Unipex! 2024

Film  If you've been wondering why wind has been whistling through this old place lately it's because all of the excitement has been happening on BlueSky where I've been live skeeting (jesus) a read through of Empire Magazine.  All of it.  You can see the story so far here.  Part of the process has included retrospectively catching up on people or places mentioned in articles and while I'd usually do that via a thread over there.  On this occasion I decided to take advantage of having a blog.

From the September 1997 issue (#99), Uniplex! is a piece about single screen cinemas across the country which were still holding their own in the face of the "the explosion of multiplexes in the country (over 70 and counting)" and how that was changing the rituals of cinema going.  A number of auditoriums are mentioned throughout the article alongside interviews with owners and staff and I thought it would interesting to see how many of these establishments have survived and how they've changed.

As you'll see (spoilers!) the results are not great, with only three cinemas still in existence the rest having closed over time due to a drop in visitor numbers which could be attributed to home media or a multiplex opening nearby.  One of the extant venues isn't really a cinema any more although they do show films amid touring stand up comics and some theatre and one of the closed continues in a zombie like state at a local school.  Even in those places, the shared experience endures.

Ironically, The Point Multiplex in Milton Keynes, the first of its kind in the country and highlighted at the beginning of the article no longer exists.  With ownership and leases slipping between AMC Theatres, UCI, easyCinema and finally the Odeon, it currently houses a charity shop, record emporium and youth centre.  The building was purchased by a property developer who wants to demolish the building but as of July 2024 the local planning committee has rejected the proposals put forward.  

Open

Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds is thriving after a recent refurbishment which added a cafe and an extra screen in the basement.  You can compare what the cinema looked like in the 90s via the musical portions of my student film documentary from roughly that period with now, thanks to a MatterPort virtual tour.  Both include a glimpse inside the projection box.

The Kinema in the Woods, Lincolnshire, like the Hyde Park, is thriving judging by the website.  Like the HPPH, it's expanded into two screens and even has a Dalek in the foyer amongst all kinds of film memorabilia (including what looks like the same film poster which was up in my Dad's workplace for many years).  They also have a 2D walkthrough.

Duke of York's, Brighton is now a Picture House Cinema.  They bought it in 1994 and it still remains a single screen venue.

Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, Fife is now a multi-use facility which includes theatre and the odd film.  All tickets are a fiver and CCed.  Back in the day, the breakfast club included a fry-up.  Now it's a bagel.

Closed

The Cinema Pleasures database reports that Flicks in Deal, Kent closed in December 2007.  Google Street View shows that by 2009 it became the Rivals night club the following year, by 2015 it was the Ocean Rooms Night Club and Bar and by the looks of things still is.  

The Screen De Luxe, Isle of White closed in September 2000 with a screening of Gladiator.  Cinema Pleasures reports "Permission was granted to convert the building into a fitness centre, but this may or may not have occurred. It was last used as a hardware store specialising in floor materials. By 2016 it was a veterinary clinic."  It still is a veterinary clinic.

The Coliseum, Portmadog originally closed in 1983 but was re-opened in 1984 via a committee of local residents and staffed by volunteers.  Sadly it closed again in January 2011 and demolished in 2016.  Apparently the original cash register was found amongst the rubble.

The Ritz, Gosport, Hants closed in 1999, just two years after the article and demolished in 2001.  The local sixth form college now has film screenings every other Thursday night during term time which they call The Ritz @ St Vincent.

Viewing order for The Lord of the Rings.

Film  Apart from the odd duff moment (hesaidit!.gif), this past season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been a marked improvement on the first.  Although Sauron was a presence and a notional antagonist in the first series, having him being revealed and moving to centre stage helped to focus the story immensely and create connections with the rest of the Tolkien adaptations.

With that in mind, here's a carefully developed timeline of where the series fits in relation to Peter Jackson's films.  New releases will be added as and when Warner Bros realise they're licence is about to run out and they need to release something like The War of the Rohirrim, the proposed Golum prequels or pressgang the hobbit actors into filming some version of The Scouring of the Shire.

