Training | 2009.07.07
Hugh Muir's diary
They are the people who know people. The sort of people worth getting to know
Notwithstanding Labour\'s policy launch yesterday, the election is there for the Tories to lose. Little wonder that those who seek influence are cuddling up close. Madness not to. Where power goes go the lobbyists, and so it is that the far-sighted folk at Westbourne Communications assert their credentials later today as organisers of a London conference, Inside Cameron\'s Conservatives. For £250, you get the wisdom of a half-day seminar starring Michael Gove, Eric Pickles and the like, a copy of the ConservativeHome "black book" - don\'t leave home without it - and every Russian oligarch\'s dream, drinks with shadow chancellor George Osborne. Perhaps a bit of a policy diversion for Westbourne itself, as last month founder James Bethell indicated to PR Week that despite its Conservative origins, the new agency "would focus on embracing digital communications, rather than cashing in on Tory connections". But who can stay focused in these heady, heady days?
• Only Boris, perhaps, the Tory talisman in London, who has pledged to usher in a revolution in musicianship in the capital. The children will be taught to play strings with donated instruments, he said. Unfortunate that all but three of the instruments sent in so far under the No Strings Attached initiative are too large for the children to play. Half of those sent in are in need of repair. Still, the intention is good, and one suspects that it will all come right, not least because the mayor\'s drive to encourage musicianship is supported by some powerful forces. In January, the mayor\'s office announced that Sting (pictured) had sent in one of his bass guitars, but this wasn\'t quite right: he was being economical with the actualité. Yesterday, after we asked how the same guitar could apparently be used to teach children and be available as a prize in a busking competition, he came clean. The benevolent superstar actually sent him two.
• The politician\'s star is on the rise; that of Kim Jong-il on the wane. The ailing North Korean strongman, Dear Leader, has already designated his son Kim Jong-un, "Brilliant Comrade", as his successor. But more than that, the signs are that he is winding down, preparing for his twilight days as a civilian. The Korean Herald - that nation\'s "Number 1 English newspaper" - reveals that the leader, always a big man despite his 5ft 3in, has taken to wearing sneakers instead of his trademark platform lifts, a development it says is rich in significance. The Vatican has white smoke, but in North Korea they look to footwear. If Gordon steps out in carpet slippers, we\'ll know that\'s it.
• The commuter\'s life is not a happy one, and perhaps this might explain why First Great Western passengers aggrieved by ticket prices (a Bath to London return is now nudging £150) derive some consolation in knowing that the money does not all go to the company. For the second time in a month, they note, burglars have cleaned out the station ticket office at Bath. The first heist netted £25,000, after which the door codes were changed and the security tightened; but still thieves strolled back for some more swag within a week. If the break-ins continue at this pace, they will be more reliable and punctual than the trains, say the grumblers. Gallows humour. It\'s their only way of fighting back.
• Finally, there\'s a new blockbuster on the horizon. Take cover. Luvvie alert. "I don\'t like to talk too much in public about Harry Potter, and I\'ll tell you why. Harry Potter is a very private world for children - it\'s something that they hold very dear and close to themselves, it\'s a whole life for them that is lived inside their heads. And I\'d like to keep it that way," says Alan Rickman, aka Professor Snape, explaining it all to Saga magazine. "Sometimes when I meet kids and they are told, \'That\'s HIM\', I can see in their faces this Harry Potter world flickering somewhere between imagination and reality - and I don\'t think that\'s right. It\'s like saying that Santa Claus doesn\'t exist." He\'s an act-tor, you know? A fine one.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/30/hugh-muirs-diary
