Terence Blacker
Terence Blacker: Don't be seduced by this clamour of voices
Published: 12 December 2007
Shooting from the hip, as has been her habit down the years, Doris Lessing used her acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature as an opportunity to take a pop at the great evils of our time: the decline of reading, the rule of Robert Mugabe, the way publishers promote young authors as if they were celebrities, and so on. Mid-flow, she took a brief look at the effects of the internet and its effects on our brains and our lives.
Terence Blacker: Institutional dishonesty has become the norm
Published: 07 December 2007
At the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival on Sunday, Anthony Wall, the producer and director who has been responsible for many of the BBC Arena documentaries over the past 30 years, advanced a rather daring moral argument. The behaviour of society as a whole, and its institutions in particular, tend to reflect prevailing attitudes within its government, he said.
Terence Blacker: Local democracy is fine (if you do as you're told)
Published: 05 December 2007
For as long as politics and cynicism have co-existed, the excuse of the apathetic non-voter has remained unchanged. Politicians? They're all the same, aren't they? Almost always, the line is demonstrably false, but in one area at least it is true. Big-time politicians like to make warm, supportive noises about local democracy but, when a council puts central government on the spot, their attitude is quickly revealed to be bogus.
Terence Blacker: Britain's brand of fair-weather environmentalism
Published: 30 November 2007
A couple of small but thrilling items of local news might be included in the papers of Hilary Benn when he travels to Bali next week for the United Nations' great climate change conference. Ipswich Borough Council has announced that it is joining the great plastic-bag initiative. Warning that as a nation we produce 10 billion bags a year, ("If laid end to end these would stretch to the moon and back five times!"), causing 100,000 tonnes of waste ("That's 70,000 cars!"), the council has listed some useful guidelines for the townsfolk. There are even rumours that a bag-ban may soon be introduced.
Terence Blacker: If we want to win at sport, we need elitism
Published: 28 November 2007
Like some freakish constellation in the night skies, three sports-related events have aligned this month to reveal a deep confusion in the British soul about the question of competition. Firstly, the moustachio'd old cove in charge of the Football Association announced that £12m or so is to be spent on a bid to host the 2018 World Cup. A few days later, with unhappy timing, all of the home football teams, with varying degrees of hopelessness, failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals.
Terence Blacker: Oh dear, the ball seems to be in the back of the net
Published: 23 November 2007
A goalkeeper for a pub or school team will know the feeling. The opposing team are advancing and – Phew! – one of their players makes the mistake of taking a ludicrously optimistic shot at goal from a long way out.
Terence Blacker: Please behave in an inappropriate manner
Published: 21 November 2007
When the moment comes for the year's Great Britons to be selected, the name of Nora Hardwick must surely be among the nominees. This week, Nora has supported a local charity in the now-traditional way: she took off her clothes and posed for a calendar. Of course, hundreds of women are doing this sort of thing – it has become a favourite activity of the countryside – but few amateur nudies can compete with Nora in one particular area. She is 102.
Terence Blacker: Where morality is just an excuse for public bullying
Published: 16 November 2007
Some misplaced actorly instinct seemed to overcome Chris Langham as he prepared to face the world when he emerged from jail this week. He was unshaven, hollow-eyed and looked even more hangdog than usual.
Terence Blacker: The cost of cheap food – and hot air
Published: 14 November 2007
As Christmas comes early for thousands of infected turkeys and ducks in Suffolk, a familiar sound – a pained, lowing noise like a cow in labour – will soon be heard echoing across the countryside. A government agriculture minister will be expressing his heartfelt sympathies for the farmers of Britain.
Terence Blacker: Elvis Costello is right about England
Published: 09 November 2007
The grumpy English expatriate tends to cut a faintly ludicrous figure. Usually male, invariably middle-aged, he takes a bilious view of the country where he was born and, with an unattractive combination of the sour and the smug, sounds off about the many ways in which it is in decline. Modern Britain is ill-mannered, over-crowded, boorish, violent, cynical, he says. It lacks the quality of life which expats like him are lucky enough to enjoy in their adopted countries.
Terence Blacker: Why does the BBC worship Poliakoff?
Published: 07 November 2007
In its latest season of scandals, the BBC has offered us some rare treats. There was the Blue Peter cat outrage, a rich variety of phone-in scams, the allegation that a lovely newsreader, Moira Stewart, was being fired on grounds of age and, of course, a return of that old favourite, Jonathan Ross's salary. Yet oddly, one scandal seems to have escaped the notice of commentators. It is called Stephen Poliakoff.
