Category: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

The Emotional Disconnect in Modern Music Composition

bruceandholly
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Whenever I hear that a piece of music has been specially composed for an event, I know that I’m not going to enjoy it. I’d been listening to the BBC Proms trying to enjoy a piece by a modern composer I’d never heard of. After 5 minutes, I gave up. For me, such music is too abstract. A clever combination of notes without any melodic theme. The tootle of a trumpet. The bang of a tympani. The screech of a violin as a comet hurtles across space. All very artistic. But it doesn’t engage me emotionally. I want something I can hum along to. I also think that the reason why we never hear any of this type of music on the commercial radio stations is that it just wouldn’t sell.

Specially composed music hasn’t always been like that. Think about Puccini. Handel’s Water Music. Edward Elgar. And I’m never bored listening to Hans Zimmer’s Pirates of the Caribbean. That is the music we’re going to be listening to 100 years from now.

society, Uncategorized

Mrs Brown’s Boys and The Archers

bruceandholly

For me, the two biggest switch offs have always been Mrs Brown’s Boys and the Archers. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Archers’ intro music. ‘Dum de dum de dum de dum. Dum de dum de dum dum.’ But that’s where it stops. I’d rather listen to the shipping forecast. Around 15 years ago I worked with someone who actually claimed to listen to the Archers. Really!

Even though I’ve never been big on soaps. I am still impressed by the way programs like Coronation Street and East Enders draw me in. Even when I don’t like the characters. It was the same with the Jeremy Kyle show before they took it off air. It just grabbed my attention. Such a shame that it’s gone.

Law, politics, society, Uncategorized

Concerns Over Jury Trials in Leveson’s Proposals

bruceandholly

I’m nervous about Leveson’s proposals to abolish jury trial in intermediate cases and replace them with trial by a judge and two magistrates. It is as though he’s suggesting that either way offences carrying a likely penalty of less than 3 years imprisonment are not serious. But a theft conviction can be very serious if you lose your career as a result. Fair enough if you are actually guilty of the offence charged. That’s where the jury comes in. People like you and me with the same collective sense of fairness and justice. Not quite the same when you are facing an impatient prosecution-minded magistrate or judge who just wants to get through their case list. And what is the point of even electing trial, if you are not going to get to argue your case before 12 people who are living similar lives as you are.

Another thing I have long noticed is the increasing remoteness for our justice system from common expectations of right and wrong. Where everything seems to be decided on on academic technicality. We’ve come a long way since the passing of ‘people’s judge’, Tom Denning. Then there is the secrecy over the judicial appointments process itself. Whether it’s the appointment of judges and magistrates or the members of a parole board, who ignore public outrage when releasing a dangerous murderer. Who appoints these people? I’m sure that I have never been consulted. All that is left between them and us is 12 members of a jury. Now they want to take that away, Why? Because of successive government incompetence when it comes to our criminal justice system. How does it save money by delaying a case for two or three years instead of bringing it on now? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

My own solution would be to move to an American system of elected judges and magistrates. Make them accountable.

culture, Uncategorized

Glastonbury 2025 – too much of the same old

bruceandholly
Photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels.com

We talk a lot about diversity. But when it comes to popular music, there seems to be none. This year’s Glastonbury Festival looks to me like too much of the same-old. When I switched on my television, the first act I saw was a slightly overweight young lady singing and dancing in a leotard. The audience loved it. So perhaps it was just me.

Don’t get me wrong. There were a couple of acts I did enjoy watching, like the two rap singers and Gracie Abrams, an interesting artist who I hadn’t seen before. Then it was back to the same old. Look! I want to be entertained. Not listen to someone giving me a message.

Then there are the headliners. Usually bands I’ve never heard of. That’s not to say that there are some artists whom I would gladly make time to watch. Like Dua Lipa, Blondie or Robbie Williams, who appeared a year or two back. This year I believe it’s Rod Stewart, whom I last saw live at the 1973 Weeley Pop Festival. So maybe I’ll spend an hour watching Rod

Uncategorized

London Borough of Redbridge v G Romford County Court 5th February 2025 – Housing Possession

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I’m sorry but if you thought you were going to be able to download a transcript of this important judgement, I’m afraid that you are going to be disappointed. That’s unless you are prepared to pay the court stenographer yourself to listen to the tapes and type up that transcript. And that’s going to be expensive. Because Romford County Court is not a court of record. But the case is important because it reminds local authority conveyancers what can happen if they complete on the purchase of a property which happens to be occupied by a residential tenant. Even if that tenant had previously occupied under a shorthold tenancy, which could be ended as any time on 2 months written notice. What is worse, is that an existing shorthold tenancy automatically then converts into a fully secure tenancy under the Housing Act 1985. What a bonus for that residential tenant! Not only do they now have lifetime security. They’ve also got a statutory right to buy. And all because of a simple conveyancing error.

It is standard conveyancing practice that the existence of any residential adult occupier of the property must be disclosed to the buyer before contracts are exchanged. That will include anyone occupying under a shorthold tenancy. If this is not done and those occupancy rights are not brought to an end before completion, the buyer will take subject to those rights of occupation forevermore. Which was what had happened in this case. In fact there was nothing to suggest that the landlord had taken any formal step to terminate the shorthold tenancy, before that transaction completed.

A further physical inspection should take place on the morning of completion just to make sure that the property is in fact vacant before the balance of the purchase money is released. Getting it wrong is always expensive.