Further reflections on the funeral

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Ian,

I'm not a member of BASCA (and neither is RB) but I can download the 2011 BASCA Commission Fee Survey. The two figures he quotes, showing overseas commissions to be more valuable than UK commissions, are on page 4 of the report. In section 2 it states: 'This report does not investigate why this may be the case.'.

[french frank]

Just wondering where you found these figures? They don't seem to be part of the survey results that can be found in the member's area on the the BASCA web site.

http://www.compositiontoday.com/blog....asp?archive=8 ?

[Flosshilde]

Tony Blair had been described as her natural successor - says in all really!

& he seemed quite pleased by the idea

[gamba]

I have today to thank for sending me off in search of information about " Sir " Mark Thatcher. Quite fascinating, what a man - what will he now receive in Mummy's will ? Yuk !!

[Richard Barrett]

Ebacc is scrapped. Lottery funding for the arts is predicted to rise by 30 %.

So what you're saying is that music and the other arts are safe in the hands of governments like Thatcher's and Cameron's, and that my phrase "institutional philistinism" in no way describes the present situation in UK culture, is that right? You're entitled to your opinion of course, but I think you'd find yourself in a rather small minority among people who care about such things, and quite possibly in a minority of one among professional practitioners of the arts.

[scottycelt]

I was also fascinated by the military coffin-bearers. Anyone who has had to part-carry a coffin up and down even two or three steps is well aware that this is not quite as simple as it may look to onlookers. The multiple steps of St Pauls must be a coffin-bearers' absolute nightmare.

So well done, lads!

[Stillhomewardbound]

Very tired and weary after today. I'm pleased that I went though and made my SILENT protest at Ludgate Hill.

We certainly saw the ancient Chinese curse in action today, 'may you live in interesting times'.

It was utterly spooky to hear (as clearly I couldn't see) that ghoulish parade pass by with its muffled drums and a militaristic pomp so out of kilter with our democratic process.




** NB: Please, I'd ask that where I might follow a post it should not be assumed that I'm replying specifically, as in this instance 'Scottycelt', to the previous commentator. So, it was today that I was able to stand in reverse position to those that wished to applaud and cheer. We're grown-ups and we can agree to differ in a grown up manner.

[Stunsworth]

I have today to thank for sending me off in search of information about " Sir " Mark Thatcher. Quite fascinating, what a man - what will he now receive in Mummy's will ? Yuk !!

A Mark Thatcher primer for anyone wishing to know more about the man...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/11/mark-thatcher

[Barbirollians]

Churchill was a great war leader - as a peacetime PM he was far too old - his ministerial career before becoming PM was littered with disasters - Tonypandy, the Dardanelles, a disastrous time as Chancellor .

The reason he was able to inspire and concentrate on the foreign affairs and defence elements of being a war leader was because Attlee was doing such a good job of running the country !

Hence when it came to peacetime the electorate saw straight through Churchill's rhetoric .

[Tarantella]

It is certain that Mark Thatcher is an odious individual. I'm old enough to remember all those news headlines about his shenanigans and they were actually a shocking indictment of him - shocking. However, he did NOT serve as Prime Minister and I'm sure there are many of us who have children whose behaviour has made us feel ashamed at one time or another.

I watched the funeral from Australia and was wondering, "who's next"? You Brits can certainly turn on an occasion and I enjoyed the speech from the Dean - the diplomat writ large. The fact that there were no eulogies made me wonder why anybody would go to this kind of trouble anyway. Apparently Baroness Thatcher had been planning this funeral for a while, but didn't she have dementia in her last years...?

I'm disturbed by the level of invective which has surrounded the death of this ex PM. I worked in London in the early 1970's and I, along with most other Australians who worked there, was appalled by the working practices. They all wanted to employ Australians because we had a work ethic. I would work until 11am and then was told, "stop working so hard...you're showing us up...time for a break". Very little work was done (and I worked for Shell, a large company, in the office). Next job, same thing. Nobody was doing anything and, from what I could tell, this was a cultural 'entitlement'. This puts very strongly into context some of the reasons why the Thatcher government did what it did. And to say the UK is now a financial economy etc. - most of the West is these days because the Asians are prepared to work for nothing. This is the new 21st century economic reality and the rest of the world isn't going to continue to support unionized Western workforces, for good or ill.

[teamsaint]

plenty of the workforce in the UK are nowadays expected to work very long hours, for very modest pay, in order that they can put a VERY expensive roof over their heads.
Meantime Directors pay is skyrocketing, and there is(in my experience) rapidly diminishing support for those unfairly dismissed.

i could say a lot more on this subject......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

i could say a lot more on this subject......

... but perhaps we have reached Thatcheration point?



(With thanks to Private Eye.)

[teamsaint]

... but perhaps we have reached Thatcheration point?



(With thanks to Private Eye.)

i will resist a cheesy reply......for once....

[gurnemanz]

... but perhaps we have reached Thatcheration point?



(With thanks to Private Eye.)

Some classic Thatcher covers and Denis's final Dear Bill letter are reprinted in today's edition of PE.

[Ian]

http://www.compositiontoday.com/blog....asp?archive=8 ?

Thanks AIC and FF for the info.

I remember this survey - I took part.

Not sure I would read to much into the apparent discrepancy between home and overseas commission fees. I would suspect that the UK composers that get overseas commissions are significantly more established than the UK average and would therefore attract better paid commissions.

83% (431) of the analyzed commissions occurred within the UK and 17% (91) from outside the UK. The 431 UK commissions would certainly have included many very low value commissions that would have brought the average.