Another Hunt to bite the dust?

The Murdoch family really are the gift that keeps on giving. At yesterday's appearance at the Leveson Inquiry into Phone Hacking, James Murdoch, son of the cream cake dodging uber media magnate, Rubert, pretty much served up Culture Sectretary Jeremy Hunt on a plate. For now his advisor, Adam Smith, has fallen (been pushed) onto his sword, but whatever happened to 'Advisors advise, Ministers decide'? Surely Hunt too will fall within the next few days. The question must be asked - just how far up the chain does this collusion between the Tories and Murdoch go? The answer is simple - all the way to the very top. How far does knowledge of the phone hacking go? Again, all the way to the top. No doubt. I can't wait to hear from Tom watson MP.  You can keep up to date with Tom's stuff at his website, www.tom-watson.co.uk, but you can hear it directly from him and Rebecca Leighton the nurse falsely accused of murder and vilified by The Daily Mail when they speak at the WoW Festival on Sunday 13th May at The Black-E.

Achtung Antiques

Who would have thought that the NF had such a sense of humour? I opened Peter (So insignificant he's named himself after the shop he used to own) Quiggins' page in the Mayor manifestos and laughed out loud. Besides the usual nonsense of their 'manifesto' he talks about how the NF celebrate the 'friendliness' of Liverpool - this if from the guy who was on the emailing list of Norway's mass murderer Anders Breivek (According to the Liverpool Echo he refuses to discuss why he's on the list), and who is standing for one of the least friendliest parties ever - unless you're pure Aryan I imagine. Not too happy about him wanting to get rid of Festivals like Writing on the Wall, but pleased he's angry enough to want to, and I'm looking forward to his festival - Morris Dancing ahoy, I imagine. Bet all those fabulous young people, Goths, etc. who campaigned for Quiggins before Peter Q revealed himself, won't be going to it.

If you really want to know something about Multiculturalism, catch Benjamin Zephaniah at WoW, Tuesday 1st May, 7.30pm, St Georges Hall. Tickets available at www.writingonthewall.org.uk.

Sea Odyssey & Titanic - Slow Giants & Fast Ships

There have been and will be many events around Titanic this year, from the good, Sea Odyssey, the bad, ITV's appallingly written four-parter, and the ugly, The Adelphi's questionable building of a replica of the Titanic bow in their lobby with the offer of 'Kate and Leo' posed photo opportunities.

This weekend there will be a stunning spectacular in Liverpool, delivered by Nantes based street-theatre company who bring their giant marionettes to Liverpool for Sea Odyssey, a three day festival of hope and resurgance in commemoration of the centenary of the sinking of The Titanic and the loss of over 1500 lives.

The Sea Odyssey story is based on an unopened letter from a young girl in Kensington to her father, who never read the letter and never returned. The Spider in Liverpool in 2008 was pretty amazing, but Sea Odyssey, in my opinion, will rival The Olympics for spectacle as The Giant Girl's Uncle returns from the sea bringing the letters from Titanic that were never delivered.

Writing on the Wall participated in the letter-writing campaign, organisang workshops in Croxteth, Liverpool 8 and the City Centre. We were amazed by the amount of interest in the workshops, and how the issue encouraged people to become involved in creative writing. Some of those people, who had never written before, have gone on to enter our Flash Fiction 'At the End of the World' competition and to volunteer for Sea Odyssey and the Writing on the Wall Festival in May.

One aspect of this that some seem to have forgotten, is that this was a major tragedy, brought on by a number of issues/mistakes, etc. but compounded by the arrogance of wealth, a disregard for health and safety, and the desire for speed at all costs.

Writing on the Wall, with the Festival theme of 'Below Decks', is holding two events to explore the legacy of Titanic and its contemporary relevance.

On Tuesday 9th May Tony Wailey and Ian Morris discuss the arcane shipping laws, control, deference and voices of dissent aboard ocean going liners in '77 RPM – The Titanic, the Clock and the Dock', 7.30pm, The Casa, Hope Street.

On Friday 25th May at The Mersey Maritime Museum WoW presents'Titanic on Trial', a discussion with Frances Wilson, author of How To Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of Bruce Ismay (2011) and winner of the Rose Mary Crawshaw prize in 2009; Nic Compton, author of Titanic on Trial, former editor of Classic Boat magazine, photographer and author of several books on nautical subjects; Alan Scarth, former curator of the Titanic exhibition at the Maritime Museum and author of Titanic and Liverpool; and Steve Turner, author of The Band that Played On (2011). There will also be Ragtime music of the time played by the fabulous Liverpool-based, Corelli Quartet.

