pure pleasure

Those not born in Britain may not know what I mean, but I have just purchased the CDs of two more of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas - Iolanthe and The gondoliers. They are the peak of comedic music, better, in my view, than the best of Strauss, Offenbach or Lehar. And to my delighted surprise, the versions I found - by chance - in a second-hand shop, happened, in spite of surprisingly good sound, to date from 1927, a generation that could still remember the living tradition of Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. There has been, down the years, a tendency to reduce the wonderfully subtle irony of this music to buffoonery, but the artists on this recording, though not necessarily immensely talented, conduct themselves with a dignity that does nothing but enhance the music. And the accents are so interesting - in this day and age, we simply don't know what a real "clipped British accent" is like!

Promises, promises...

The big talking point in London right now is the coming above-inflation rise in bus and tube tickets announced by Mayor Livingstone. London already has the highest public transport fares in the known universe, and, in the recent mayoral elections, Livingstone had promised not to raise them above inflation - at at time when he must have known that he would have to.

Nevertheless, believe it or not, this is an improvement. City government for London has only recently been restored, after having been abolished by Meg Thug out of mere spite; and for a long time, transport was high-priced without being in any way efficient or showing any signs of improvement. Mr.Livingstone, although his powers are limited, has certainly made a difference; bus transports, in particular, are noticeably improved, and his reason to impose these raises is to finance a program of tram building and bus expansion. We are being squeezed, but at least it is for a purpose; under the Thugcherites, we were merely squeezed.