The Second Age

ROP 1.1 A Shadow of the Past
ROP 1.2 Adrift
ROP 1.3 Adar
ROP 1.4 The Great Wave
ROP 1.5 Partings
ROP 1.6 Udûn
ROP 1.7 The Eye
ROP 1.8 Alloyed
  
ROP 2.1 Elven Kings Under the Sky
ROP 2.2 Where the Stars are Strange
ROP 2.3 The Eagle and the Sceptre
ROP 2.4 Eldest
ROP 2.5 Halls of Stone
ROP 2.6 Where Is He?
ROP 2.7 Doomed to Die
ROP 2.8 Shadow and Flame

The Third Age

FILM  The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

FILM  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

FILM  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

FILM  The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

FILM  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

FILM  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

FILM  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Loose Ends: 8: The Eighth Doctor: Scenes Unseen

Prose  Loose Ends is the current inhabitant of the parish circular in which, as the title suggests, one of my favourite Doctor Who writers Jonathan Morris (this is his monthly column) tries to tie up moments in the franchise's history which haven't already been addressed, like the bus full of holidaymakers blowing up in Delta and the Bannermen or how the Doctor managed to get Stevie Wonder to play for his wife.  Illustrated in a comic style by artist Roger Langridge, these tiny trips seem to be partly inspired by the old Brief Encounter stories from the earlier days of the magazine and rarely feel like their just lampooning the source.

[Spoilers ahead for the story.  It's DWM's publication day so some of you might not have seen it yet and I don't want to be like that friend who told you all about The Time of the Doctor and everything which happened in it moments after it had been released.  At least I waited a couple of hours before I posted a review here.  Anyway, this is probably enough of a text buffer which I'll also delete in a couple of weeks when everyone has seen it and when the opening of the next paragraph will flow on from the first rather than seem as abrupt as a return from adverts on Freevee.]

That's especially true of this month's instalment, written to accompany the coverage of the recent live Big Finish event in which Paul, India et al performed the new drama The Stuff of Legend (review coming soon).  The Doctor visits Professor Wagg from the TV Movie with the Pertwee logo to return the beryllium chip is the bald synopsis.  But it's a rich little story, which captures the Eighth Doctor's voice perfectly and gives Wagg more dignity than he had on during his brief television time.  There's also nothing in here that the Doctor wouldn't have done.  Even more than some of his successors and predecessors Eighth is a details person and hates to leaves things hanging.  Look at Shada.

[Was the spoiler buffer completely necessary for such a short review, more or less just a couple of brief comments really?  I don't know.  I'm just trying to be sensitive.  To write much more than that would have been to make it longer than the actual story and with these interruptions it probably is a review which is longer than the actual Doctor Who story.  But it felt official enough to add to the timeline.  Oh, which reminds me ...]

Placement:  Early.  Between The Eight Doctors and The Dying Days when the Short Trips establish that he's making amends in general.  Plus the illustration features the fancy dress costume he stole from the locker room in The Enemy Within (or whatever it's called).

14 British Library

Books   After completing my visit to the Sir John Soane's Museum, I headed to the British Library to see which of their First Folios is currently on display.  Fortunately it isn't the copy exhibited at the Shakespeare North Playhouse last November but a different one to tick off the list (or make bold and put [IRL] afterwards), with the shelf mark C.39.k.15 and available to also view online at First Folios Compared.  Two down from their collection, three to go.

The Shakespeare First Folios tells us this particular copy is notable for containing "one of only four extant impressions of the portrait in its first state".  As this Folger article explains, subtle changes were made during the print runs of the Folio.  In the first Shakespeare's head doesn't look like its attached to his body and so the plate was modified to introduce a shadow behind his head.  This is the only BL copy with this version.  The others are at the Folger and the Bodleian.  Outstanding.