For anyone interested in the Titanic these two events, along with Sea Odyssey, really are unmissable.
You can find all details at www.writingonthewall.org.uk

Anders Breivik - self defence & Multiculturalism

Anders Breivik admits killing 77 people but pleads not guilty on the grounds of “pre-emptive self defence,”. I don't think he should be on a public trial in the way it is being conducted in Norway - to determine whether he should be jailed for life in a mainstream prison or in a mental institute.

He has pleaded guilty. Some form of panel of experts should deal with the rest. He is clearly loving his role and the resultant publicity. Being declared mentally unfit would rob him of his desire to claim some form of status as a political prisoner. I'd support anything that strips him of that delusion.

His argument that the young people he killed were targets because they, in the future, would have careers in the political spectrum where they too would exercise tolerance, is stunning, frightening and bizarre; a sick and tragic twist on the Philip K. Dick's Minority Report (or the Tom Cruise film if you prefer).

This issue looks set to be one of the most important of our time, more so as the economy stumbles from crisis to crisis. Here's an article whch deals with the issue in some detail: From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism: A Reply to the British Political Elite. And of course, you can come along to WoW's Rebel Rant, 'Multiculturalism or Muscular Liberalism' with Benjamin Zephaniah on Tuesday 1st May. Click here for details.

Patriotism and Scoundrels

Muscular Liberalism; a headline – grabber for Cameron, or a sea-change for relations in the UK?

David Cameron chose to reopen the debate on Multiculturalism with a speech espousing the new philosophy of ‘Muscular Liberalism’.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the prime minister said.

Something else happened on that day – Saturday 5th February – The EDL, the right-wing fascist group which is almost interchangeable with the British National Party, was holding one of its biggest demonstrations in Luton.
A coincidence, or was Cameron doing the age-old pander by the Conservatives to to maintain their standing on the right-wing. Hard to believ that Cameron’s advisors at least weren’t aware of the demonstration. If they did, why wasn't some form of reference to it made in his speech? But no, not a word for them from Cameron; nothing about their non-Britishness, etc. Which once again makes it appear that Muslims are being singled out with the label of extremism, whilst publicly declared extremists walk the streets, with often Muscular protectionism from the Police (I know, cos I’ve been there).

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth group The Ramadhan Foundation, said: "The speech by British Prime Minister David Cameron MP fails to tackle the stooge of the fascists EDL and the BNP. Singling out Muslims as he has done feeds the hysteria and paranoia about Islam and Muslims.’

This is a live debate, and one that can have a deep impact upon the daily lives of all those living in the UK.

That’s why writing on the Wall, always keen to keep people informed of relevant, cutting edge issues, has invited one of the UK’s greatest poets, Benjamin Zephaniah, to deliver its 2012 festival Rebel Rant on ‘Multiculturalism or Muscular Liberalism’

Benjamin contacted us a couple of days ago after picking up on some of the news from Liverpool that there are three right-wing candidates standing for Mayor.

Benjamin writes:

‘I’m really looking forward to being back in Liverpool.  I was Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective back in 1987 and I have a real fondness for the city.  It’s kind of ironic that I will be speaking on Multiculturalism on the day of the Mayoral Elections.’

I understand there is a NF candidate, no doubt calling for British jobs for British people and all that rubbish.  Don’t  get me wrong I’m angry  at rising employment and the fact that a whole layer of young  people are being consigned to the scrap heap but immigration is not to blame.’

‘If people really understood the facts and the benefits of multiculturalism and what it’s done for this country they would know it’s a good thing. Can you imagine the NHS without immigration?  I accept that people are angry. So am I, but we need to focus that anger on the people who’ve caused the current economic mess with their infinite greed and not on each other.’

Join the debate with writing on the Wall and Benjamin Zephaniah on Tuesday 1st May at St Georges Hall, 7.30pm.

Venue: Small Concert Room, St Georges Hall
Tickets are available from
The Unity Theatre box office,
1 Hope Place,
L1 9BG
Tel: 0844 873 2888 or Click Here to buy online.

Flash Fiction - The End of the World

Just to prove the point that Writing on the Wall gets you published, every few days up to the Festival we are featuring a different Flash Fiction story from the entries to our competition. The competition, which will be judged by Mike Carey,  the writer of the Felix Castor novels, who also
completed critically acclaimed runs on X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four andLucifer, is open to all writers. The theme is 'The End of the World' and your story can only be a maximum of 500 words. Deadline date is 30th April. We've already had some fabulous entries and it'll be stiff competition for the prizes. You can read all the entries here:http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/flash-fiction-submission.html

