An evening is a lo-o-ong time in politics

An evening of furious politicking, offers and counter-offers.  We’re all fed up with it I think – just want a decision so they can get on with it.  Really don’t want – oh, hell – I can’t even be bothered saying what I do or don’t want.

Now, all of this puts me in mind of C P Snow.  You know – at least you ought to know, for I have often told you so, that C P Snow was the man who gave us the phrase ‘the two cultures’ – meaning science and the arts – and that he was from Leicester.  He was not only from Leicester, he lived here until his twenties and co-founded the university.  Not only that, he set many of his novels (the ‘Strangers and Brothers’ sequence) in Leicester.  He described the city (town as it was then) in detail.  So I expected, when I moved here, to find a number of tributes to him.  What did I find?  Nothing.  After a great deal of research I managed to find his old house – where he grew up.  Guess what?  It had been demolished.  There was a blue plaque on the house next door – nothing to do with the council as blue plaques are done by an independent organisation.  I have lived in Leicester for the best part of 22 years and not heard a word about him locally.

Scandalous.

Well, it’s something else to rant about besides politics.  I read Snow’s novels avidly when I was younger.  He’s not exactly reconstructed – his women don’t hold positions of power, although they are real characters and not cut-outs – but what makes him fascinating is his analysis of power.  He came up with the phrase ‘Corridors of Power’.  He also served as some kind of technology advisor in the Wilson government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow

I’m going to bed soon – I’ve been awake since four.  Chalet tomorrow

Pip pip!