The provenance for the book is fairly straightforward.  It was bought in about 1820 by John Delafield Phelps of Lincoln's Inn who judging by this list of items and subsequent posthumous auction catalogue from 1842 was a big collector of things.  What wasn't sold off was bequethed to his nephew, William John Phelps, who was also at Lincoln's Inn and became a Justice of Peace for Gloucestershire and High Sheriff in 1860 and then passed down through a couple more generations of the family.

The genealogy of the family is labyrinthine by the way, stretching back (as far as I can tell) to Matthew Hale, the jurist born in Shakespeare's lifetime who worked for both Royalists and Oliver Cromwell during and after the civil war and who's writings are still being quoted today - he's even mentioned in Roe v Wade.  None of which is really relevant to the book, but is at least a demonstration of how some Folios found their way into families with prominent establishment roots and stayed there.

The book was eventually inherited of a Captain A.W. Clifford and was purchased in a posthumous sale by the rare bookseller Bernard Quaritch who appears a lot in the folio catalogue (and whose titular company still exists) who paid £4200 and then flipped it to the British Museum for £11,900, who could afford it thanks to the aid of Tory Politician Charles Young.  Incidentally the Folio catalogue doesn't say who any of these people are.  I'm filling in the blanks as we go along.

The book has been in public ownership ever since, firstly on display at the King's Library and then moved the British Library when that became too small for purpose.  At some point in its life the book has been "washed" in which a volume is suspended in water then slowly dried in order to remove stains.  This may have been before the British Museum took possession, because they've placed their stamp in numerous places. 

Further sightings:

It's this copy which appears in The King & the Playwright A Jacobean History, the presenter-led series by James Shapiro from 2012 which focuses on the plays from Shakespeare and his contemporaries under James I.  Shapiro is shown entering the grounds of the British Library and then this shot with the line "And here it is ..."

This looks to be the same room that David Tennant viewed 13 British Library in Shakespeare Uncovered.  Shapiro talks about the pleasure of turning the pages and lists some of the plays which we wouldn't have where it not for the Folio.

21 Sir John Soane’s Museum

Books  At about this time last week, I was sat in a small, atmospheric library in a Georgian town house with a Shakespeare First Folio on the table in front of me.  Touching the bound single plays from a folio at the University of Liverpool was a huge privilege.  But this was my first chance to see a complete book without the barrier of a glass case, to be able to turn through the opening pages as they were originally printed and read the text just as someone would have done throughout its life.  Facsimiles offer a sense of what this must have been like, of course they do, but they don't have the smell from four hundred years of life or the sheer sense of occasion of being in the presence of a precious object and as was the case here, being left alone with it.  Reader, I may have sobbed a bit.

When I emailed the Sir John Soane's Museum about seeing their copy of the folio, I didn't think that they'd agree, especially because it wasn't for academic reasons, just because I'm an enthusiast.  But they couldn't have been more accommodating.  Their copy is especially interesting because one of its previous owners has had the book washed and pressed and inlaid into newer paper around the edges, cleaning away any imperfections and leaving scope for the reader to leave marginalia.  The volume is also thicker than the other due to extra pages having been added between the genre sections and at the front and back presumably also for adding notes.  It's a reminder that for much of their lives these were working books and not treated with the reverence with which we do now.

This work was carried on behalf of the historic actor John Philip Kemble, brother to the slightly more famous Sarah Siddons.  There's a painting of Kemble playing Hamlet by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the Tate's collection and he would have owned this book when he was at the height of his career (and there are plenty more images of him during that period and after).  The provenance before him is murky but it came into his possession in 1807 and he sold it on auction in 1822 to James Boswell the younger, whom we last met when talking about one of the Bodleian Library copies who had Edmund Malone's copy as a loner until he bought this.  Boswell then sold it on again in 1925 (perhaps having completed work on his volume of the plays) and it was picked up by Sir John Britton on behalf of Sir John Soane.

