China’s burgeoning international influence is a big story of our times

The BBC last week unveiled its new global China reporting unit, attached to the World Service

OPINION
By Ian Burrell

May 5, 2024 

The BBC’s multi-lingual team will deploy open source investigative techniques and other analytical skills to assess China’s impact (Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Not so long ago, in the years after the great recession of 2008, China was viewed by the UK media sector as a source of economic opportunity and cultural adventure.

The BBC teamed up with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV for funding Sir David Attenborough’s documentary epic on Africa in 2013, and with Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent to make Blue Planet II in 2017.

British shows such as Sherlock and Downton Abbey were big hits with Chinese audiences. David Abraham, then head of Channel 4, led a delegation of British TV executives to Xiamen for a “Sino-British Television Programme Innovation Management Summit” in 2014.

When President Xi Jinping visited the UK in 2015, then prime minister David Cameron kow-towed before him in the hope of attracting Chinese investment into the British economy. Even Jeremy Corbyn, then leader of the opposition, dressed in white tie and tails.

The mood has changed a great deal since then. A spirit of co-operation has been replaced by a feeling of deep mutual distrust. In the wake of Covid, China expelled a wave of foreign journalists, including the British old China hand John Sudworth.

When in 2021 Ofcom revoked the UK broadcasting license of China Global Television Network (CGTN) over its ultimate control by the Chinese Community Party (CCP), China retaliated by banning BBC World News. Now the United States threatens to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social platform beloved by America’s Gen Z.

While China has sought to pull down the shutters on foreign reporting of its internal affairs, its interest in the rest of the world has never been greater. This extends from economic partnerships with developing nations and gaining access to the planet’s mineral resources, through to shaping global opinion by expansion of its state media activities, from Africa to South America.

China’s growing international influence is one of the biggest stories of our times. Which is why the BBC last week unveiled its new global China reporting unit, attached to the World Service. This multi-lingual team will deploy open source investigative techniques and other analytical skills to assess China’s impact.

It can also draw on the support of colleagues in the World Service’s 42 language services. “We have got teams based all around the world who are at the forefront of understanding what this expansion in Chinese influence actually means on the ground,” says Liz Gibbons, BBC executive news editor. “We are uniquely placed and it’s a really exciting new area of journalistic focus for us.”

The BBC has a small news-gathering team in mainland China, including its Beijing-based China correspondent Stephen McDonell. Its China service (in Mandarin) operates from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Gibbons says the global China unit is filling what was “a bit of a gap in our reporting, if I’m honest” and is addressing a subject in which there is “huge audience interest”.

The unit showed what it can do last week with a deep dive into China’s dominance in mining rare earth minerals – lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel – vital to the green economy. It identified 62 Chinese-backed mining projects worldwide. Using its network of Mandarin, Swahili, and Spanish speakers it interviewed Chinese workers and local people at mines in Argentina and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where allegations have been made of environmental destruction and employee exploitation. The story was featured on the BBC’s UK website and news channel.

A future topic for the unit’s investigation could be China’s increasing media influence in the global south. This is profound in Africa, where Chinese state news agency Xinhua operates 37 bureaus and hundreds of African journalists are being trained by Chinese media. StarTimes, a Chinese digital TV operator, has brought 10,000 satellite dishes to remote African villages, providing Chinese content and free coverage of the recent African Cup of Nations football tournament.

This is a CCP media programme which President Xi describes as “telling China’s story well”. If Western journalists insist on probing thorny topics, from Hong Kong protests to persecution of the Uyghurs, there are other ways to win hearts and minds. And votes at the United Nations.

Such media proactivity is not unique to China. The Kremlin’s targeted output of Vladimir Putin strongman memes on TikTok resonates with audiences in the Muslim world and undermines solidarity with America-backed Ukraine.

The global China unit does not have “a particular agenda”, Gibbons argues, except to demonstrate the “scale and scope” of Chinese global activity. She notes that with “a huge number of elections happening this year” and China being the “largest global creditor”, Beijing has leverage over countries in its debt. “That can influence all kinds of other things.”

Planet China is not the name of a new Attenborough project. But it is a story that needs to be told.

