Yesterday at some point I saw a photo of someone taking a photo on his phone. He was at the Conservative Party Conference. Most of the seats in that particular room were empty. All the people has been moved to one corner so that the photo being taken by the phone-wielder would give the impression of a room full of people! There was an appeal to look out for the manipulated photo appearing on social media and please to point out its falseness.
It’s not just Tory phone-wielders who take photos from chosen angles to give false impressions, of course. I’ve seen reports of demonstrations, filmed or photographed in such a way as to give the impression of a huge crowd when in reality it is rather sparsely attended. Or indeed, the other way around - a photo of a small group, ignoring the massed crowd behind the photographer. The camera is a fickle beast.
Here’s a comment from an article about the aforementioned Tory party conference:
“The Tories don’t like a country that is shaped by 13 years of their rule but prefer not to take responsibility. They have developed a keen reflex for diverting blame.”
After 13 years, though, it must be difficult to blame everything on the previous government’s mistakes.
Later yesterday, in the TV news, I saw a news reporter talking to the odious Nigel Farage. Apparently he was admitted to the conference in his capacity as a presenter on GB News. He doesn’t want to rejoin the Conservatives yet - he’s waiting for it to become a proper Conservative party once again!
That’s enough Tory Party Conference stuff! No, not quite: as expected they have announced the decision not to bring HS2 to Manchester. The ripples from decision are making their way outwards. Levelling up does not seem to be going well.
Quite a long distance from Tories in Manchester, we have recently been watching an Italian series set in Naples in, I think, the 1980s. It’s based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, one I haven’t read, called “La Vita Bigiarda degli Adulti” - “The Lying Life of Adults” - a tale of teenage angst mostly, the teenager in question the daughter of communist parents. At one point everyone is at a sort of Neapolitan communist party fair and we see people marching along singing “Fischia il Vento”, an Italian popular song whose text was written in late 1943, at the inception of the Resistenza. The tune is based on the Russian song Katyusha. Along with “Bella ciao” , it is one of the most famous songs celebrating the Italian resistance, the anti-fascist movement that fought the forces that occupied Italy during World War II. It seems that troubled times bring out stirring songs.
My friend Colin referred in his blog yesterday to a song from the Spanish Civil War. There is, of course, also “Ay Carmela”, and let us not forget “España, Camisa Blanca”, this one not a Civil War song but written by the singer Victor Manuel, and sung by his wife Ana Belén, in the early post-Franco period when Spanish democracy was trying to reestablish itself.
There’s nothing quite like a good stirring song.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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