"The past is another country"

A happy old fool at the Chequers in Slaugham, enjoying a gathering of 38 of us who'd been at Ashfold School long ago. I've borrowed a school cap, its badge showing our three Houses - Lions, Griffins and Dragons. I'd left Birmingham on the 0600 train, cycled from Euston to London Bridge, arrived at the remains of the school grounds near Handcross at 1015, having pedalled up the long hill from Balcombe Station. The weather was dreich. From a beech-sheltered rendezvous off the Horsham Road, groups of us strolled the grounds of the old school, sharing memories, recognising hints of the past despite transformations of land and buildings, before gathering at the pub, continuing conversations started fifty years ago.

[17/01/11: unknown error - this small film no longer shows, its URL has disappeared and been replaced by a repeat of the link in the first sentence of the indented para below.]

We'd recognised one another in seconds - sighting features, recalling inflexions - relaxed in each other's company, chatting like sparrows, gathered to celebrate - by being happy - the character of Ashfold's headmaster - Jim Harrison - and the family of teachers he recruited. Later I found - on the internet - Edward Fox's memories:

At eight, I was a border at Ashfold School near Handcross, also in West Sussex. It was run by such kind, brilliant, eccentric and wonderfully English staff. Miss Ticehurst, who was known as 'Tishy' and taught music, was one of the great teachers. The headmaster was James Harrison. If there was a caterpillar on his lettuce, he would eat it, to teach us not to be dripping wet.

This get-together - first of its kind - was proposed only three weeks ago, intiated by a class mate, mainly coordinated by 'Cyprus Sue' at the other end of the Mediterranean. [Mr Chips - about a public school rather than prep of course and much earlier, resonant on a theme of long association "..a long time ago...yes...a long time...things are different now" ~ extract] Later, Brompton folded in the boot, I was given a lift to Eastbourne Station, with a stop for tea and cakes and more conversation. At 1900, a ticket seller, called Patricia, seemed to take genuine pleasure imparting, through a glass screen, the news that 'reduced Saturday services' meant our rail system couldn't get me to Birmingham that night. ("Sometimes a good day needs a piece of crude punctuation" said the classmate who'd offered a room for the night). Despite his kindness I wanted to get home. Rain and wind increased, puddling the dark platform at St Leonards. I waited an hour for a train, having heard from Lin - checking the internet and phoning my mobile - I could catch a coach from London or take a room at a hotel in Kings Cross ("five left at £29"). Once aboard a trundle-train to Charing Cross, in company with a clutch of Saturday night police in yellow tabards, readying for post-Halloween passengers expected to join a returning train from Battle, I grumbled to a young woman on her way to Aldershot. She was in the middle of custody litigation over her five children, one of whom was about to be a mother, making Charlotte a grandma at 34. I censored my vexation at our railways as our separate tales unfolded. She showed me photos of her sons and daughters. I showed her a picture of me with a jackdaw on my head. "Thanks for your company" I said, as she got off at Waterloo, "Good luck with your life." From Charing Cross concourse with police, security and PCSOs warily circling tipsy screamers, I cycled swiftly along wet Whitehall, past the House of Common down to crowded Victoria Coach Station, to hurry aboard the 2300 bus home - the young driver, firmly but politely, rejecting a swaying man who wanted a seat to Brum ("See how you feel later. There're two more to Birmingham tonight") - arriving at Digbeth at 0140, pedalling happily through chilly driving rain to home at Handsworth at 0200 - a long happy day for one who avoids reunions. "Cup of tea?" "Yes please" One of our oldest e-mailed on Sunday: '... a great day and it just showed how much the old school means to us! It was amazing to meet up with people I probably hadn't seen for 58 years but also amazing that we picked up the friendships straight away.' I found an old School Report signed off by Jim Harrison when I was 9. When the children were young I found a very small slug in my lettuce one day and ate it, to show off a little, and show them that a slug in a salad wasn't the end of the world. They thought I was silly but amusing. Could I have learned that long ago? Like the prayer we sang at evensong - its first line the school's motto * * *

VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS: S106A?

