BBC iPlayer

由於我們多在英國國境之外，所以不能試這iPlayer。不過可以了解一下這玩藝：

英國廣播公司BBC周五推出網絡視頻點播服務，用戶可以下載觀看過去七天播出的電視節目。

對BBC來說，點播器iPlayer堪比當年彩色電視取代黑白，成為BBC電視發展史上的一個新裡程碑。

但也有批評人士對它的可靠性提出懷疑，並質疑在目前競爭激烈的市場上這一服務是否已經遲到。

服務推出後，也並不是每個想使用的用戶都可以用到。

有興趣的觀眾需要向BBC登記，然後BBC選擇其中一部分開通服務，但到秋季全面推出點播服務時開通用戶會增加。

iPLAYER可以讓用戶追溯過去七天的節目，可以下載並在用戶電腦上保存30天。

觀眾還可以實時收看網上電視，但不能下載BBC播出的其他廣播公司節目。

出師不利

BBC早在2003年就開始試驗一體化媒體播放器iMP，但英國電視四台等媒體公司已經先於BBC推出了類似iPlayer的服務。

一些多媒體評論人士指出，如果BBC當年及時推出革命性的iMP，對廣播業的影響會難以估量。而現在，後來居上的網上視頻站點YouTube已經使一代人從電視轉移到了網上視頻。

但BBC發言人說，作為公共事業，BBC的新服務需要經過九個月的"公共價值檢驗"。

另外，iPlayer的技術問題也引起了關注。

一方面是一些類似播放器初期難以避免的一些小問題﹔另一方面是兼容性。

目前，只有安裝視窗XP的個人電腦才能使用iPlayer。不僅蘋果、Linux等其他操作系統不能使用，其他版本的視窗也不可以。

兼容問題招來了大量憤怒的抗議。因為和使用基於視窗操作系統播放器的其他商業公司不同的是，BBC是電視執照費支撐的公共部門，必須考慮各種用戶的利益。

不過，BBC承諾今後推出為其他操作系統設計的iPlayer。

BBC iPlayer

The BBC is launching a new easy-to-use service that lets you access television programmes via your PC. Initially, BBC iPlayer is offering "seven-day catch-up television" – meaning that BBC TV programmes can be downloaded for free up to a week after transmission.

The programmes will be free for UK licence fee payers, at high quality and with no advertising. Once you have downloaded a programme to your computer you have 30 days within which to start watching and seven days to finish watching it.

BBC iPlayer plans to incorporate radio and live streaming of TV at a later date as well as looking at offering BBC iPlayer on a range of platforms including cable and mobile.

The personal statement

As American parents living in Britain, my husband, Daniel, and I had naïvely thought we could avoid the United States college admissions frenzy. But with friends and relatives back home signing up their teenagers for enrichment programs, cultural immersion experiences and “personal statement” courses, we started to catch the same airborne disease. I worried I was becoming one of those determined adults who forget their own idyllic summers of canoeing and candle-making at camp and start thinking about sending off their children to be marketing managers in Mumbai so the Ivy admissions officers will be impressed.

--The Zeus Trip

The personal statement（英國申請大學的自由發揮”論文”） is a very important part of the application. It gives candidates a chance to write freely about themselves and their interest in the subject, as opposed to the rest of the application which consists mainly of 'objective' information. The statement can form the basis of an interview discussion. A personal statement can be up to 4,000 characters (including spaces)^[2] and 47 lines^[3]. It can be compared with the admissions essay in the United States.

這篇取自紐約時報。它報導華盛頓北邊Puget 海峡（Puget Sound）某島之一英國式庭園和養樹園、苗圃（nursery）。園丁為Mary Fisher，她在1986年受父親和姐姐之資助，訪問英倫三島之園藝三周，受到很深的影響。標題中whiff的意思 :

A minute trace: “Humanity is unregenerable and hates the language of conformity, since conformity has a whiff of the inhuman about it” (Anthony Burgess).