Laws of Nature

There is an immutable law known only to event organisers the world over. It goes like this: no matter how long you work on proof-reading a brochure, or any other form of printed promotional material (Fortunately law doesn't apply to digital world - except for Facebook posts), no matter that you pass it  around people in the office,  then email a couple of trustees, pass it on to a professional proof-reader and every employee in their company, cut up the brochure into individual events and assign each member of your family to one event, and they then cut it up further and assign their children, their children's children, and then their future children to each individual word and then each letter, then call in the guinness book of records and form a line of people to make the longest ever line-up of people proof-reading a brochure, then, once said record is established, you get the biggest ever photocopier and blow up each page and put in a call to NASA and the spacemen on the spacestation train the Hubble telescope upon the brochure and then beam it through space to a recently discovered planet habited only by the copy-proof people, who have a copy-reading King and Queen who are able to instantly assimilate all said data and send return copy back faster than the speed of light, which on its way is picked up by a choir of angels who put in a prayer to St Peter, who calls out the newly invented patron Saint of Copy-Proofing, St Canon of Epson, who not only proofs it but also passes it to the Holy Trinity, who then, along with you, all the staff and all the aformentioned people above, kneel in constant prayer and abstinence as the final proofs are signed off by the living spirit of Mother Nature herself, after she and every blade of grass have given it a final once over before sending it to the printers, no matter that you do all that, the law states that you will always, always, always discover, as soon as you open up the brochure, that there is a glaring error/mistake/balls up, that no-one from all of the above picked up on. There is a second law of nature known only to events organisers: as soon as you sign off a brochure and it is with or on its way back from the printers, someone either cancels, changes the details of their event, or wants to add something else, but that's another story.
MM

The Band That Played On

There are some moments when the past suddenly shines a light on to the present. I had such a moment while reading a fabulous book The Band That Played On, by Steve Turner, which incredibly is the first book ever written about the eight musicians that famously carried on playing on deck as the Titanic sank.

Or maybe it’s not so incredible. The eight musicians were just that; working musicians at a time when live music was still the only gig in town, before recorded music was portable and some way before the digital nirvana we are experiencing today. There were thousands of these violinists, cellists, pianists, etc; all, to one degree or another, talented, and certainly proficient. The musicians on Titanic had a songbook containing over three hundred numbers. Passengers would call for a song by its number and expect the band to know what the song was, hence the origin of the phrase ‘to play a number’. The book deals with the disagreements over what number the band were playing as the ship sank (Nearer My God To Thee comes out favourite, with Autumn a close second.), exactly where they played, etc., but one thing not in doubt is that they did actually play on as the ship sank, with finally only the violinist remaining before he too was swept to his death. A courageous act or one of folly? The press at the time made much of their heroism, but dissenting voices such as novelist, Joseph Conrad, and Playwright George Bernard Shaw, who argued that they played to pacify when urgency was required (Ragtime replaced by Hymns), and that it wasn’t heroic to die without resistance for another’s folly. Regardless, it’s still an extraordinary tale from an extraordinary event that threw up many such acts from an array of passengers who, upon realising that there were not enough lifeboats, chose to die with dignity rather than face what looked like certain death in the icy waters. The ship was going too fast in waters they had been warned were full of icebergs, there weren’t enough lifeboats, and some lifeboats pulled away half-empty with rich passengers bribing others so their boat wouldn’t turn back for survivors. But once your dead, well, we’re all equal then, aren’t we? Mmmm, well, no actually. You may know the survival rate drops off markedly from 1^st class to 3^rd and down to crew, but did you know that when the Mackay-Bennet, the ship charged with collecting and embalming the dead from the water, ran out of embalming fluid, they chose to collect only the bodies of the first class passengers and send the rest to a watery grave? And this is my point on the musicians. Leave aside that they played for 1^st class passengers; these were working men, and once their funerals had been held (thousands turned out for the funeral of the acknowledged leader of the musicians, Wallace Hartley, in Colne in Lancashire), who then was interested enough to invest time and money into following up their story? There was little glamour, or even trace of their lives, and the only real point of interest was in their collective final act. And this, I suppose, is my point, where the light shines on the present. The Titanic was a perfect floating mirror of the class system in Britain, and with a few shifts here and there, is probably still a pretty close representation of it today. And without making too crass a point, doesn’t the reaction of the wealthy today remind you of something? They were all in that boat together, but when it came to surviving the figures ‘show stark differences in the survival rates of the different classes aboard Titanic. Although only 3 per cent of first-class women were lost, 54 per cent of those in third class died. Similarly, five of six first-class and all second-class children survived, but 52 of the 79 in third class perished’. And today, unless they have some sort of sensational story, who is really interested in those at the bottom, struggling to keep their heads above water?

MM

Steve Turner will be appearing at ‘Titanic on Trial’, Friday 25^th May, Merseyside Maritime Museum. Click here for ticket details.