Reviewing 1964

I don't tune in to the BBC's Parliamentary Channel very often but now and again there's something quite interesting going on there. Last night I watched part of an extended programme re-running the BBC's coverage of the 1964 election results. I remember some of the events leading up to it. The rules of the game had been changed. Members of the House of Lords could no longer be Prime Minister. So the Earl of Hume (Conservative) renounced his peerage, became officially a commoner, and Prime Minister. I still think of him as one of our least effective holders of that office. His time ran out. He delayed calling an election until the rules of the game forced him to do just that. On the Labour side he was opposed by Harold Wilson.

The election was going to be a close run thing. Alec Douglas-Hume (Con.) went down to Harold Wilson (Lab.). By a small margin.

I was fascinated by the BBC's coverage. It was still the days of black and white monochrome. Richard Dimbleby (father of David and Jonathan) was the anchor man. Others in his team included Robin Day and Cliff Michelmore. Bernard Levin was among those interviewed.

How different were the conventions of those days. More than a certain degree of correctness. The cultivated speech of the 'upper classes'. The general good manners. Speakers did not shout. Nor did they speak across each other. It was all very gentlemanly. Very urbane. It was the men of influence sharing news and opinions.

I lived in that ethos. I read The Times each day - because 'top people read The Times'. It was the best, the most informative, in those days. My speech patterns shared the same idiolect. My three-piece suits were made for me by a bespoke tailor in the City of London.

These were the years when I began to be disenchanted with our politicians. One of reasons for my move to Sydney, Australia, before the ending of the decade.

There, towards the mid 1970s, I experienced an epiphany. The scales fell from my eyes. And I began recognise the great illusions underlaying my schooling and its surrounding culture. There were tiny hints of change in the Swinging London of the later 1960s, but they were nothing like the changes I experienced in the South Pacific world on the other side the globe. When I came back to England on the first day of 1980, I was a very different person. And England had changed perceptibly while I was away.

being there in berlin

They tell me it's 25 years ago. 25 years since the Berlin Wall started to come down. I  find it hard to believe it was so long ago. Yet most of the young men and women who came up to Oxford this term were not even born then.

By one of those strange twists of intention we were in Berlin on the day Germany was reunited. By 'we' I mean our European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. Our proceedings on that day were enhanced by liberal quafftings of champagne. So I remember rather more about our surroundings than about the actual themes from our various contributors.

Going sightseeing. Checkpoint Charlie. The Brandenburg Gate. Little East German cars putt-putting around West Berlin. Picking up a fragment of Wall left over from the demolition .. ..

Who remembers Checkpoint Charlie now?