I am re-reading Andrew Marr’s account of Edwardian political affairs in his ‘Making of Modern Britain’. More often than not I find myself filled with gloom. So many of the events of a hundred years ago are being replicated today.
I am reminded of my ten years as a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in the 1960s. How difficult it was to introduce new ideas. How it took two years to introduce an alternative harmony syllabus. Alternative, not replacement. “I am quite content with things as they are. I see no need for change.” The words of one of my senior colleagues.
Marr fills in for me many of the details which were only outlined in our wartime history classes. A century ago, reform of the House of Lords seemed a dire necessity. Today the matter is still unresolved.
Then it was Home Rule for Ireland. Now it’s Home Rule for Scotland.
Somehow I feel it’s not the haves fighting a desperate rearguard action. It’s more like a state of being disengaged.
francis cameron, oxford, 22 october 2012
Monday 22 October 2012
as it was, is now
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