One people person, many people people

Via APIL, another curious headline - People people thwarts mast plans. I do like the idea that, rather like Spartacus, the protestors cry "I'm a people person", "I'm a people person", etc. They're all people people!

Cheats chant, and chants cheat

The Daily Telegraph again, so soon, with a slightly puzzling headline about last night's football. It conjures up an image of supporters pretending to chant, but not really, the sneaky devils - 'cheat' chants was surely the way to have gone here!

Pothole blighted car park plans stall

Two of my favourite blogs melded together in one news story

Pothole blighted car park plans stall

Firstly, the headline - a way of writing beloved by UK headline writers that combines a number of words that might be nouns or verbs or adjectives in one riot of colour. They've been christened "crash blossoms" after a famous headline "Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms" and are popular over on Language Log. I must admit this isn't a classic, but I do like the idea that the car park is planning to have a stall to raise awareness, and possibly funds, to help with its current pothole blighted state.

Secondly, the picture - the kind of image loved by the good people of Angry People in Local Newspapers. OK, the man on the right isn't looking particularly angry, but the man kneeling down is showing textbook fury. I can't help but think, though, that this is at least in part because he was the one who drew the short straw, volunteered to do the kneeling, and, well, frankly, his knees aren't up to it.

Now then, mardy bum

Michael Gove gave a long speech to Cambridge University - presumably not all of it - recently in which he set out, well, I'm not sure what he set out, really. Perhaps he was saying that an education today should be more like a Victorian education, or perhaps that our aspirations for education today should be more like Victorian aspirations for education. At any rate, he was encouraging children to read more challenging books, which I suppose is a good thing.

I always want to give politicians the benefit of the doubt, I really do. I want to think that they are trying their best for us, that they aren't evil or malicious, driven by an unhealthy desire for power or some dark conspiracy. But there were a couple of things that made we wonder:

And there is such as thing as the best. Richard Wagner is an artist of sublime genius and his work is incomparably more rewarding - intellectually, sensually and emotionally - than, say, the Arctic Monkeys.

It's the "incomparably" that gives me pause - "In an incomparable manner or degree; in a way that does not admit of comparison; beyond comparison" says the OED. Thanks for pissing in the Arctic Monkeys' cornflakes, Michael.

It just feels too much, particularly given that, when Michael Gove's car was stolen, the contents included not only Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (unabridged), Wagner's Parsifal and the collected speeches of Ronald Reagan, but also Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons and a Best of The Smiths collection. Hang on, that seems to me like a mixture of the "best" and the, well, incomparably not the best.

And then again, he said

Conventional grammar - as we understand it here and as Simon Heffer lays it out masterfully in his wonderful book Strictly English - doesn’t feature in the English curriculum.

This was the bit that really struck me, because Strictly English is a book about something that doesn't exist, even in Heffer's book. The idea is that all beautifully written English follows a set of precise rules. Except that it doesn't, even in Heffer's book. The boys over at Language Log have done a much better job of skewering these ideas than I ever could. As one of their reviews said

...setting out a cavalcade of rules that standard English does not comply with and never did, and representing them as instruction in how to write today, is dishonest. Some linguistic masochists may delight in letting Heffer bully them into compliance with his whims and peeves; but I see this obtusely atavistic book as a perversion of grammatical education.

I'm not really sure what that means, but it can't be good, not a "perversion of grammatical education", surely. How would you develop a marking scheme for that?

And I wonder if this is a problem at the heart of Michael Gove's ideas about education too. I think he wants to make things better, he really does. But he couldn't bear it if, even if it made things better, the education system had in it things that, though "self-evident" to him, weren't actually true. It's the desire to give freedom while exerting control that may prove too difficult. I just hope it doesn't leave him

Pulling that silent disappointed face
The one that I can't bear

Smaller government

The Daily Telegraph, I'm pretty sure, believes in smaller government, but I don't think this is the way to go about it.

Their headline yesterday reduced the word to goverment. Presumably if Michael Gove becomes the next prime minister they can reduce this to Govement, then on from there...

Is lifehacker all there is?

I didn't understand the fuss about the recent Google Reader revamp. I had never really used, or even understood, the features that they did away with. But I am disappointed to see the decline of another feature I did enjoy - "Show me my recommendations".

This used to give lots of interesting blogposts from around the world. There were always interesting articles in there, articles that you wouldn't have found any other way. At least I wouldn't. I would never have known about the amusing Amazon reviews of the Bible, or how to crack the credit card code. But no more. Now all you get are articles from Lifehacker, and some tech stuff - nothing from the random world of the blogosphere.

Maybe its demise is the result of the other changes they made to Google Reader. I don't know. Either way it's a shame.

Jean

Jean, why do you dream of those pointless petty crimes
It's your love not mine
It's your love not mine

Jean, won't you tell me, what were the drugs for?
I didn't feel a thing
Did you feel anything?

and oh, those blissful sunny afternoons
when we forgot what time was
do you know what it was

Jean, what was the point of spending money on everything
Don't you know it's all gone
Did you leave when it was gone

and oh, want you write to me soon
tell me what you want to do
tell me what it meant to you

Jean, won't you tell me, what were the drugs for?
I didn't feel a thing
Did you feel anything?

Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon

I was walking down St Giles in Oxford with Paul Sutton and I don't remember who else. We met a poet, or at least someone selling poetry, or at least someone selling a book of words. And Paul bought a book, as you do, and I don't remember the poems, or the words, except for one last line, which was "Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon". And we spent a long time making fun of it. But I still think of it, and it still makes me smile, so maybe it was poetry after all.

Lotherton Hall Change of Use

Less than ten years ago, you could get a year-long parking ticket at Lotherton Hall for less than £10. Under new proposals, from this October, that price (for a family) will have risen to £45.

In some respects I am not comparing like-with-like. The previous price was for parking and entry to the grounds (but not the house). The new price will include entry to the house. Still, it's a dramatic rise. If the house that we were living in at the time had increased in value at the same rate, we could have bought our new house mortgage-free; twice, which would have been nice.

Run by Leeds City Council, it was clear Lotherton Hall was underpriced, given the facilities that are available. There is a children's play area, a bird garden, deer park, extensive gardens, and a woodland walk. In winter they organised craft events where you could make your own Christmas decorations (particularly willow wreaths) for a donation. It was excellent.

Now, however, I think its use will change, and I think that's a shame. When you visited Lotherton Hall in summer it was crammed with families escaping Leeds for a little bit of countryside. Kids played football while parents sat around barbecues. There was a tacky fair where you could play hook-a-duck and buy an ice cream.

I don't want to romanticise this too much - perhaps it's the barbecue smoke getting in my eyes - but it was a great space for ordinary people to spend an afternoon.

Oh there's nothing as gay as a day in the country, under the wonderful skies.
For a city bred feller, field full of yeller, is quite a delightful surprise.

Well, perhaps not, but it seems inevitable now that this will change. The plans intend to take Lotherton Hall upmarket, "enhance the visitor experience". But really, haven't we got enough enhanced visitor experiences already? Is that what people living in the concrete-infested depths of Leeds really want?

Lotherton Hall isn't Harewood House or Bramham Park, but these new prices are taking it into that territory. Lotherton Hall is a nice bit of green space where you can run around to your heart's content without feeling that you must get the most out of the visitor experience.

If we visit again, I expect the mix will have changed to Boden families and older people in hats and coats. Which is a shame, because they have plenty of places to go already.