In the Garden

On a Northwest Island, a Whiff of England

TRANSPLANTING Mary Fisher's garden and nursery on Whidbey Island.

By ANNE RAVER

Published: July 19, 2007

CLINTON, Wash.

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Photograph by Stuart Isett for The New York Times

Mary Fisher, left, created an English-style garden on an island in Puget Sound that mixes plants like dwarf English boxwood with native species like fir.

Photograph by Stuart Isett for The New York Times

YOU have to drive through the woods on a sandy road to get to Cultus Bay Nursery. Then the road opens out into a flat, sunny pasture, where Scottish Highland cattle graze and sheep crop the grass beneath espaliered apple trees.

It looks as if England has landed around an old Victorian farmhouse. Boxwoods nestle against the front porch, and lavender borders the walkway to the house. There are tall hedges, dividing this flat land into intimate rooms, vines tumbling over arbors and doorways.

This is the home and the nursery of Mary Fisher, who grew up moving up and down the East Coast. Maybe it takes an Easterner to have the guts to build an English garden on an island in the Puget Sound. It’s so traditional, it feels radical.

It was a three-week tour of gardens in England, Scotland and Wales, in 1986, that imprinted Ms. Fisher with hedges, old roses and training more than one vine to an arbor. Her sister, Nancy McCabe, the garden designer, based in Falls Village, Conn., had arranged the trip, and even called their father to pay for the plane tickets.

“She said, ‘Dad, Mary has a good eye, but she needs to see great gardens and good nurseries,’ ” Ms. Fisher recalled. “She said, ‘You need to buy her a plane ticket and I’ll pay the hotel bills.’ ”

So off they went, to Gravetye, Great Dixter and Powis Castle. They drank Nescafé in Scotland with Mary McMurtrie, the wildflower painter and nurserywoman, who died in 2003 at 101. They sipped sherry in England with Penelope Hobhouse at Tintinhull, whose combination of clipped boxwood balls, lavender and Nicotiana langsdorffii — a tobacco plant with drooping lime-green flowers — was a revelation to the young American.

“I loved the chartreuse and purple, so I came home and got some nicotiana seeds and planted them,” Ms. Fisher said, standing by her own boxwood walk. “It grew to five feet instead of two! So I had to move it to the vegetable garden.”

As soon as she knew she was going to create a nursery here, “I realized I wanted to set it up like the ones I went to in England,” Ms. Fisher said, standing by a massive mixed border that separates the front yard from the nursery, which meanders, in a maze of garden rooms north of the house. These geometric enclosures are as ancient as the first walls that kept the wild animals out, she said, and the proportions are as deeply encoded as the golden ratio, the formula defining many patterns in nature, such as the measurements of a sunflower or a human body.

“And I’m from the East, so I wanted an old house,” she said, nodding toward the wide porch and gabled roofs. In fact, her husband, Tom, a fisherman-turned-carpenter, built this “old” house in 1984, when the family moved here from Alaska, where they had homesteaded for 10 years. “We had renovated one house up there, so he didn’t want to do another one,” she said.

They had loved the life there, but their daughter, Leah, then 5, fell in love with the violin. “And there were no Suzuki lessons in Alaska,” Ms. Fisher said. Nor were there any of the cultural amenities that they missed.

So they bought land on a cove on Cultus Bay, and raised their three children here. Mr. Fisher built the house out of Douglas fir and Western red cedar, so it breathes the spirit of the Pacific Northwest. So do these hedges.

“I wanted to use traditional hedging material, like English box and yew, but in short areas, because these are hard to find and expensive,” Ms. Fisher said. “Then I used native hemlock and fir so people could see that they could actually make gardens here without spending a lot of money.”