The librarian at the museum was kind enough to dig out from the files an original letter from Britton to Soane detailing the processes of the procurement:

Along with a copy of the museum's own publication The Cloud-Capped Towers': Shakespeare in Soane’s Architectural Imagination by Frances Sands, Alison Shell, Stephanie Coane and Emmeline Leary (2016) which includes a transcription of the text:

Amazing.  As Rasmussen and West's The Shakespeare First Folios relates, the notes of the original curator of the museum, George Bailey explain how Soane commission Britten to buy the book without naming a price with Britton leaving late for the sale and reached the sale room within moments of the Lot being put under the hammer.  Fortunately for Soane he won it.  Soane had a full set of all four Folios.  He also had a bust of Kemble by John Gibson.

Spending time with the Folio meant I was able to look at some details which are usually hidden or at least very difficult to see in display cases.  The replacement binding from when Kemble had the volume reset: 

The printmakers credit:

The soot burn within the new margins which shows that it was definitely used in this later state.

The list of principle actors.

Not to mention the ability to choose which play I wanted to photograph for the opening image of this blog post (see above).  It's unlikely a copy on display in an exhibition would be represented by this play.  

After about twenty minutes, I bid my farewells to the librarian and headed out into the steaming hot weather and back next door to join the queue for the museum itself.  

Sir John Soanes was a leading British architect who specialised in neo-classical architecture.  The son of a bricklayer, he rose to such prominence that he built the original Bank of England, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the building which now currently houses the Cabinet Office, was clerk of works at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James's Palace, The Palace of Westminster and built an extension to the Freemasons' Hall in London.  But he also designed and built the town houses where the museum now resides on the edge of Lincoln's Inn Fields, an even posher version of Falkner Square in Liverpool, large enough to accommodate tennis and netball courts and the rather nice Pear Tree Cafe where I had my evening meal of welsh rarebit.

The museum was the result of an act of parliament a few years before Soanes's death in which he disinherited his son and instead stipulated that the house and contents would pass to the care of trustees who on behalf of the nation would preserve the property much as it had been when he died.  The reason for this was: Soanes was a collector, of paintings, sculpture and statuary, furniture and books, his library number over seven and a half thousand volumes and he had numerous archaeological objects including the Sarcophagus of Seti I.  These objects are displayed across the numerous rooms, filling spaces with fascinating objects.  This website has a Quicktime panorama of a typical space and their own website has some VR explorations.  Here's what it's like to be inside the space:

As an architect Soanes knew all about light and how it illuminates interiors.  In one of the spaces the sun was blasting through the skylight windows striking against the relief underneath.

One of the volunteer invigilators stood in just such a light in the basement and she glowed.

As you can imagine, my main point of interest was the Picture Gallery, a space roughly the size of a modern train carriage containing such things as Piranesi's architectural landscapes drawings, Sir James Thornhill's Sketch Design for the ceiling of the Queen's State Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace, Watteau's L’Accordée du Village, three paintings of Venice by Canaletto and two sets of Hogarth paintings: A Rake's Progress (which is only accessible briefly each day for conservation reasons so I missed it) and The Humours of An Election.  The latter has another Shakespeare connection in that according to a tour guide it was bought straight off the painter's walls by David Garrick after a dinner party.  Here is a guide to the whole room.

Wandering around the museum, I did keep my eyes open for any other Shakespeare merchandise and sure enough there were at least two busts, an plaster copy of the Edgar George Papworth portrait:

And at the top of some stairs, a reproduction of the Shakespeare funerary monument from Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon.  In 1793, during Soanes's lifetime, Edmond Malone (yes, him again) persuaded the vicar of the church to paint the original monument white, so this is how it would have looked then.  The colour wasn't restored for another sixty tears based on the remaining pigments which could be seen behind the white paint later. 

After leaving the museum and the aforementioned dinner, I had to find something to fill the period before the train home.  But that's a story for another time.

Navigating Glastonbury 2024.