ABOLISH PRISONS

UK Prisons ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as inmates forced to share single cells

Yohannes Lowe

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 5 May 2024 

Around three in every five prisons in England and Wales are now overcrowded.Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images

The scale of the prison overcrowding crisis has been laid bare by figures revealing that a quarter of prisoners in England and Wales have been sharing cells designed for one person with at least one other inmate.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), 11,018 cells intended for single use were being shared by two prisoners, with a further 18 such cells shared by three inmates. The overall prison population – which has ballooned over recent decades because of longer sentences and court backlogs – stood at about 88,000 when the statistics were originally compiled in late February.

Steve Gillan, the head of the Prison Officers Association, said sharing cells designed for one person creates tension among inmates, making the jobs of overworked prison staff even more difficult: “It is no wonder that the prison service is struggling to retain prison officers and operational support grades in England and Wales. The pressure on staff is intolerable and dangerous.”

He warned that the government was “sleepwalking into another crisis” after it “learned nothing” from the landmark Woolf report into the 1990 Strangeways riots, in which two people died. Among the report’s recommendations was that no prison should hold more inmates than is provided for in its certified accommodation level – which represents the “good, decent standard of accommodation” that the Prison Service says it aspires to provide to all inmates.

But three in five prisons are now overcrowded, with the problem most acute in inner-city Victorian reception jails such as Leeds, Bristol and Bedford, according to Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons.

Taylor said a lot of maintenance work is deferred in order to keep cells in use, and that too many prisoners have poor access to education and employment – activities that can reduce the chance of reoffending on release.

He believes that sharing is not inherently problematic, and can be a “protective factor against self-harm”, but is critical of the length of time many inmates are continuing to be confined in their cells, as they were during the pandemic. “The key issue is the conditions in which people are sharing cells,” Taylor said. “If prisoners were out of their cells spending the majority of their day in education and employment, then cramped conditions, while not ideal, would be less concerning. But the reality in many jails is two men spending up to 23 hours a day penned into a very small cell that was designed for one person, often in a poor state of repair and with an unscreened toilet. When you consider that, it is hardly surprising that levels of violence are rising and that we are seeing a worrying rise in the use of drugs,” said Taylor.

Prison Service rules require that cells are only shared where a prison group director has assessed them to be of an adequate size, condition and safety. Risk assessments are carried out on prisoners before deciding whether it is safe for them to share cells in closed conditions. Even a small oversight can lead to a vulnerable inmate being trapped with a potentially violent prisoner.

“We do complete risk assessments in custody but sadly on occasions there are times where people don’t get on. We would identify vulnerability, and those people get marked up to a single cell,” Mark Icke, the vice-president of the Prison Governors’ Association, said.

With many prisons at breaking point, the government has adopted emergency measures, including allowing some offenders to be released early, to try to tackle the overcrowding crisis. But the prison population is still projected to increase to between 94,600 and 114,800 by March 2028, in part because of a growth in police charging and changes in policy to keep the most serious offenders locked up for longer.

Andrea Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform charity, said sentencing reform is vital to create a more humane and sustainable justice system. “The government needs to take a serious look at other options and fundamentally reconsider sentencing regimes, which have meant sentences have gotten longer and longer over the last 20 years,” she said. “Nearly 40% of prisoners are there for non-violent offences. As a starting point, we need to think if any of those people need to be in prison at all.”

An MoJ spokesperson said: “We are delivering the biggest prison expansion since the Victorian era – including two prisons in two years – to help rehabilitate offenders and keep our streets safe. We will always ensure there is enough capacity to serve the outcome of the courts and keep dangerous offenders behind bars, and cells are only doubled up where it is safe to do so.

“Our sentencing bill will help reduce reoffending through greater use of tougher community sentences.”

'Little Russian Island': London's role in Russia's 1917 revolution

Many prominent Russian political figures and revolutionaries had gathered in London's East End, commonly called 'Little Russian Island' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Aysu Bicer |05.05.2024 - BBC


- Vladimir Lenin, one of the leading figures in the Russian Revolution, lived in London for 15 years, publishing revolutionary literature, organizing Bolshevik groups, and keeping contact with other revolutionaries- London had a significant impact on Lenin, who, while primarily focused on the Russian left, forged few connections within the British context


LONDON

In the annals of history, London often takes center stage for its role in shaping global events. But one lesser-known chapter in the city's history is its contribution to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Before what would become a pivotal moment of upheaval that set the stage for the emergence of the Soviet Union and, later, the Cold War that dominated the 20th century's latter half, many prominent Russian political figures and revolutionaries would gather in London's East End, commonly referred to as the "Little Russian Island" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The city had served as a safe haven for dissidents fleeing persecution in Russia, among them leading figures in the revolution like Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Georgy Plekhanov.