I was enchanted by this American version of an English garden. Perhaps that’s because Ms. Fisher, who was a textile major at the California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland, has such good eye for color and texture, like planting yellow boxleaf honeysuckles (Lonicera nitida Baggesen’s Gold), twiggy shrubs full of tiny gold leaves, among the soft green English boxwoods against the porch. Or maybe it’s because she knows that Astilbe chinensis Pumila, a ground-cover type astilbe with pink plumes, would look smashing planted beneath Hydrangea aspera Macrophylla, whose enormous violet flowers also bloom late, in August.

“It’s so awesome that they have the exact same coloration,” Ms. Fisher said, as we stood in the dappled light of her lath house, where rare hydrangeas thrive among hellebores I had never seen before, like Silver Lace, which has green flowers and silver leaves; and a western bleeding heart, Dicentra formosa Aurora, which has fern-like foliage and white locket-flowers.

Though she has no horticulture degree, Ms. Fisher studied with Daniel Hinkley in the 1980s, when the botanist-explorer was starting his famous nursery, Heronswood, which has since been sold, on the Skagit Peninsula. Many of his first plant introductions found their way into her gardens, just as her fragrant old roses, like Madame Hardy and Tuscany Superb, given to Mr. Hinkley in a bouquet, rooted themselves in his.

This nursery is like a little village of cozy old structures covered with plants. A golden hops vine scrambles over the lath house, a slatted shade house that was built by Mr. Fisher, of course, out of Western red cedar. Jasmine, intertwined with a yellow honeysuckle vine, called Graham Thomas, covers half the little porch to the potting shed; by the door, the swirling silver seed heads of Clematis macropetala, an early-blooming deep purple clematis, are interwoven with a silver-veined creeper (Parthenocissus henryana), which like its cousin, Virginia creeper, will turn scarlet in the fall.

“But if you grow it in too much sun, it will lose its silver veins,” Ms. Fisher said.

Then she handed me a jar of red jam, which she had made from the bright red fruit of Cornus mas, the Cornelian cherry, a graceful shrub that turns into a haze of yellow when its tiny flowers open in February. The fruit, which ripens by September, makes an intensely flavored, tart jam, reminiscent of beach plums or damsons.

Back at home, as I spread another spoonful on my second piece of toast, I made a mental note to plant one, and to get the recipe from Ms. Fisher.

英國風雨: 60年來最嚴重洪災

BBC中文網報導

英國遭受60年來最嚴重洪災

英國首相布朗視察了洪災最嚴重地區。目前仍有數以千計的居民被困。

在英格蘭中部和西部地區，大片地區仍然被洪水淹沒，預計今天還會有更多降雨。

布朗乘坐直升飛機視察了被洪水淹沒的格羅斯特郡，然後會晤了當地負責救災的官員。

格羅斯特郡、沃斯特郡和牛津郡的鄉村地區受災最嚴重，當地已經發出9個洪災警報。

視察結束後，布朗在每月例行記者會上表示，這次洪災與氣候變暖有關係，並證實額外撥款用於防災救災。他還表示將對進行檢討，以便應付未來的洪水問題。

他說："像其他發達國家一樣，我們也正在面對氣候變化問題。"