Music  Hope you're all enjoying Glastonbury this weekend, even from your armchair.  After a similar posts proved popular in the last couple of years, I've decided to repeat the exercise for 2024.  As I explained last year, the navigation of the various stages and sets on the BBC website isn't particularly ideal.  Unlike the previous decade when the line-up was structured around stages, this year, everything is mostly just bunged in all together under different genres.

There is a line-up page on the BBC Glastonbury site which does break the acts down into stages but it requires at least a couple of clicks to get anywhere and you can eventually click through to the iPlayer page it's not especially intuitive, which doesn't matter exactly, but it's still a lot of effort.  Plus it's sometimes difficult on the iPlayer to see the difference between a broadcast highlights show and a full set.  The list below will only have the full set unless there's no other choice.

So  I've created a breakdown of Glastonbury by stage with links to these full sets - most of Friday is already there and I'll keep updating this over the weekend checking in now and then.  Most stages it's every act apart from the first few (sorry fans of Squeeze).  The links below should be valid for a month so you have until near the end of July to catch up.  Obviously this is only helpful if you're watching things on a tablet or PC.  You could always try casting them I suppose.  Anyway, on with the show:

Pyramid Stage

Friday

Dua Lipa

LCD Soundsystem

PJ Harvey

Paul Heaton

SEVENTEEN

Olivia Dean

Squeeze

Saturday

Coldplay

Little Simz

Michael Kiwanuka

Keane

Cyndi Lauper

Ayra Starr

Femi Kuti

Sunday

SZA

Burna Boy

Janelle Monae

Shania Twain

Paloma Faith

Seasick Steve

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Other Stage 

Friday

Idles *

D-Block Europe

Anne-Marie

Bombay Bicycle Club

Confidence Man

Headie One

The Snuts

Annie Mac

Saturday

Disclosure

The Streets

Camila Cabello

Bloc Party

The Last Dinner Party

Tems

The Staves

Jamie Webster

Sunday

The National

Two Door Cinema Club

Avril Lavigne

Nothing But Thieves

James

Soft Play

Rachel Chinouriri

The Zutons

West Holts Stage

Friday

Jungle

Heilung

Danny Brown

Sugababes

Noname

Squid

Asha Puthli

Sofia Koutesis

Saturday

Jessie Ware *

Masego

Black Pumas

Nitin Sawhney

Corinne Bailey Rae

Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy

The Skatalites

47soul

Sunday

Justice

Nia Archives

Brittany Howard

Jordan Rakei

Steel Pulse

Balming Tiger

Jalen Ngonda

Matthew Halsall

Woodsies

Friday

Jamie XX

Sampha

Declan McKenna

Arlo Parks

The Vaccines

Kenya Grace

Remi Wolf

Lambrini Girls

Voice Of Baceprot

Saturday

Gossip

Sleaford Mods

Yard Act

Kasabian

Fat White Family

Soccer Mommy

Mannequin Pussy

High Vis

Kneecap

Sunday

James Blake

Romy

Kim Gordon

Alvvays

Blondshell

Newdad

The Ks

Jayahadadream

The Park Stage

Friday

Fontaines DC

King Krule

Aurora

Dexys

This Is The Kit

The Mary Wallopers

Barry Can't Swim

Moonchild Sanelly

Lynks

Saturday

Peggy Gou

Orbital

The Breeders

Lankum

Arooj Aftab

Otoboke Beaver

Bar Italia

Kara Jackson

Johnny Flynn

Sunday

London Grammar

Ghetts

Mount Kimbie

Baxter Dury

Mdou Moctar

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets

Lime Garden

Problem Patterns

Tanita Tikaram

* The TV broadcast

222 Craven Museum and Gallery

Books   Since there's now a checklist and everything, I've been trying to decide what to call the endeavour of trying to see all of the first editions of the collections of Shakespeare's plays and it's not until I was standing on a platform at Leeds Station waiting for the connecting train between Liverpool and Skipton that I decided to go back to my very brief flirtation with drawing lines through train class numbers in another type of book and decided I've been Folio Spotting.  I'm a foliospotter.