Lenin, one of the central figures in the Russian Revolution and the then-leader of the Bolshevik Party, spent a considerable amount of time in London, where Karl Marx penned "Das Kapital," laying the foundations of Lenin's political ideology.



The Spark

In his book The Spark That Lit the Revolution, researcher Robert Henderson provides an opportunity for an in-depth examination of Lenin's time in London.

Lenin lived in London between 1902 and 1917, during which time he published revolutionary literature, organized Bolshevik factions, and maintained contact with other revolutionaries.

In 1903, a small group of political activists led by Lenin and Trotsky in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party converged in London for a fateful congress that would change the course of history.

This gathering marked the birth of the ideological schism that divided the Russian revolutionary movement into two rival factions: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

The Bolsheviks, under Lenin's leadership, championed a centralized and disciplined political party, while the Mensheviks favored a broader-based alliance.

As the years rolled on, London continued to be a crucible for change. The party convened again in 1905 and 1907, with Lenin and the Bolsheviks pushing their agenda forward.

The Fifth Congress of 1907 was a defining moment. Over 300 delegates descended upon London, with Lenin, the orchestrator of the Bolshevik agenda, playing a pivotal role.

Lenin also published the newspaper Iskra (The Spark) in London. This publication played a crucial role in disseminating revolutionary ideas and coordinating the efforts of various Russian socialist groups

.

British Museum's reading room

The Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell, once a publisher's office that was supportive of Lenin, now preserves what is called "the Lenin room" with busts of him and old Iskra editions. A map on the wall traces the smuggling routes used to transport the journal into Russia.

Lenin emulated Marx's example by obtaining access to the British Museum's Reading Room. Marx himself had conducted research for "Das Capital" there after its inauguration in 1857.

The room, housing a wealth of materials crucial to Lenin's research endeavors, had a profound impact on his intellectual processes and his productivity as a writer.

Lenin conducted extensive investigations into various aspects of Russian economic and social evolution, while also delving into a broad spectrum of other subjects.

This unparalleled source for information clearly played a pivotal role in Lenin's decision to favor London over several other potential places of exile.

Henderson candidly acknowledges that Lenin's sojourn in London had minimal enduring effects on the city's political landscape, including its radical leftist elements.

Lenin's primary focus was centered on the Russian left, though he forged few connections within the British context.

The inquiry into London's influence on Lenin and his compatriot revolutionary exiles, however, yielded a more intricate and intriguing narrative.

As Karl Marx wrote in a political pamphlet published in 1852: "Men (and women) make their own history, but not of their own free will, and not under circumstances of their own choosing.

"

UK
Tram strike due to begin after 'bad faith' talks

About 60 Croydon Tramlink engineers are taking part in the action from Sunday

BBC

Engineers who work on a south London tram service are due to begin a five-day strike in a dispute over pay disparities.

The union representing the Croydon Tramlink engineers, Unite, accused Transport for London (TfL) of engaging in "bad faith" talks.

The union said about 60 engineers will be taking part in the action from Sunday as they're "angry" their counterparts on the London Underground are paid £10,000 more a year despite having the same level of training.

TfL said it had been "open and honest throughout the process" and added it was "committed to continued dialogue to reach a conclusion".
'Unnecessary inconvenience'

The workers will strike from 20:00 BST on Sunday to 06:00 BST on Thursday 9 May.

Strike action had been due to take place in March but this was suspended to engage in further talks, a Unite spokesperson said.

They added this was because TfL "refused to be transparent about the process it was using to identify pay disparities and broke its word on how they would be resolved".

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said TfL was "systemically underpaying" the tram engineers.

"TfL was negotiating in bad faith by breaking its promises and withholding information. Unite’s patience has run out with TfL’s disgraceful double-dealing and lack of transparency," she added.

