and everyone gets up at once to receive communion from the priests! This year, however, two Knights of St Columba acted as ushers and were expert in making sure that people went up one pew at a time.

The Easter Vigil is my Catholic birthday, by which account I turned thirteen years in the faith this year. With Maurice Baring I can say that if converting to Catholicism was a mistake it was the most splendid one I ever made and I wish I could make the mistake over and over again. 

With that in mind, I have to admit a certain envy at those receiving baptism and confirmation at the Vigil this year. The star of the show was definitely Fr. Nicholas for singing the Exultet. We have been lucky this year in that we have had a proper singer - who lives most of the time in Switzerland, of all places - sing the psalms. I think the Vatican should require that a professional singer sing the Exultet. 

At the Vigil Mass, your writer read the New Testament from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans. He read it in his own indomitable style but it may not have been like that as beforehand I kept thinking of the way in which Ham read his (non canonical) epistle at the Memorial Service in The Constant Gardner.

Fr. Christopher, our parish priest, gave the homily at the Vigil Mass. He talked about the adventure of the faith, which put me in mind of Fr. Longenecker's excellent book, Adventures in Orthodoxy (which I previously blogged about here). He also talked about being surprised... surprised by joy. Just in case you didn't know this, Surprised By Joy is the title of C. S. Lewis's autobiography. 

The Malaysian Grand Prix

As I write, Jenson Button has jumped out of his Brawn GP car as winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix. But he has only won five points instead of the usual ten.

Sepang is a circuit that is very vulnerable to rain. With less than half of today's Grand Prix run, the deep grey clouds let loose the rain upon the very suspecting victims below. The drivers dived into the pits to change their tyres from slicks to full wets for maximum grip. But the rain was not yet coming down so hard that they were really necessary. Timo Glock, in his Toyota, realised this and opted for intermediate wets. He was somewhere in the middle of the field when he came in. Within a few laps he had zoomed up the leader board to third.

The big loser of the day was Raikkonen of Ferrarri. As the clouds closed in, he was the first driver to put the full wets on. But the rain had not yet come and he was forced to drive two laps in the dry. This ruined the tyres and forced him to pit again.

As the rain continued, the drivers changed from full wets to intermediates. But the rain was getting heavier and heavier. With admirable speed, Glock swapped his intermediates for full wets. Hamilton followed him, as did others. 

But so bad were the conditions becoming that it was not long before the safety car came out. It had not been on the circuit for long before Charlie Whiting, the race director, red flagged the field. 

The cars stopped on the start / finish line of the grid and, although we did not know it at the time, that was the race won. The FIA waited a while to see if it would be able to continue the race - even if only under the safety car, to allow the drivers to finish three quarters of the race and claim full championship points - but this turned out not to be possible. Thus, Button won the race and just five points instead of ten. Hamilton finished in seventh place, although appropriately enough in the generally confused atmosphere, he thought he had finished fifth! As long as he doesn't get banned, I'll be happy.

Finally, in accordance with FIA regulations, the placings were sorted according to who was where on the penultimate lap. This was hard on Glock who reached second place on the last lap. Still, in such dangerous conditions, he will have been glad not to have crashed.

Night and Day

As I mentioned in the previous post, I visited the Texas Embassy last night to meet Paul Burgin and some other friends. The Texas Embassy is a restaurant built on the site of, not just the Rugby Football Union but, you guessed it, the Texas Embassy when it was an independent country in the 1830 - 40s. 

Also present was Tim Roll-Pickering whose blog can be read here. Tim is as tory as Paul is Labour so there was some good gossipy political conversation going on. Well, I say gossipy, but it was also pleasingly non-malicious. We also discussed our earliest political memories. I thought the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 was mine, but now I am not so sure. I may be thinking about what I read of it after the event. I certainly remember the Falklands war, though.

This morning, I was at the parish church for Mass. Happy Palm Sunday everyone! Fr Nicholas was preaching. During his homily, he mentioned that one of the alternative names for today is Flower Day. The Latin for flower is florida and the American state of that name was so called because it was discovered today! 

After Mass, we had a cup of coffee together with a someone who in September will be joining the Birmingham Oratory. Both the coffee and this information were very pleasing. The Birmingham Oratory, apart from being Cardinal Newman's home, looked after J. R. R. Tolkien and his brother, Hilary, after the death of their mother, Mabel in 1904.

