Jackie Ashley in The Guardian makes an important point about the introduction of congestion charging in London. “Progressive politics is all about asserting the general good against the private good; something that as a country we have come close to believing is impossible. This looming battle, which will be fought through headlines about traffic chaos and political hypocrisy, is not just about London, or Ken, or even cars. It is about political leadership asserting itself, at last, and taking some real risks. We should all know whose side we are on.”
As with so many landmark events in London, I will be away on C-Day. I’ve been on holiday for Black Wednesday and the deaths of Diana and the Queen Mother. I’m sorry I’ll be missing the advent of congestion charging, but I’m all in favour of it. Weather aside, traffic is the big, big problem with living in London today. Charging is the only way to go, whatever the associated problems with the system. If it works, I’m certain many cities around the world will follow London’s lead.
Under editor Andrew Gowers, the Financial Times is discovering a sense of humour. “Ergo Cancellarius Universitatis Oxoniensi! Mentor feminae juvenaliae britannicae! Clintonus Maximus! Ave! Genuflexamus! Qui officum donari salutant!”
I don’t usually write about my current reading, but I’m having such a rollicking good time with The Marshes of Mount Liang that I have to say something.
I can’t remember what inspired me a couple of years ago to buy the first volumes of this 600-year old classic. Like other impulse buys, it had been gathering dust on my shelves until an Amazon.com recommendation jogged my memory (I’d bought the Romance of the Three Kingdoms from Amazon, provoking the recommendation). I suspect I bought The Marshes of Mount Liang out of a sense of duty — shouldn’t my library contain Chinese classics, as well as western ones?
But now that I’m reading it, duty has been pushed far into the background. These are gripping stories that easily stand comparison with any of the great tales of the west (think The Odyssey, Decameron or Don Quixote). And the Perils of Pauline style makes it particularly difficult to put down at the end of a chapter. I desperately want to know what happens next. But what makes Marshes great is more than action and storytelling. The characters are rounded and complete. I care about the fate of these rebels.
There’s no substitute for rushing out and getting a copy of this great work, but David Keffer has provided a wonderful introduction and guide to the epic. And there’s a wonderful French site with illustrations of all 108 heroes.
I’ve just come across John Kaye’s Political Relations, thanks to my referer logs. It looks like yet another interesting politically oriented UK weblog, a growing genre. Thankfully, the UK political weblog crowd doesn’t yet seem plagued by the sniping and bitchiness that I find infests many US sites.