A TfL spokesperson said it "would never enter conversations in bad faith".

"We have agreed to work with union colleagues to identify equivalent roles in London Underground, assess any disparity in overall benefits packages, and where agreed take action where appropriate," they explained.

TfL said it would take time and said it had asked that this strike action was suspended to allow this to happen.

"We remain committed to continued dialogue to reach a conclusion and ask the union to suspend this action, which will only cause unnecessary inconvenience for our customers," the spokesperson added.

Industrial action will escalate if the dispute is not resolved, the union spokesperson added.

Information on how the action will affect services can be found on the TfL strikes page.

Oh dear! Britain First in meltdown after LOSING to Count Binface

Ten candidates managed to avoid the indignity of losing to Count Binface in London - but Nick Scanlon of Britain First was not one of them.

by Tom Head
2024-05-05
in Politics


Photo: Twitter

Quite likely, it doesn’t get any more embarrassing than this. Britain First’s attempts to legitimise themselves as a political force took a battering on Saturday, after they were outperformed in the London Mayoral Elections by Count Binface.

Who is Count Binface?

The parody candidate finished 11th out of 13 individuals competing for control of the capital. He fetched 24,260 votes in total, polling at a fraction over 1%. That’s right. One in 100 politically active Londoners gave their support to Mr. Binface this year.

In all fairness, the comical figure does have some pretty agreeable policies in his manifesto. He wants to tie the pay of government ministers to that of nurses for the next 100 years, while banning Christmas music in shops before December.
Count Binface defeats Britain First in London Mayoral Elections

Alas, if you’re failing to gain more support than a bloke with a bin on his head, you must be doing something wrong. Ten candidates managed to avoid this humiliation. But Nick Scanlon of Britain First wasn’t so lucky…

The far-right mayoral hopeful earned just 20,512 votes – or 0.8% of public support in total. Scanlon also embarrassed himself further by shouting “Khan killed London”, when Sadiq Khan began his victory speech yesterday afternoon.

Party leader Paul Golding has tried to soften the blow, by claiming that many Britain First voters actually backed Susan Hall, in the hope that the Conservative candidate was best placed to defeat the Labour incumbent.

Britain First delete Tweet following fast fact-check

However, Khan ended up 11 percentage points clear of Hall – increasing his vote share from the previous elections. Whatever strategy Britain First were going for, it didn’t work. They even had to delete a furious Twitter post at one point.

The official Twitter count outright denied losing to Count Binface by just under 4,000 votes. However, one swift dose of reality and a Community Note later, and the rant was removed. Oh well, there’s always next time, guys…

UK

‘Cuts will result in patient deaths’: hospitals shed medical staff after being told to balance the books

James Tapper
Sun, 5 May 2024 

Extra funding granted to the NHS only covers inflation and pay rises and fails to keep pace with the ageing population.Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients, senior health leaders have warned.

NHS trusts are reporting budget deficits after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave England’s health service £2.5bn extra funding, which only covers inflation and pay increases.

The UK’s ageing population and the impact of having more than 6 million patients waiting for more than 7.5m treatments means that demand on the health service has increased substantially.

NHS leaders had been recruiting medical staff as part of their efforts to tackle the waiting list backlog, one of Rishi Sunak’s five pledges, but say they are now being told their priority must be to balance the books. The original target was to cut NHS England’s £4.6bn agency workers bill, but that has expanded to include permanent staff and may mean waiting lists for some treatments rise rather than fall.

There are now 25 health service bodies in NHS England’s recovery support programme, the equivalent of special measures, and others are reporting significant deficits. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has a £194.7m gap. Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust is £57m down, and King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust expects to reach £90m.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System, which includes four NHS bodies, faces a deficit of £130m, and would need to cut 10% of its workforce, or 2,300 jobs, to break even. Board member Jon Rouse said at a recent meeting that trying to fix the problem in a year would “do significant damage including … patient harm,” the Health Service Journal reported.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said many organisations were looking for efficiency savings up to 10%, when 1.5% was a realistic maximum. “There is not a leader in the health service who is not focused on how on earth they’re going to make the books balance … But a lot are saying the only way they can manage to make their books balance is to effectively reduce the service they can provide.