Wrecked at the Rec

Bath 3 Harlequins 19

I have seen Harlequin play at Bath twice and on both occasions, the home side was the deserved winner of the game. Bath are a tough, tough side and I thought it would be a year or two more before Quins would have it in them to beat them at the Rec - if they did at all. 

Yesterday, however, as I made my way to the Texas Embassy restaurant to meet Paul Burgin (of Mars Hill) and others, I checked the score on my mobile phone and was taken aback and, frankly, dead chuffed to see that Harlequins had scored not just a win but a really good one. Reading the report of the game on the Telegraph website backed up this impression. Bath were out scrummaged, kicked really badly (Butch James having a 'bad day at the office') and generally out thought. Super stuff.

When we left the restaurant, I happened to notice a plaque on the wall outside which referred to the RFU. It turns out that the Embassy stands on the site of the restaurant where the RFU was formed in 1871 - a meeting attended by representatives of Harlequins FC!

At the end of the evening, as I wended my way home, I stopped at a newspaper stall outside Leicester Square underground station and bought a copy of today's Observer. The opportunity to read a report of the game on the day it happened was too good to miss!

The point system of the Guinness Premiership means that despite this win, Quins do not retain their first place, won on Wednesday after the massive win over Worcester. Leicester Tigers also won yesterday, and in so doing, picked up a bonus point. They now lead the table by a point. There remains, however, everything to play for with only six points separating first place and sixth (Sale).

At the other end of the table, spare a thought for poor old Bristol. They lost 38 - 21 away to London Irish and are so relegated. As to who will replace them, this is less certain. The money has to be on Leeds Carnegie, who have a six point lead over Exeter Chiefs, but three games remain for Exeter to haul Leeds in.

Il Divo - dir. Paolo Sorrentino

Yesterday, L. and I took the afternoon off work to visit the Curzon cinema in Mayfair to watch Il Divo, a fictionalised biography of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. 

Andreotti is still alive. This appears to me to be an important point because the film appears to not so much suggest but state outright that he is connected to the Mafia. Perhaps Andreotti does not consider the film worth taking libel action against; after all, in recent years, he has been hauled through the courts on numerous occasions on charges of mafia involvement, and been acquitted on each and every occasion.

Appropriately enough, the Curzon Mayfair is just opposite the Saudi Arabian Embassy. It is a rather nice country house. A shame about the extremist politics contained therein. Andreotti might approve of them, though, as it has him at one point say that ever man knows, even God knows, that in order for good to survive, evil must be done. 

In some respects, Il Divo is a very difficult film to talk about. The first problem was unique (I hope) to L. and I. The Curzon Mayfair is a small cinema. The auditorium seats only a very few hundred. When we arrived, the air inside was very warm. L. nodded off during the film and I had to close my eyes for while to restore some strength to myself. This would not have mattered during an English language film, as I could have just listened to the dialogue, but Il Divo was in Italian with English subtitles, so I missed various chunks of the story during the first half hour.

This was bad because the story of Il Divo was told at a sometimes very frenetic pace. There were a spate of killings and 'suicides' of characters who were clearly important but I had no real idea of who they were. One minute Andreotti was forming his umpteenth government then he was out in the cold again. Mafiosi came and went, as did the allegations. The Catholic Church popped up once or twice and there was plenty of history with assassinated politician Aldo Moro fulfilling the role of Banquo's Ghost. There were even references to post war Italian PM, Alcide de Gasperi, who I first learnt about during my last visit to Rome at an exhibition at the Victor Emmanuel Monument and who I have wanted to read more of since - does anyone know of an English language biography?

The above names form just part of the web of political intrigue at the heart of Giulio Andreotti's life. The mysterious P2 Masonic Lodge also made an appearance, as did Roberto Calvi, the banker found hanging underneath Blackfriars Bridge in the early eighties and who was connected to the fall of the Vatican Bank. 

So far as I could tell from Il Divo, Andreotti's principle purpose was to protect Italy from communism. That would appear to be his justification for anything and all that he did. I have to emphasise, though, that I did find Il Divo a hard film to follow. I came out of the cinema afterwards thinking that I had suffered a great disadvantage in not knowing very much about post war Italian politics.  

One thing that is certain is that the actors all put in good performances, especially Tony Servillo as Andreotti. I wish I could speak more about the other actors, but this is the disadvantage when you do not watch much European cinema, the actors remain unfamiliar and their names easily forgotten. Bad form.

