Complacent Britain

Snow is a great leveller, a sanitiser of people's frantic everyday lives, especially in this globally technological 21st century.

Unfortunately, with the infrastructure that this country has, with most transport and communication services deregulated since the 1980's to allow for greater profit and ease of use, essential services are no longer a requisite, private car-based transport has become the norm, and we have become spoilt by mild winters. It seems that there are still certain things in this world where we are still at the mercy of the elements - yet there are those who feel this should not be so.

In previous wintry times it was difficult but we coped. I well remember once travelling on the school bus as the only passenger - but the schools stayed open. The braced, bruised, and I confess rather boring British have revealed themselves to be more Scrooge-like than they realised, if snow is meant to be a symbol of Christmas spirit. "Nice to look at, not nice to be in" is a phrase often rendered; another way of putting that is things are fine in principle but not in practice.

The only true downside to the snow is the hurt, the damage and sometimes death caused, particularly to the sick and the elderly, for which sorrow and sympathy are required. For the rest it's really just a case of putting up with it.

Happy White Christmas.

Liberal Democracy - the double-edged sword

The current coalition government is hardly a proper coalition. It is really, to most intents and purposes, a Conservative government by the back door, with extra Liberal Democrat flavouring thrown in. Those Lib Dem ministers who supported the fee rises have their cross to bear, but the rest are pretty much helpless. Unfortunately, the Lib Dems with their previously trenchant views on education, are taking the rap for what is basically a Conservative policy.

It is in many ways, the best of times and the worst of times for the Liberal Democrats.

Wikileaks - the truth kills?

In the 1960's the cause of the Vietnam War was undermined considerably by the on-the-spot television coverage of the devastation by American forces (and only scant mention of the Viet Cong reprisals).

Now the modern variation has emerged from the Internet. Many of the leaks are from past exchanges, but ones that still very much affect the present international climate, and the slightest indiscretion could tip the balance dangerously and wreak havoc with diplomacy

I'm all for getting (some of) this information out, but there are things that people say and things that people do. Spilling the beans like this may lead the one inexorably to result in the Other.

Mandelson and the Media

Hannah Rothchild's much-trumpted drama documentary Mandelson - the Real PM? (the double meaning of the title was lost on me until the first few minutes) was a rather mundane affair and actually rather poignant - if seen very much from Mandelson's enclosed perspective, with certain supporting characters in the drama rather underused, particularly Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, and there is next to no mention of the key player in the 2010 election, Nick Clegg.

What does come through is the visible terror of some of Mandelson's fellow advisors (and George Osborne), and a very deep antipathy with Alistair Campbell - which he, not Mandelson, openly expresses.

In truth, Mandelson manipulates Rothschild as much as everyone else in the Media. The final moment in the documentary when he asks her if she has any more questions, when clearly "the Mandelson fizz" has gone, is another way of manipulating the focus of interviews round to the interviewer rather than the interviewee.

By way of not complete contrast, I switched over to BBC1 later that evening and saw Alan Yentob's Imagine documentary featuring the shameless but rather endearing paparazzi Ron Galella. Shameless, and rather chauvinist in his pursuit of certain glamorous figures in the limelight, especially his obsession with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which escalated to illegal stalking.

In spite of his ceaseless lack of discretion, by sheer rule of numbers some of the photos are great moments, particularly the candid shot of Jackie walking in the street with her hair coming across her face (right). Unfortunately (for Jackie) no matter how many times Gallela snaps her, in whatever level of irritation or harassment, she always looks fabulous.

His argument (and that of other paparazzi) is that as far back as Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians were fascinated by the appearance of their Pharoah, and the public's fascination with stars is a continuation of that. It is this attitude that has led to the obsession with celebrity that the Media - not the public - retains to this day.

A revealing moment is when Galella mutters he would rather photograph Angelina Jolie (which he has, since her childhood) than the more prestigious but less photogenic Robert Redford, emphasising that looks, not status, are really at the heart of his shallow profession.

The Grapes of Wrath

Mercury Theatre. Act I 95m. Act II 75m.

A Oklahoma dust bowl family escapes to California to find work, but once there things are even worse.
Long but engrossing production with many innovative and epic moments, a powerful story put across with some powerful performances. Not as brilliant as John Ford's searing black-and-white film masterpiece from 1940, but pretty good in its own right.

w: Frank Galati, from the novel by John Steinbeck
d: Timothy Casement
s: Gary Shelford, Nicky Goldie, Roger Delves-Broughton, Tim Treslove, Adrian Stokes, Ignatius Anthony, Gillian Cally, Keith Dunphy, Emily Woodward, Ian Harris, Jim Kitson, Christopher Staines, Holly Knowles
lighting: Ben Payne

The Hurricane and the poodle

Watching the fascinating and entertaining tribute documentary Alex Higgins: The People's Champion just reminded me how much of a force of nature he was. The nickname "Hurricane" was well chosen - arrogant, erratic, brilliant, self-destructively alcoholic - it's all there.

I was at an Alex Higgins snooker match at the Wembley Conference Centre in 1987, where he came from behind to beat Terry Griffiths 5-4 in true determined Higgins fashion, but the end of the match was marred by an overbearing fan who leapt onto the stage to congratulate his hero.

That sort of entourage often dogged and characterised Higgins: if he was the People's Champion then I would liked him to have behaved more like one of them than the self-destructive rebel without a cause he often seemed. Nonetheless, he comes across as a very genuine human being, unlike Tony Blair, whose much anticipated biography was accompanied by a BBC1 interview with Andrew Marr yesterday. I found it a depressing example of how the transition from leader of the opposition to Prime Minister can become sadly coercive to establishment views and dangerously subversive to political bias across the Atlantic in America.

On the television today I noticed was also an old classic 1950's political drama on BBC2, All the King's Men starring Broderick Crawford as an ambitious politician who works his way up to Governor but gradually betrays all his principles to get there. The same could well apply to Tony Blair.

"They've been cheating us for years..."

So said Tom Graveney during the controversial England tour of Pakistan in 1987 when Mike Gatting had angry words with umpire Shakoor Rana.

Now the old trouble has returned again with Pakistan players accepting bribes for betting purposes (the phrase "allegedly" doesn't really enter the equation.)

So this all comes as no surprise.

I can't understand nowadays why anyone should paint such a rose-tinted view of cricket being a gentlemen's game anymore, when corruption and commercialism in sport are so rife at every level. Pakistan is going through a torrid time at the moment: the country is devastated by the worst flooding since the 2004 tsunami, the Taliban is a menace to every level of its society, and many Pakistanis are fighting for their survival: you can understand a few of them thinking it was every man for himself, to try and make what they could out of it.

But lessons are going to have to be learned. Heads will roll. I wish they would throw out sports betting and instigate laws to prosecute undercover journalism from creating scandal rather than reporting it.