“There’s no question that there will be an impact on clinicians’ posts and staffing cover. People will look to cut back on agency costs if they can. But agency workers are there to fill gaps. It’s also generally recognised that the NHS is under-managed. So cutting back on managers and administrators just means that a bigger burden falls on clinicians.”

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund, said hospital leaders had been trying to hire staff to reduce the number of vacancies, which stood at 7.6% last December. Now they were being told “no, your number one job is to balance the books and as a result you’re going to have to reduce staffing headcount because that’s the biggest single area of spending,” he said.

“Walking around hospitals, people are still saying ‘we are understaffed, we are understaffed at night in particular, so we don’t feel we are in a position to cut back on numbers without inevitably having an impact on patient care’, whether that’s quality of care or access to care.”

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said there were still 110,000 vacancies across England and that “severe staff shortages … could get even worse with some trusts reporting plans to reduce the workforce to help to balance the books.

“Trusts are doing all they can to protect patient services and get on with tackling waiting lists but costs, not least the £11bn-plus repairs backlog, continue to mount. And unless the government funds in full NHS staff pay rises for 2024-25, the service may have to find billions of pounds for wage bills from already squeezed budgets.”

Anita Charlesworth, director of research at the Health Foundation, said: “We need to break these endless cycles of boom and bust and that means creating a stable and sustainable workforce that has the equipment and resources it needs to deliver high quality care. Hastily cutting staff at a time when the elective waiting lists stands at over 7.5m is counterproductive and would undermine the NHS’s long-term recovery.”

Professor Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “I am putting down a marker that cuts to nursing will result in patient deaths. NHS leaders preparing to cut staff and ask an already burnt-out workforce to do even more with less need to think again. It is incredibly dangerous.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS organisations are developing their financial plans which will focus on continuing to prioritise patient care while delivering the best value for taxpayers within the resources available.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the NHS was getting record funding of nearly £165bn a year “an increase of 13% in real terms compared to 2019-20, supporting trusts and allowing them to continue to deliver on what matters most to patients – improving access to services and cutting waiting lists.

“At the spring budget the chancellor announced that NHS England will receive a £2.5bn day-to-day funding boost this year and a further £3.4bn investment in the latest technology from 2025, helping to unlock £35bn in savings.”

Michelangelo: The Last Decades review – feels close to a religious experience

Rachel Cooke
Sun, 5 May 2024 

Will glue you to the spot… Michelangelo’s Epifania, 1550-3 (detail). © Trustees of the British MuseumPhotograph: © The Trustees of the British Museum

The final section of the British Museum’s exhibition Michelangelo: The Last Decades is circular and enclosed. The walls are black and the light low. The feeling is of being in a small chapel: if a person was to speak in this space, they would surely whisper – though my instinct was for absolute silence. The work on display here, made in the last 30 years of the artist’s long life, is so far beyond the meaning bestowed by words, and even if it wasn’t, who could improve on those of Michelangelo himself? By the door is one of his poems, dated 1554 (on loan from the Vatican library, it is gorgeously translated by James Saslow). “The voyage of my life has at last reached/ across a stormy sea, in fragile boat,” it begins. It acknowledges that the moment of “accounting” is imminent. It speaks of a soul that may no longer be calmed by the material. Death is engraved on its author’s every waking thought.

The sketches of the crucifixion in this room are exquisite, of course, their beauty and tenderness only deepened by the fact that the artist’s hand is now less steady, his sight possibly fading. But there’s something else as well: a numinosity that radiates outwards, like heat. These drawings are as much prayers as they are pictures, each one a bead on a rosary. Over and over, the artist works away with his black chalk, moving ever closer to the truth as he sees it. In Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist (c1555-63), Mary presses her cheek against Christ’s naked thigh. Her body half curled, her hand resting on her chin, she seems in her bewilderment and her sorrow more child than mother. It is one of the most daringly intimate depictions of the crucifixion I’ve ever seen, and for all that I’m more or less entirely godless these days, it brought me almost to tears.