In terms of recommendations, I don't know yet if I can recommend Il Divo. I definitely need to watch it again to try and make more sense of it. I think it is either a very good, if complex, examination of Giulio Andreotti's life, or an indulgent and unfair portrayal of this titan of Italian politics. Maybe I will try and persuade Petrarch's Muse to go and see it instead. It would certainly save me from buying a book!

A Net With A View

It's not often I have my finger on the political pulse, but it happened last week. The cause was CreepyGoogle's Street View function. 

On the London Underground at the moment, there is an anti terrorism advertising campaign running at the moment. In one of the posters has a photograph of various pieces of bomb making equipment in a bin. The slogan underneath says 'a bomb won't go off in such and such today because someone saw the unusual items in the bin and called the police'.  

Fine. But during a conversation about CreepyGoogle's Street View at work the other day, I said that that advert would now be obsolete. The would be terrorist would no longer need to visit the area that he wanted to bomb - he could check it on Street View. There are the CCTV cameras, there is a nice bin to stuff the bomb in, there are the escape routes. Sorted. Thank you Google.

The conversation moved on but just a few days later, I read that an MP had made just the same point. I can't remember where I read the original article, but here is a similar one, by MP John Randall. 

As for CreepyGoogle, the Street View is an ingenious but arrogant piece of work. How dare they assume that everyone would be happy to have their home on the internet for all to see. It is true that you can contact CG to ask them to remove the image of your house (or of you, if you find yourself photographed on the street), but if CreepyGoogle had an ounce of ethical intent, they would have asked before including images of your house or your person in the first place. 

As I wrote this blog post, it occurred to me that Blogspot is a CreepyGoogle subsidiary. I have already been thinking about stopping using googlemail as my one man protest and am sufficiently unhappy with CG to remove this blog or transfer it to another host, if that proves possible. We'll see.

McLaren's dodgy decision

So, for the sake of a point, Lewis Hamilton was told to lie to the Australian GP stewards regarding whether he let Jarno Trulli pass him while the safety car was out at the end of last Sunday's Melbourne Grand Prix. A very disappointing affair. 

Jonathon Legard says on his BBC blog that,

Hamilton was told by the team to tell the race stewards a particular line and if those were team orders he had to obey them.

Now, I thought that the 'only following orders' defence was actually no defence at all? Or, could it be that this argument is part of winner's justice, which is really no justice at all? I strongly suspect that whoever invented the argument was never in a position where they had to 'do-or-die', which makes their upholding of such a position thoroughly unjustified.

Going back to McLaren's dodgy decision, the man who appears to have told Hamilton to lie was his sporting director, Dave Ryan. According to the reports, Ryan has been with McLaren for 35 years. He has been suspended from his post and may lose his job. But I refuse to believe that 35 years of good work can be considered wiped out by this one discretion, as bad as it was. I really hope that Ryan is allowed to return to work at McLaren even if not in the same position. Thirty five years speaks to an incredible love and loyalty to the team that deserves to be repaid.

Standing on the dizzy heights

Harlequins 60 Worcester Warriors 14

Well! Talk about righteous. Not only do Harlequins thump Worcester but now we are top. Here is the table:

1. Harlequins 19 12 1 6 57 

2. Leicester Tigers 19 12 1 6 57 

3. Bath Rugby 19 11 2 6 57 

True, it is as close as close can be between the top three but there they are, at the top on points difference. Now, all Harlequins need to do is beat Bath (A), Sale (A) and Newcastle (H) and then we'll be in the play offs as league champions! Most excellent. 

Now the reality check. Bath and Sale (6th in the league) will prove extremely difficult as they have play off ambitions of their own, and the teams in fourth and fifth (Gloucester and London Irish) are a point and two points respectively behind the top three. The top four go through to the play off, but Quins could still end up like last year - finishing sixth after losing in the last minute to the opposition.

As for last night, I did intend to go to the Stoop to see this game - which was being played midweek after being postponed in January due to the snow - but after a hard day's work (or similar) I found myself quaffing a glass of wine in the pub, reading Private Eye and rather feeling more like going home, sitting down and reading Mansfield Park, which I have just bought. Thus, I missed out on Quins' ten try frenzy. That'll teach me. Not that I could promise never to blow out a rugby game again because of Jane Austen. She is that kind of writer.

By the way, as you too dwell on the glorious table above, you may be wondering how Bath can be on 57 points given that they have drawn two games. The answer lies in the fact that they have also secured 9 bonus points through the season - two more than Quins or Tigers.