So this erm, foliospotting trip was to the Craven Museum and Gallery in Skipton which has a partial edition in its exhibition space.  As Rasmussen and West's The Shakespeare First Folios (the foliospotters equivalent of the Diesel & Electric Loco Register) indicates there aren't actually that many copies internationally that you can apprehend, most of them only brought out on special occasions either for security reasons or due to their fragility.

The Craven was recently nominated for a Art Fund Museum of the Year award and it's this report in The Guardian which prompted me to book at ticket to Yorkshire.  The last time I visited Skipton was in my undergraduate days when you could travel anywhere in West Yorkshire by bus from Leeds at the weekend for 60p.  Skipton would have been the furthest I went, two hours there, two hours back.  I'm not sure I would have had the patience now, although it was roughly three hours from Liverpool by train.

Judging by the accession number. the book seems like a very late entry into the catalogue because it had only recently been made available to the public as a First Folio.  For much of its time at the Craven it was been designated as a Second Folio, and it wasn't until 2003 that the scholar Anthony West, the West of the The Shakespeare First Folios, studied the pages and determined that they were from the 1623 original.  As he and Rasmussen say, "Security was immediately increased".

But it took until March 2011 for the necessary funds to be gathered for the current secure display case to be added to Craven's exhibition, which is accompanied by video explaining the importance of the book narrated by Yorkshire's own Patrick Stewart and wall panels describing the provenance of the book.  The Craven Museum was recently refurbished (hence the nomination) but judging by the descriptions this corner seems like it's much the same as it was ten years before.

The provenance of this folio is minimal.  The trail begins with John James Wilkinson, who after selling his cotton and tobacco business became a naturalist studying marine insects who also had an interest in literature, but there's no indication of how he acquired it.  When he died in 1919, the Folio was inherited by his sister Ann who then bequeathed it to the town of Skipton in 1936, which is when it was misidentified as a Second Folio.

The Guardian piece suggests it then sat in a cupboard beneath a sink for the intervening decades until the new identification.  It was probably easily overlooked because as you can see from the digitised version, it's missing the title pages and comedies so without the front page you could imagine various staff over the years not really thinking it was anything more than a pile of old papers because why would they even have a Shakespeare First Folio?

Now that I am foliospotting, I'm going to have to step up my game.  There are still plenty of documentaries to look at but with the re-opening of the Folger Shakespeare Library and its display of all the Shakespeare folios they own, I'm already looking at the logistics of visiting Washington DC.  How can any foliospotter turn down the opportunity to see our equivalent of Llandudno Junction traction maintenance depot?

The Party Manifestoes 2024: SNP

Politics  The PDF version of the SNP manifesto still has crop marks around the edge which suggests this is exactly the same file which was sent to the printers.  The back page has a portion of John Sweeney's shoulder against a blue background which is presumably supposed to evoke the saltire.  

It's also very short, just 32 sides of which only 22 have policy detail, the rest just blank pages and chapter headings.  The website has much more detail in relation to policy but it seems designed to cover both bases - at the UK parliament and Scottish Assembly.

For consistency the following is just based on what's in the document launched today and the overall tone is directed towards independence and Scotland which probably accounts for why its so short.  They can't ever govern in the Westminster even if they win every seat so like Plaid Cymru the focus is on what the UK Government can do for Scotland.  

They used to be better at this.  Every section says "SNP MPs will demand the UK Government" which is very People's Front of Judea of them ("We're giving Pilate two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Roman Imperialist State, and if he doesn't agree immediately, we execute her") but voters looking at this will see that they've reduced themselves to being a single issue party in this context.  Previous manifestos were more collegiate in terms of how having SNP MPs would help not just Scotland but the whole of the UK.  Hey ho.

The BBC

Not much directly:

This is probably referring to the fact that the Media Bill (or at least that press release) has a whole section about S4C but nothing about Gaelic broadcasting or even Scotland (although judging by Hansard the majority of it was lost during the wash-up).  I could go on again here about how Wales and Scotland both have channels promoting their culture at a granular level but England does not, but this probably isn't the time.  Justice for the Kernewek.