This is a big exhibition that feels, in the best way, small (I was amazed to read later that it includes more than 100 items), perhaps because it is the heart, as much as the eyes, that guides you through its eternal twilight. Some things you will wilfully ignore; I was nearly oblivious to the sumptuous, jewel-bright paintings of Michelangelo’s collaborator Marcello Venusti. Others will hypnotise you, your feet stuck to the ground before them as if with glue; it takes a full five minutes to get even half a fix on the British Museum’s own Epifania (1550-3), the only surviving complete cartoon (a full-scale preparatory drawing) by Michelangelo, which is more than two metres high and on display for the first time since its conservation in 2018.

I could, I think, stare at Study of a Man Rising (about 1534-36) for an hour – a day! – and not tire of it, though its anatomical precision (the artist used a life model) is not precisely the point. These shoulder blades and upper arms, their rippled sinews almost kinetic in effect, are a metaphor for creation itself (“So God created man in his own image…”). I looked at them and thought of a brook, fast water rushing over smooth stones. And beyond such treasures, the curators give us storytelling of the highest order, Michelangelo’s voice ever in our ear. The show’s leitmotifs are friendship (with Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, the younger man who would be at his bedside when Michelangelo died in 1564, aged 88, and with Vittoria Colonna, the poet and religious reformer), the artist’s faith (deep and abiding) and his late-life fear, and together they make a genius seem very human and close-by.

In September 1534, when he was 59, Michelangelo moved back to Rome from his native Florence, Pope Clement VII having ordered him to a paint a Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel (it was in its cause that the life study above was made). This would have been a daunting prospect in any event. Frescoes are hard labour, and he must have feared this new work would be unfavourably compared to the chapel’s ceiling, completed two decades before. But there was also his mood. “Now on the right foot and now on the left,/ shifting back and forth, I search for my salvation,” he wrote in a poem for Colonna of 1538-41. Michelangelo’s devout Catholicism was a mixed blessing: a source both of comfort and dread. And some part of him, too, must still have been wondering how best to respond to the Reformation. I’m not a theologian, but I would say this accounts for the temerity of his crucifixions. He makes his case, and it is inarguable.

Yet matters of doctrine, however important, aren’t everything here. What of his character? If Michelangelo is thin-skinned and difficult, he’s also passionate and fond. I relished the moments when the life of a working artist, all ladders and brushes and demanding patrons, appeared as if from a (possibly rather bad) biopic. A design for a fancy salt cellar came about because The Last Judgment was eating up so much of his time – he hoped it would placate the Duke of Urbino, who was impatiently urging him to complete his long-awaited tomb for Pope Julius II – while a scribbled note in the corner of The Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother (1560-63) is a reminder to contact a courier. When he is harried and overburdened like this, affection begins to mingle with your awe, even if it doesn’t temper it. By the time you reach the chapel-like recess at the exhibition’s end, you want to light a candle for him: a votive offering; a vow not to forget that he was a man as well as a god.

• Michelangelo: The Last Decades is at the British Museum, London, until 28 July

• Funding for the conservation of Epifania was provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project

Opinion

Britain’s greatest living conductor has fled to Berlin – it’s a loss to us all

Simon Heffer
Sat, 4 May 2024 

Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2004 - United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Simon Rattle is perhaps Britain’s greatest living conductor. He achieved eminence at an age when many in his profession are struggling to feed themselves, becoming assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at 19, and joining Glyndebourne the following year. 

He was still only 25 when, in 1980, he was appointed conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He became principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002, and then music director of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Now he is back in Germany, conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Rattle has not lacked critics. Some musicians have questioned his interpretations of the classics, and he caused upset on the eve of his departure for Berlin by attacking the British attitude to culture and to public funding of the arts. His appointment in Berlin was mildly controversial. It was made by a vote of the orchestral players, a substantial minority of whom wanted Daniel Barenboim in the role. 

Rattle’s achievements in Berlin, notably his championship of new music, were considerable, but it took several years for the orchestra to get used to him. The conductor himself described his relationship with the players as “turbulent”. However, he was doing something right: in 2008 the orchestra decided not to wait until 2012 to renew his 10-year contract, but did so at once. 

One reason for his growing popularity was that he ensured the orchestra was better paid, and that it was controlled by a foundation rather than by the Berlin Senate. He also set up an education department, renewing a commitment to young musicians that had been the hallmark of his time at Birmingham.

In his long career, he has shown a catholicity of taste; this was seldom more visible than in his recent tenure of the LSO. Part of his legacy there is captured on a new disc in the LSO Live series, which contains recordings of three works by Benjamin Britten.

