John Martyn: Solid Air

The posting below was written before I realised I would not be able to embed Martyn's 1987 live performance of this song in Dublin. So I suggest you watch that one rather than listen to the version here..

In Electric Eden Rob Young writes:

Watching footage of Martyn playing live can be an unsettling experience. After a tortured, deeply emotive passage or song rendition, Martyn instantly snaps out of character, undercutting the intensity of the moment with a cheery "Awright!", the "Eyethangyew!" of a pompous music-hall entertainer or a crude joke.

That tendency is well displayed in this tribute to Martyn's friend Nick Drake.

Young's account of Drake is also valuable and suggests that heroin addiction had more to do with his problems than any I have previously read.

As the estimable Backwatersman and I agreed at the cricket a few weeks ago, it is remarkable that Drake's music is now omnipresent. Once celebrated for his obscurity, he now features on every television trailer.

Note too the presence of Danny Thompson here. He is another key figure in British music since the 1960s.

Labour did not have to call the Crewe by-election for months

Given the probablity of a heavy defeat for Labour later this evening, it is worth recalling that they could have waited for months before moving the writ for the by-election.

So anxious were they to have the contest quickly that they called if before Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral. I doubt that will seem such a clever move in a few hours' time.

The website that thinks Tamsin Dunwoody is a Lib Dem

When the Henley by-election is called, a lot of people searching for news of it will find ThameNews.Net. That website - "the first port of call for ALL THINGS THAME!" - had better raise its game quickly.

Take this news report:

Boris's Lib Dem apponent goes to Crewe to give support

The Liberal Democrat's Parliamentary Candidate for the Henley constituency that includes Thame, has travelled to Crewe to support Tamsin Dunwoody, his party's candidate in today's by-election.

Stephen Kearney is the Liberal Democrat candidate for the expected Henley by-election...

Oh dear:

1. Stephen Kearney can hardly be Boris's apponent - or even Boris's opponent - because the by-election will be called when Boris resigns as MP for Henley.
2. Tamsin Dunwoody, as any fule kno, is the Labour candidate in Crewe and Nantwich.

Still, apart from that...

Later. The posting has been corrected, at least in part. Well done.

Frank Furedi on Labour's campaign in Crewe

From an article on Spiked:

New Labour’s ‘anti-toff’ crusade in Crewe and Nantwich is only a caricature of old-fashioned class politics. Traditional class politics was not simply about targeting the rich – it was also about providing an alternative vision of the world, where what your family did for a living need not determine your destiny. This class-based politics promoted and argued for a real and positive vision of the future. The current anti-toff campaign, by contrast, simply encourages resentment towards the better-off.

It is actually about targeting those who are different or who are outsiders. So it is perhaps not surprising that New Labour activists have not only targeted toffs in Crewe and Nantwich but have also tried to foster local chauvinism against Polish immigrants in a scare campaign about ‘uncontrolled’ migration. In this sense, far from being in any way progressive, the anti-toff campaigning has much in common with current attempts by populist politicians to politicise antipathy against immigrants and outsiders.

Boulton & Co. talks up Lib Dem campaign in Crewe

Writing from Crewe on the Sky News Boulton & Co. blog, Niall Paterson says:

The surprise for me was the confidence of the Lib Dems. They feel that there's been a real move to their candidate in the past couple of days, and insist they'll be challenging the Tories for the seat.

Is this blog breaking electoral law?

Someone claiming to be Paul Thorogood, the candidate of the Cut Tax on Petrol and Diesel Party in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, has just left a comment on this blog promoting his candidacy.

Should I:

1. delete it?
2. list all the other candidates?
3. charge him for the advertising?

Tea with Lord Bonkers

The Daily Telegraph's Mandrake was intrigued by this:

The Lib Dems have hit upon a novel way of getting party members to head for Crewe and Nantwich to campaign for Thursday's by-election: they're offering them the chance to have "a cuppa" with one of their big guns.

Each day until polling day, a name will be drawn from those who have signed in at the local campaign and the lucky winner will take tea with a Lib Dem "name" such as Simon Hughes, Vince Cable, and, on polling day, the party leader Nick Clegg himself.

As ever, Lord Bonkers was there first.

The last time there was an autumn Lib Dem Conference in Harrogate Liberator magazine raffled the chance to take tea with Lord Bonkers at Betty's. The winner was the fragant Virginia Morck.

Lord B still speaks of her.

John Harris on Labour's campaign in Crewe

John Harris writes in this morning's Guardian:

Essential Labour strategy is clear enough: not to concentrate on anything progressive or inspiring but to run instead on a mixture of the Dunwoody bloodline, utterly witless class warfare, and the politics of fear.

One wonders what the more shrill aspects of the party's campaign will do for Crewe's community relations - but there again, it's doubtful that such thoughts are troubling many Labour high-ups. Misanthropic nastiness, after all, seems to be a central plank of the government's fightback.

Guido Fawkes on the Lib Dem Crewe campaign

An intersting observation from the pointy-bearded one:

The LibDems are not repeating the mistake they made in the Mayorals. They attacked Boris when the public was moving towards the Tories. This election they are going with the popular flow and attacking Labour. Their advertising says "Send a Message to Gordon Brown". They might take some votes from disillusioned Labour voters who can't bring themselves to vote Tory.

BBC website calls Crewe and Nantwich "a safe Labour seat"

I quote:

A Belfast beauty Queen is set to fight a by-election in a bid to "glamorise" the House of Commons.

Gemma Garrett, who is the current Miss Great Britain, is standing in the safe Labour seat of Crewe and Nantwich.

We shall see.

Crewe and Nantwich by-election on 22 May

Or so the BBC says.

And Iain Dale is not impressed:

It's unprecedented to call a by election before the funeral of the previous MP has taken place.