Some readers may have wondered why no tribute has appeared here to Tony Benn. Well I must confess that I had somewhat ambivalent feelings towards the man. Whilst he was right about many things - he foresaw that technology would lead to the surveillance state that we now live in many decades ago - he never actually achieved very much. Compare that with the also recently deceased Bob Crow whose members are, as Ken Livingstone pointed out, just about the only working class people left with well paid jobs. And one can't help thinking that much of what he did was driven by ego and arrogance. But one does clearly admire the energy that he sustained across a long lifetime. I never met him although I did stand next to him to at the back of a public meeting addressed by Michael Foot during the 1983 general election campaign. I have however had several conversations with his son Hilary Benn MP who I must say is one of the nicest people that I have ever met, which given that he is a politician is no mean feat.
Last night I went to see Oyster Band at the City Varieties. They did a fine version of 'The Bells of Rhymney' and dedicated it not just to Pete Seeger, but also to Benn and Crow. It was an excellent concert as one would expect. John Jones has possibly the worst moves of any lead singer that I have ever seen and it was perhaps no surprise that their backing singer on the night, Rowan Godel, was also a rather stiff stage presence; nice voice though. Adrian Oxaal, formerly of James, was on cello.
And speaking of the interweb and how much it knows about us, I have just received an email from Booking.com purporting to predict my next travel destination. Most likely is apparently Dubai, of medium likelihood is Cardiff and least likely is Crawley. I'll give them the last one.
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