HS2. Conference venues. Arrant nonsense and sensitivity.

 I have often wondered why the Conservatives like to have their conferences in Manchester. This year it might be to rub Mancunians’ noses in the failure of HS2 to make it Manchester - although we still don’t know quite what is going to happen about that train line. Some sources report the link to Manchester totally cancelled while others say it is still under debate. But just think how much cheaper it all would have been had the plans been implemented when first proposed. 

At one time I thought they chose Manchester because they like the posh Midland Hotel but now they’re in the Manchester Central conference centre, a bleak, echoing place I seem to remember, having accompanied students there for UCAS fairs. (For the uninformed UCAS fairs are events where universities have stalls advertising their courses to sixth form students who visit the event and go away armed with freebies such as pens and notebooks and useless tat as well as prospectuses for courses they might be interested in.) In view of the debate about HS2, I suppose it’s quite fitting that the conference should be in what was once Manchester Central Railway Station.

I bet quite a lot of them are staying at the Midland though! Its quite handy for Manchester Central.  

Looking for information about this and that, I came across a set of security rules for the conference. Amongst the stuff about wearing your conference pass, having bags searched as you go in, anything with potential to become a weapon being forbidden and so on, there was this: 

• Luggage is not allowed in the secure zone at any time. A left luggage facility will be available at the Accreditation Office between 8am and 2pm on Wednesday 4th October only.
  

And now I wonder if the left luggage facility is a hangover from the days when Manchester Central really was a railway station. 

Now for a bit of arrant nonsense, the sort of thing that the modern world has grown good at. In an item about theatres giving warnings about things that might be upsetting I found this:

“Earlier this summer, Chichester Festival Theatre issued a warning about the content of its production of The Sound of Music.

The story, loved for its songs about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, has a dark undercurrent about Nazism. On its website, Chichester Festival theatre said its production included themes of “music; family; romance; the threat of Nazi Germany and the annexation of Austria”. Some people might find the latter distressing, it warned.”

It’s “The Sound of Music”,  for goodness sake! Are there really people who don’t know what it’s about?

Similarly:

“In May, The Sun that “woke theatre bosses” had “slapped a trigger warning” on a production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at the Old Vic in London. The show contained “portrayals of abuse, abusive language and coercive control”, according to the report.

The Old Vic has since revised its “content guidance” – the theatre’s preferred term – for the production after it became clear that the original wording was inaccurate. Now it refers only to flashing lights and a real fire, and the warning is not prominent on the Old Vic’s website.

Then there’s the Globe Theatre which apparently “has warned audiences about themes contained in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (suicide and drug use), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (violence, sexual references, misogyny and racism) and The Merchant of Venice (antisemitism).”

Oh boy! I remember twenty years ago writing schemes of work (planning documents) for A-Level courses I was teaching and having to flag up “distressing” topics and itemise what I planned to do to reassure students. So there is nothing new under the sun! 

I read an interview with Billy Connolly recently in which he said there was material he used to use in his stand-up shows that he could not use in today’s sensitive age. So it goes. 

And I find myself in two minds about the whole warnings business. Films and TV series are often preceded by warning about “violence, sex, nudity, bad language”. But surely we need to keep everything in proportion. No wonder actors like Ian McKellen are declaring some of this stuff ludicrous.

That’s enough ranting for today. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!