I'm writing in connection with what should be the final stage of our campaign, going back over ten years, to see new playing fields and eighty allotments laid out beside the new houses built next to Handsworth Park, as part of the developer's 2004 S106A with Birmingham City Council (see earlier posts):

Dear Cllr Brom VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS It was good to see you the other day at PC Nigel Smith's retirement event at the Tennis Club in Handsworth Wood. You mentioned that the VJA and the future of the Section 106A on that site was on your list. You will recall that when we (including Basil Hylton, you and Cllr Hussain) met Alan Orr, Constituency Planning Officer, on site on 22 May this year he said things should be starting to move by this August. Birmingham City Council's website claims that: 'In Handsworth, the final phase of development of the former private Victoria Jubilee Allotments will soon be underway. This comprises the complete restoration of an allotment site of 80 plots and is expected to be completed during 2008.' (but although you can find an allotments page on the BCC website various links are on 2/11/08 returning error 500 messages) The current financial situation with its potential fall out for the population of the area may be a reason for delays, yet it should also bring greater urgency to plans for new playing fields and allotments. Kind regards, Simon. Handsworth Allotments Information Group

And a few day's later:

Dear Cllrs Brom, Hussain and Brown and Mr.Khalid Mahmood MP, Any news of progress on the future of the VJA? I attach an air photo that I find rather troubling in terms of the incursion of building or at least hard surface into the area reserved for green space under the S106 Agreement between Birmingham CC and the developer. Compare the layout agreed by BCC Planning Committee with a recent air photo . Kind regards, Simon Baddeley

Adrian Goldberg at The Stirrer says he'll run this - he's been very helpful in the past, ditto Nick Booth who'll reference via Podnosh on the Grassroots Channel.

Memories

E-mail from one of those who'll be attending the tour of my demolished prep school grounds next week, congratulated Sue - based in Cyprus - who's co-ordinating things on the internet:

Sue, Your industry astonishes me. All in aid of a bunch of geriatrics on a wild goose chase looking at something that is not there any more. But the ways of the human mind are unfathomable and nostalgia can be a mighty powerful thing!

Another e-mail from someone else with whom I was at school long ago:

Simon old Cheese, Did my cryptic email not strike a chord?

Me:

Cheese? Somewhere in the recesses of our attic there’s a painting called ‘Lord Mousy’. Paint laid on thicker than slap on an old actor. I must try to find it. Best, Simon

He:

What have you been up to since 1955? Max 30 words.

Me:

30 words. Phew! [but with the magic of hyperlink...] Westminster, Cambridge, then by sailboat across the Atlantic. University of Pennsylvania, Tavistock Institute, Michigan U, Birmingham U. Remarried. Son daughter. Environmentalist, academic, traveller, working from Ano Korakiana, Corfu and Handsworth.

I’m so looking forward to seeing you and others on Nov 1. I don’t think I’m over-inclined to idealise the past, but the more I live the more I value the way we learned at Ashfold. I came there aged 7, rescued by my new step-father from a long closed abusive prep school in Berkshire. He with my mother took a lot of time looking for Ashfold, determined to ensure no repetition of the earlier mistake – about which my wonderful mother, at 91, still feels guilt while I entertain no iota of blame. I had nothing like so bad a time at that place as others, but it left apprehensions that Ashfold exorcised - like something out of David Copperfield including the happy endings Dickens liked to give his readers. Best wishes, Simon

* * * On the 30 October until the 2 November 2008 there will run, in Athens, the 13 International Anti-Corruption Conference': 'Global transparency -fighting corruption for a sustainable future'. Among the opening speakers will be Sotiris Hatzigakis, Minister of Justice who's recently overseen the passing of new anti-corruption legislation, Dimitrios G. Sioufas, President of the Hellenic Parliament and Kostas Karamanlis, Prime Minister. Also there will be Costas Bakouris, Chair, Transparency International (Greece) (English version of the website under construction), who said recently:

"The biggest problem is that lack of transparency has almost become part of our culture (incomplete webpage). Many Greeks have accepted that they need to bribe to get the job done. On the one hand, there's indignation about the situation. But on the other hand, it's also tolerated. Our country has arguably the highest degree of tolerance towards corruption in the world."

Watching PMQ and George Soros

"...if we do the wrong things, it will be more painful; if we do the right things, it will be less painful."

Government and the crisis - a sober American discussion between Bill Moyers and George Soros (transcript extract):

BILL MOYERS:So let's think about those people down at Neely's Barbecue going home tonight having heard you. What they've heard you say is the system is really disfunctioning right now. It's out of control. Nobody's in charge. They've heard you express your own worry that in the next three months it could get much, much worse. And they've heard you say that you don't see much good news immediately on the horizon. So let's leave them something to think about as they go home. Let them go home and say, "Mr. Soros said here are three things we can do, simply." One?

GEORGE SOROS:Well, deal with the mortgage problem. Reduce foreclosures. Recapitalize the banks. And then work on a better world order where we work together to resolve problems that confront humanity like global warming. And I think that dealing with global warming will require a lot of investment. You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer who has been spending more than he has been saving, all right? Than he's been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It's finished. It's run out of — can't continue. You need a new motor. And we have a big problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that could be the motor of the world economy in the years to come.