他指出，英國依賴的是"19世紀結構"，排水系統的問題也需要解決。

人們現在擔心，災情有可能進一步惡化。

氣象預報當局預計周一（23日）英格蘭南部地區還會有更多降雨。環境大臣希拉裡﹒本對BBC說，緊急狀況還沒有結束。

官員們說，英國的兩條最長的河流泰晤士河和塞文河有可能決堤，對居民和商業造成更大混亂。

在泰晤士河畔的大學城牛津，由於出現大面積洪水，幾十所學校關閉，有1500人已經被疏散到當地足球場。

據報道，格羅斯特郡Tewkesbury市自來水廠被水淹後關閉，目前有15萬個住宅沒有飲水。

由於得不到供水，導致當地居民搶購瓶裝水。

在格羅斯特郡和赫裡福德郡，由於發電廠遭洪水關閉，導致48000個住宅沒有電力供應。

災區的鐵路交通陷入癱瘓狀態，許多道路已經無法通行。

反對黨批評政府在救災方面措施不力。環境大臣希拉裡﹒本表示，這次空前的降雨和洪災是人們60年來所經最嚴重的一次。

英國保險業聯合會預測，這次災害的賠償金額將超過20億英鎊（41億美元，29億歐元）。

英國報摘

今天所有報紙頭版都是關於英國水災的消息。

好幾份報紙都在頭版刊登了英格蘭中部小鎮Tewkesbury著名教堂被大水圍困的相片。

《每日電訊報》 的標題警告說：（災情）可能會更加嚴重。

報道說，英國政府的城市規劃顧問警告說，首相布朗打算在英格蘭東南部興建300萬座房子的計劃，可能會引發更多的水災。

當局在星期天晚上發出了56個水災警報，英國最長的河流賽文河水位已經上漲到幾乎溢出。

政府在處理災情上的手法受到各方批評，在野保守黨更加指責政府的一些政策令情況雪上加霜。

《衛報》 報道說，嚴重水災導致大混亂，超過35萬人沒有清潔水使用。

文章說，英格蘭中部和南部很多居民被大水切斷與外界連接的道路，災後清理工作將耗時幾個月。

部分地區星期天晚上的水位繼續上升，牛津和格羅斯特的泰晤士河和賽文河可能會決堤，導致當地情況更加混亂。

皇家空軍出動飛機將更多的居民緊急疏散，這是空軍和平時期開展的最大規模救援行動之一，陸軍則向受圍困的民眾派發援助物資。

政府否認在事件上做的不夠好，當局估計，需要花10億英鎊防範未來的水災，而隨著氣候變化，以後可能會出現更嚴重的情況。

《泰晤士報》 報道說：災區出現搶劫、搶購必需品以及缺乏食品和清潔水的情況。

該報披露，由於無法獲得有關方面保證支付開銷，國防部不願意提供貨車和司機協助運送睡袋、食品等救災物資給受大水圍困的居民。

在部分受災嚴重的地區，一些房屋已經好幾天沒有食水供應，超市的瓶裝水和食物也幾乎被搶購一空。

《獨立報》 報道說，在這次發大水後，科學家證實：全球氣候變化與英國不斷增加的大雨有關。

科學研究報告指出，人為的氣候變暖導致北半球暴雨氣候日增。

報道說，其實人們早就預料到這種結果，但一直沒有證據證明。

《每日鏡報》 的頭版相片也是被大水包圍的Tewkesbury教堂，但標題則是："乾旱！"