Terence Blacker: Heather Mills is right – she is a victim of bullying
Published: 02 November 2007
If an artist were commissioned to capture, in heroic mode, key scenes from early 21st century Britain, one of the first tableaux to be painted would be one entitled The Blonde at Bay. For at any one time, there will a public figure – youngish, female, pretty, fair-haired – who is the focus of the kind of public bullying which goes under the name of "intense media interest".
Terence Blacker: Despair has eaten into the British soul
Published: 31 October 2007
It is a rough and tough culture shock to travel back to England from Australia at this time of the year. There it is springtime and the swallows have just arrived from the north; here the nights are closing in and the leaves are falling from the trees.
Terence Blacker: English, eccentric and endearing: how Boris wins votes
Published: 12 October 2007
Terence Blacker: Mr Makeover proves a hit with the Misters and Misses
Published: 11 October 2007
Hullo, children. Today we're going to meet one of the happiest families that has ever wobbled, hopped skipped or fallen flat on their faces in a children's book! How do I know they are happy? Because a little bird tells me that their little stories and characters were once sold for £28m.
Terence Blacker: Booker Prize scandals we have loved (and imagined...)
Published: 10 October 2007
Deliberations surrounding this year's Man Booker Prize have gone ominously quiet. Normally by this time, there should have been leaks, threats of walk-outs, and at least one revelation that a judge has been sleeping with a long-listed author. It is almost as if the team this year have simply been reading the novels in anticipation of a civilised discussion to be followed by the announcement of what will inevitably be called a "worthy winner".
Terence Blacker: The countryside in winter – that's where the action is
Published: 09 October 2007
The weekenders are gone now, their interest in the countryside disappearing at almost the precise moment when those other fair weather-friends, the swallows, have deserted us. The dew is heavy on the grass, the nights are closing in. A few late visitors may have lagged behind, bewildered and barbecue-less, and will catch a brief glimpse of what the countryside is like when its doors are not flung open, when it is not showing off for outsiders.
Terence Blacker: The new wave of reality TV stars are a bunch of animals
Published: 05 October 2007
When a person in public life compares himself to a plate of food, it is almost a sign that he is in a bad place, psychologically. So Peter Bazalgette's remarks on resigning from Endemol, the production company responsible for Big Brother, naturally caused me concern. Bazalgette must be some kind of cousin of mine – we are both descended from the Victorian sewer king Sir Joseph Bazalgette – and, although we have never met, there is a family bond there.
Terence Blacker: The green prince and the queen bee of Hollywood
Published: 04 October 2007
Ever since it was announced last month that the heir to the throne was working with Hollywood on ideas for a documentary film, those of us in the environmental movement have been trying to find out more about the project. Agonisingly, all we have told is that, excited by the success of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Prince Charles is planning to give his philosophical ideas the big-screen treatment.
Terence Blacker: Why Sunday night's Fry-up left a greasy after-taste
Published: 03 October 2007
What a very strange and not entirely pleasant business it must be to become a National Treasure. Some, like Sir David Attenborough or Michael Palin, might have been born for it. Others, like Billy Connolly, have had to work harder. Now and then, most recently during last weekend's profoundly embarrassing media love-in for Stephen Fry, one wishes that, for his or her own sake, the potential NT had quietly declined the honour, preferring to remain a common-or-garden, fallible celebrity.
Terence Blacker: How turning off nanny's heating will save the planet
Published: 02 October 2007
It is a big week for Sir Giles Backwoodsman, the landowner and country sportsman who has been asked to explain the Conservative Party's new green policies to traditional party supporters across the country.
Terence Blacker: New punctuation to hit the right note in these jazzy times
Published: 01 October 2007
In Japan, they are writing novels on mobile phones. Nearer home, the quickest, hottest way to communicate is through a controversial, attention-grabbing blog. Forms of expression are moving and morphing, popping the buttons of the old conventions like the Incredible Hulk entering one of his green moods.
Terence Blacker: Students' laziness is an education in itself
Published: 26 September 2007
They will be settling in this week, all those nervous, excited first-year university students. During Freshers' Week, they will sign up for societies and clubs, often more out of duty than enthusiasm. They may go out drinking with their peers, engaging in edgy conversation and wishing they were at home. A few may even wonder how on earth they will be able to survive three years of university life.
Terence Blacker: 'Pussygate' proves we have lost our innocence
Published: 21 September 2007
It is now known that a major new crisis is about to engulf the BBC. A producer has been suspended. There are threats of sackings. Unions are involved. According to the chorus of critics of the Corporation, who are ever on hand to make things worse, the latest revelations reveal a profound moral and managerial crisis within the corporation.
Terence Blacker: The rich still try to buy their way in to heaven
Published: 19 September 2007
For a true appreciation of the delicate balance which exists between contemporary wealth, conscience and poverty, the best place to start is at a prominent charity dinner and auction. At these fashionable events, various key players in the great soap opera of contemporary life are brought together.
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