To my mind, Rattle’s golden age as a recording artist coincided with his time at Birmingham – the repertoire included some fine recordings of British music, a canon the Germans in particular seem not to recognise exists. He recorded numerous works by Britten with the CBSO, not least the explosive Sinfonia da Requiem, a piece that defines the composer’s genius. An equally outstanding account of that work is on the LSO Live disc; it is worth buying for that alone.

However, it also includes the only performance of Britten’s Spring Symphony that I have heard that matches, and in some respects exceeds, the recording made by the composer himself more than 60 years ago. Rattle creates a clarity, intensity and, eventually, exuberance that are utterly mesmerising. The disc ends with a performance of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra that richly demonstrates Rattle’s command of his players. Any admirer of Rattle, and indeed of Britten, should own this recording.

BRITAIN

No borders, no nations, no deportations

SUNDAY 5 MAY 2024, BY TERRY CONWAY



In a major show of May Day solidarity, several hundred protestors in Peckham, South London managed to block the removal of a coach load of asylum seekers to the prison barge, the Bibby Stockholm. The barge, where an Albanian man killed himself last December and which is also thought to be warehousing torture victims, is expected to be a staging post to Rwanda – despite the fact that it is understood flights are not yet ready to try.

The raid came less than a week after the Tory’s notorious Rwanda Act finally received royal assent on 25 April after the House of Lords attempts to water down the bill finally ran out of steam. Perhaps more tellingly, it came the day before many local and mayoral elections in England. (There were no elections in Scotland on 2 May, and in Wales only elections for Police and Crime Commissioners.) Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was determined to try and stem the tide of support bleeding away from his chronically failing government by focusing minds on his determined anti-immigration stance.

On Sunday 27 April, the government had announced the Home Office would launch “a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda”, some weeks before they were expected to act. While immigration raids have been standard part of the British state’s “hostile environment” long before the Rwanda legislation was agreed, there was no doubt that this was an escalation and one happening with the electoral timetable in mind. Campaigners also received information that some asylum seekers were receiving notices mentioning possible removal to Rwanda.

Activists responded quickly through existing networks mainly built in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight against the repressive Police Bill. Stalls were organised near immigration reporting centres to reach as many asylum seekers as possible and inform them, in a variety of languages, that despite recent legal changes, they do still have some rights. At the same time messages went out widely on social media alerting a wider network of people that they might be called on at short notice to block a removal.

For seven hours protestors blockaded the road outside the hotel where the asylum seekers are currently housed, with calls for additional bodies going out throughout the day. At 3pm the coach finally left – empty. Forty-five activists were arrested. Meanwhile campaigners in Portland Dorset where the barge is moored are also keeping a close eye to block any further arrivals.

But while May Day was a victory for international solidarity, on Friday 3 May at least two other raids took place in different parts of London – in Hounslow and in Croydon. At the former, the coach was delayed for some time by activists but they were not able to prevent people being taken away in the end. It is not clear what happened in Croydon since the initial call out, but no doubt there will be increasing calls for action on the streets in the weeks ahead.

This is what solidarity looks like, as those fleeing the destruction capitalism has wrought to their homes are subject to yet further inhuman treatment.

For further information see the Migrants Organise website.

5 May 2024

P.S.

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ATTACHED DOCUMENTS

• no-borders-no-nations-no-deportations_a8512.pdf (PDF - 907.4 KIB)
  Extraction PDF [->article8512]

Britain

• Smoke and Mirrors – The Unionist Miracle – What’s really happening in the North of Ireland?
• Historic public sector strike in NI as a UK local government crisis looms
• NHS Junior Doctors fight on after longest strike
• Divide and rule - policing London pro-Palestine demonstrations
• The British "Rwanda plan": a government caught in its own racist trap

Migration

• Evaporating Solidarity: The Response to Displacement Cannot Be Sustained by Empathy Alone
• A slow collapse in Tunisia
• Mass mobilization against the far-right AfD party in Germany
• Macron takes on the colours of the far right on immigration
• A regularization measure for immigrants is adopted in Greece!

• Terry Conway

  Terry Conway is a supporter of Socialist Resistance, which collaborates with the Fourth International