內頁的標題是：雖然到處都是水，可是沒有一滴可以喝。

報道說，由於災情緊急，皇家愛護動物協會除了忙於拯救動物之外，連人也一起救。

《每日郵報》 頭版的標題與《每日鏡報》內頁的標題完全一樣。

《每日郵報》也突出強調災區食水和食品告急的情況。

《每日快報》 引述環境部門警告說，由於大雨，在未來四天，每秒將有9萬加侖的水湧入河流，水位還會上漲。

當局估計，這次水災造成的損失起碼達到20億英鎊，但是實際損失可能更高。

《太陽報》 在頭版報道說，著名汽車電視節目主持人Richard Hammond的汽車也被大水圍困，他需要拋棄其座駕，跑到16英里外的女兒家避難。

《金融時報》 在頭版刊登了Tewkesbury教堂被大水圍困的相片。

不過該報的頭條新聞是，政府將採取"胡蘿蔔加大棒"的政策，迫使地方政府和私營企業應付英國的房屋短缺危機。

報道說，中央政府將敦促地方政府撥出更多的土地興建房子，並且鼓勵私營企業建房屋。

2007年07月24日 格林尼治標準時間09:06北京時間 17:06發表 bbc

英國各大報章繼續頭版報道英格蘭中部地區水災﹔另一則頭版新聞是中國國家開發銀行參股英國巴克萊銀行以支持其收購荷蘭銀行。

英格蘭中部的格羅斯特郡、沃斯特郡和牛津郡的鄉村地區遭受嚴重洪災，是英國六十年來最嚴重的。

各大報章紛紛指出英國政府沒有重視防洪措施不足的警告而及時採取行動。

《衛報》報道，英國政府被認為忽視有關維修英國排洪系統的呼籲。

報道說，政府本身的顧問在三年前已發出警告說必須徹底檢修防洪及排水系統。據瞭解，英國政府的內部報告分別在2004年7月及2005年建議全面加強防洪措施。

英國環境大臣已宣佈就這次水災進行獨立檢討。

英格蘭中部水災被認為是六十年來最嚴重的

《獨立報》報道引述英國環境部說，這一次水災令人想起在1947年由連場暴雨引起的水災，但這一次災情更為嚴重。

報道說，氣象部門預測未來數天繼續有暴雨，政府官員將面對更大的公眾壓力。

《泰晤士報》頭版標題是"1萬個家庭被水淹、5萬戶斷電、15萬戶斷水"。

該報表示，他們獲悉供應水、電、煤氣的公司在七年前已提醒政府需要加強防洪系統。

格羅斯特郡Tewkesbury市自來水廠被水淹後關閉，目前有15萬個住宅沒有飲水。 發電廠遭洪水關閉，導致48000個住宅沒有電力供應。

《每日電訊報》報道，在英格蘭中部和西部的人道危機正在加劇，超過100萬人受到影響。

《國際先驅論壇報》除了報道英格蘭中部洪災導致的斷電、斷水，還指出在亞洲的水災造成更嚴重的問題。

報道說，印度今年的季風暴雨已導致750人死亡，800萬人失去家園。中國報道水災導致約400人死亡，300萬無家可歸。

巴基斯坦卡拉奇市在6月23日的暴風使200多人喪生。

美國西南部的情況未及以上地方嚴重，但也構成一些影響。

Flood crisis grows as rivers rise

Flood water threatens the town of Upton-upon-Severn Enlarge Image

The flooding crisis in central and western England continues with thousands of homes losing water and electricity supplies.

Up to 350,000 people in Gloucestershire will be left without water within the next 15 hours, as the River Severn and the Thames threaten to overflow.

The Environment Agency said water levels in that county have exceeded those of devastating floods in 1947.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would set up a review of the crisis.

Mr Brown flew by helicopter over Gloucestershire, the worst-affected county, before heading to the police headquarters where the emergency response is being co-ordinated.

He said the government would set up a review focusing on drainage and how Britain could protect itself against further flooding.

See map of severe flood warnings

Extra funding would also be given to local authorities to help pay for essential emergency work in the aftermath of the crisis, he said.

Your pictures of UK floods Floods: At-a-glance Your stories of the floods

The Environment Agency said water levels on the River Severn and Thames could reach a "critical" level in some areas.

Severe flood warnings are in place for the Midlands, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire.

A spokesman for the agency said the River Severn and the Thames would continue to swell until Tuesday and that levels on both rivers could increase beyond those of 60 years ago.

In March 1947, millions of pounds of damage was caused in the south of England, the Midlands, East Anglia and North Yorkshire when many of the country's rivers burst their banks.

Other main developments include:

• Environment Agency chief executive Baroness Young told the BBC that about £1bn a year was needed to improve flood defences.

• Environment Secretary Hilary Benn defended the government's flood response, saying there are lessons to be learned but denying flood defences had not been maintained properly.

• Meanwhile, the Association of British Insurers has said the total bill for the June and July floods could reach £2bn.
• Sir John Harman, the chairman of the Environment Agency, warned summer floods could become more frequent in the future.
• The RAF said it is carrying out its biggest ever peacetime operation, with six Sea King helicopters rescuing up to 120 people.