BILL MOYERS:Putting more money in, building infrastructure, converting to green technology.

GEORGE SOROS:Instead of consuming, building an electricity grid, saving on energy, rewiring the houses, adjusting your lifestyle where energy has got to cost more until it you introduce those new things. So it will be painful. But at least we will survive and not cook.

* * * [Back to the future - Obama's 'rescue plan' 13 Oct '08] * * * We've switched - from lecture and discussion at Hornton Grange at the University Conference Park with my Japanese students and friend and colleague Chris Game - to watching the BBC live feed from the House of Commons - a wide screen image, with good sound, of PMQ - Prime Minister's Questions. (YouTube extract) It's an especially useful example of being able to watching significant political moments, as the House considers the government's decision to spend even more money than was approved by Congress on Friday, in the form of a 'rescue package' - £250 billion in the hope of improving the 'general liquidity' - about £4000 per person across the UK - to give a feel for scale. In the States it was $70 billion (£394 billion) for a population of 301 million. Technology having become more versatile in the last year, we watched the Diet of Japan and other political forums - as three years ago I sat at the kitchen table in Birmingham watching Katrina - in repetitive stills - hitting the coast of New Orleans, ravaging the city and the lives of those unable to drive to safety, marking the start of European familiarity with the phrase 'sub-prime lending'. [Back to the future 2/11/08: on this matter of using WiFi in the classroom I know it's only the start of something quite different whose form is still unclear 'where the teacher can respond quickly and flexibly to students by tapping into a rich repository of learning gadgets relevant to the class and the syllabus to build a classroom experience that changes as fast as the students inquisitive minds.'] * * * Last night I had supper at Henry's in St.Pauls Square with my old friends, Kim and Tanya. It was so good to be together again after so long a break in our 8 or 9 month reunions. This time it was over a year so we had lots of chat about families, friends and the state of the world as it seemed from our homes and our different institutions, Birmingham University, Cranfield University Business School and private consultancy. "This is such a mess. It's so depressing. People are getting hurt or expecting to be. I cheered myself" said K " by thinking this may at least kick us into saving the globe" "And it may stop banks forcing loans down my kids' eager throats and then short-selling their debt to your eager kids as real money" I said. Didn't someone say "We're leaving Planet Finance: returning to Planet Earth; Wall Street becoming like Venice from the 19th century on - primarily for tourists...." * * * A rather astonishing and quite pleasing thing has happened. Out of the blue someone I've not met for half a century has e-mailed me suggesting a visit next month to the grounds of Ashfold School - where I was between 1949 and 1954, from age 7 to 12. Shortly after I left, the school moved to a place near Aylesbury. The old school was demolished. I've not been much interested in school reunions, but I know I'm not gold glazing my childhood in affirming that Ashfold was a happy place - liberal without ideology. I'm sneezing from dust raised sifting through unvisited files, digging out black and white images long unseen. The astonishing thing about the part of my brain that stores my past is that so much has lain there, as untapped as my old school photos. Unlike ones of me as a baby or toddler - in the secret garden of infancy - these photos record a time when I was poised between haloed clouds and common day. While the photos are faded, memories surface with astounding freshness, in colour with echoes; faces, words including school slang, (a sacred stubby - a pencil sharpened, at both ends, to the last syllable of available lead, respecting habits of scarcity from the war) events, personalities and now, in a trickle, stories of long ago - as others begin to chat via e-mail with images shared on the web about our forthcoming get-together. In the school photo from 1953 I'm eighth from the right, third row up. * * * Pushbikes arranged a public meeting with Birmingham City Council on 9th October at the Birmingham and Midland Institute to discuss cycling issues. I couldn't go. The photo shows the start of what became a standing room only event. Centre foreground is Howard Boyd, who's quietly done more for cycling in this city than anyone, and whose research - 12 years ago - into the health benefits of cycling got me taking up cycle commuting, and - last October - to divorcing my car. * * * The court case over the deaths in October 2006 of two children at the Louis Corcyra Hotel is due in November on the island. There's another worrying piece of news from the 'freelance one man band' Brabant on local concern about the EU subsidised landfill at Lefkimi - in this case a film on YouTube about its effect on the local water table.

From Corfu Malcolm Brabant reports: Environmental campaigners -Spiros Pantis, taverna owner, Dimitris Fanariotis, Eco Corfu and Stephanos Kouris, Environmentalist - on Corfu accuse the EU of wasting subsidies on a new rubbish dump that, they allege, fails to meet waste disposal standards laid down by Brussels. The campaigners claim the landfill site, near one of Corfu's most popular tourist beaches, is going to cause serious pollution because Brussels does not monitor how its money is spent.