Global Emissions

No particular target is given for net zero.  Some of the demands are a bit weird.

The evidence is that all fossil fuels are killing the planet.  There's also a section about wanting to extend refining at Grangemouth for as long as possible - which I can see from a commerce and employment perspective but dear god man, we're killing the patient.  So much of the Scottish economy is wrapped up in oil and gas I don't know what the answer is.  Incidentally, solar energy doesn't appear even though Scotland has about as many hours of sun as the rest of the UK, and also nothing on cutting subsidies for fossil fuels (that I could see).

Libraries & Film

Nope.  The only section which talks about culture in any detail just covers broadcasting.

Creative Scotland's funding is devolved so it makes sense that that the SNP wouldn't mention these things in a Westminster manifesto.  Unlike Plaid there's no demand for Eurovision independence.

Gender Equality

Not a lot of detail here either.  

It is a bit weird that the intersex community are included but none of the rest of us in the +.  Given recent comments from some Labour MPs and what's in the manifesto, it also doesn't look like Labour will allow the gender ID law to go ahead after the election either.

Democracy

Sixteen and seventeen year olds already have the right to vote in Scotland.  On the other themes:

On voting reform:

Same as Plaid.  

I don't live in Scotland but I do think it should have independence if it's the will of the people.

The Party Manifestos 2024:The Reform Party.

Politics  Back in when I did this exercise in 2015, I covered UKIP and have been considering whether to bother with their latest iteration, especially since I'm not a media organisation per se and don't have to follow the whims of Ofcom or whoever in relation to balance.  But I am a firm believer in knowing who your enemy is so here we are.  By the way this does not stretch to having that man's face on my blog so find right the contents with its ridiculous typo in the page numbers half way down.  These are not serious people.  This is not a professional party.  Oh god.  Here we go again ...

The BBC

Not much detail here to be honest.

Global Emissions

Considering they want to scrap it, the phrase "net zero" appears twenty-eight times in the Reform manifesto.  There's even a page about it.  Well, half a page if you don't include the dreamy sunset over an oil rig.  This is policy dictated by the Daily Mail.  Unsurprisingly, "The party’s biggest donor last year was Terence Mordaunt, a previous Tory donor, businessman and former chair of the climate change sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation, whose companies have given £200,000 to Reform." [source: The Guardian].  Basically it's fuck the planet, give us your money.  Fucking grifters.

Solar energy in contrast is mentioned once:

They also talk about subsidies - scrapping subsidies for renewables and anything related to keeping the lights on without fossil fuels.

Libraries

Nope.

Film

Also not mentioned.  In fact there is half a page about culture, but for some reason it's about leaving the WHO, replacing the 2010 Equalities act and a "Free Speech Bill" which seems to be about nothing of the sort:

We want free speech, but only if you agree with us.  They also want to make St George's and St David's Day public holidays (yeah, fuck you St Andrew) and launching an "anti-corruption unit for Westminster" which will "investigate past scandals".  OK.  

There is no beauty here.  

Gender Equality

You can probably guess.

Lesbian, gay, queer, non-binary, asexual or intersex people are not mentioned.  Probably notable:

"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident, and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home."

Democracy

Do you have to ask?

This doesn't take into account the people who work in numerous jobs and industries for whom it isn't convenient to get to a polling station.  

The Party Manifestoes 2024: Labour

Politics   As you can see the cover of the Labour manifesto dispenses with the title of the document, most people on the receiving end will know this is Labour's manifesto, and instead offers us Keir Starmer in black and white next to the word "change", the first time a party leader has appeared on the front cover since Tony Blair's repeat showing in 2001.  

Starmer appears throughout the manifesto with his photo on almost every page mostly grinning at people in a way which disconcertingly makes him look like Stephen Colbert (they're same age too) or with his serious face when necessary.  Most of these are with members of the shadow cabinet to show much of a team they all are.  

Along with pictures and quotes from members of the public ("Charlie, cafe owner and former Conservative voter" etc), the general tone is "the Tories fucking suck don't they?"  There's even the famous shot of him talking to Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the D-Day commemoration something the current Prime Minister didn't manage just to really drive in the sword.  They're even committed to privatising the railways, thank god.  Anyway.

The BBC

No direct mention of the licence fee.  Instead, there's this rather vague paragraph:

And this indirect mention of the World Service in relation to soft power: 

Which is kind of disappointment - the impression is supposed to be that the BBC will have greater protection under Labour but it would have been nice to see something solid on that here.

Global Emissions

I couldn't see a direct target for net zero.  There's a pledge to have zero-carbon electricity by 2030 which is roughly similar:

No specific mentions of putting solar panels on rooftops but they talk about a "Warm Homes Plan" which "will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating to cut bills" which must mean the same thing.

They've also pledged to keep the north sea oil fields open for business although they won't issue licences for new field exploration or coal mines and they''ll "ban fracking for good".

Libraries

Are not mentioned.

Film

Barely mentioned:

This is a bit woolly.  The features of the "creative industries sector plan" do not appear in the document.

Gender Equality

Bit of a mixed bag.

No mention of self-ID, trans people will still need a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a hopefully sympathetic doctor.  The modernising of the "gender recognition law" also feels fraught with danger given the statements of some Labour MPs.

Democracy

Whilst committing to giving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all elections they don't commit to abolishing voter ID rules:

There isn't any mention of electoral reform which means they're probably still committed to first past the post.  Boo.

No sundries.

It doesn't matter who I vote for.  It's a safe Labour seat in this election.

The Party Manifestoes:Plaid Cymru Party of Wales

Politics  Busy morning so let's get to it.  As with all the parties, Plaid Cymru's website is a bit of a mess in terms of navigation.  Nowhere in the visible part of the front page is there a link to the manifesto you have to dig through menus upon menus to find a hyperlinked version and even further to a pdf.  If I was a political party, I'd have a link to the manifesto at the top of the front page in big letters so that a voter can find out what I stand for.  Only the Tories have a direct link even if its at the bottom of the page underneath a scary collage of headlines from newspapers about bloodbaths along with Angela Rippon's face twice.

Anyway, back to Wales.

The BBC

The corporation isn't directly mentioned by name in the manifesto but there are a couple of things which might impact.  

Sporting events would be free-to-air if terrestrial broadcasters could afford the rights.  The BBC would still have live cricket or premiership football if they could justify bidding for them.  Presumably PC isn't proposing to offer direct funding.

Honestly, I'm not completely against devolving participation in Eurovision.  Perhaps S4C could join the EBU as a separate entity.

Global Emissions

Net-zero targets aren't mentioned in the main text but on one of the title pages:

Wales wants to reach net-zero in ten years, which is immensely ambitious.  But just in Wales mind.  A lot of this manifesto feels like it was written for a Welsh Assembly rather than Westminster election.

They're really scared of pylons and panels fucking up the landscape:

They mention this twice:

I agree with them.  But Plaid Cymru, roof-tops are right there.

Nothing particular about fossil fuel subsidies but the section about farming mentions cutting taxes on renewable liquid fuels.

Libraries

Never said in the manifesto.

Film Industry

Never said in the manifesto.

Gender Equality

LGBTQ+ has a whole section in the manifesto, and it's brilliant:

Not even the Green Party manifesto goes that hard, especially in its support for trans people.  Well done.  No notes.

Democracy

On enfranchisement:

It's true, since May 2021, 16 and 17 year olds have been able to vote in the Senedd Elections under a Labour government in Wales.  

On voter ID:

On proportional representation:

So not quite proportional representation in terms of the number of MPs rather more of a chance for people's second or even third choice candidates to win a seat, the system used for Deputy Speakers elections in the House of Commons, Northern Ireland Assembly elections and local elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland (source).

No sundries.

I can't vote for Plaid Cymru.