Severn Trent Water said 150,000 homes in Gloucestershire were without water after a treatment works was flooded.

But it warned all residents in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury - an estimated 350,000 people - they would lose their supply within the next 15 hours.

The situation is expected to last several days, it said.

People were being urged not to panic buy and to do all they could to conserve water.

No electricity

Peter Bungard from Gloucestershire County Council told BBC Five Live bottled water was being provided and a number of water bowsers being deployed to the area, he said.

Elsewhere in Gloucestershire, 15,000 homes were left without power after a major electricity substation was turned off because of the rising water.

ENGLAND FLOODED Gloucester tap water out Severe warning on Ouse Worcester residents affected More fears for Oxfordshire West Midlands travel chaos Clean-up in Lincolnshire

A spokesman for the Central Networks Castlemeads substation said areas of Gloucester, parts of Cheltenham and some homes across the county border in Herefordshire had been affected.

The county council has appealed to builders merchants to supply "dumpy bags" - giant sandbags - to help the operation.

Electricity supplier Central Networks has advised customers to ring 0800 328 1111 to report loss of supply.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire visited residents in Tewkesbury, one of the worst affected areas of Gloucestershire, and described a jovial mood among those cut off by flood waters.

One resident from a block of flats whose car park was covered in water said people were "laughing" and taking events in their stride.

HAVE YOUR SAY We must now look at proper regional controls and answers for surface water problems Ted Smith, Worcester Send us your experiences

Over the border, parts of Worcestershire were under 6ft of water and the Army has been deployed to help emergency services provide supplies to people in Upton-upon-Severn.

The Bishop of Worcester, Dr Peter Selby, said: "It is rare for a disaster of this kind to affect so much of the country at once, and my prayers are with everyone in the affected places at this difficult time."

Warwickshire and Berkshire have also been badly affected and severe warnings remain in place for Oxfordshire.

Residents at risk of flooding in Oxford have been told to leave their homes as water levels are expected to rise.

Some homes in Oxford, Abingdon, Kidlington and Bladon have already been flooded and conditions are expected to deteriorate.

'Critical' situation

Meanwhile, the government is expected to announce on Monday that it is rejecting calls to stop building houses on flood plains, despite the recent extensive flooding.

A draft of the Housing Green Paper, which was obtained by the BBC, says it is "not realistic" to rule out new developments in areas at risk of flooding.

The Environment Agency has issued nine severe flood warnings and says the situation is "critical".

There are five in the Midlands for the River Avon and River Severn between Evesham, Tewkesbury and Gloucester.

Three severe flood warnings are in place for Oxfordshire, from Eynsham to Abingdon, and one has been issued for River Great Ouse from Turvey to Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire.

BBC forecaster Chris Fawkes said the heaviest rain was due to fall in southern England in an area between the Isle of Wight and Suffolk, where an inch of rain could fall on Monday.

He also said Gloucestershire and Worcestershire could see 10 or 15 millimetres of rainfall.

Environment Agency floodline: 0845 988 1188

女性佔民間就業工作的比率

這張圖(取材WSJJapanese Companies Woo Women Back to WorkBy MIHO INADA

July 23, 2007; Page B1...

"Management knows about the tightening labor market," says Naoki Atsumi, a researcher at Fujitsu Research Institute. In terms of expanding the work force, the "priority is this order: women, the elderly and foreigners." And companies can't count too much on foreigners because of Japan's strict immigration laws.)雖然在說明
日本女性佔民間就業工作的比率(41-42%)比歐洲和美國的低得多
不過我們可以了解英美約為 46-47%
由於相差約5%
如果乘以上億人口
表示日本還有許多隱藏的就業大軍
英國更多的人選擇所謂的"組合工作"方式
這以後有機會/數字再談

the Courtauld Institute of Art

2007. 6. 22 倫敦‧英國

"倫敦有些小教堂被框在兩條馬路中間，像浮在喧囂的綠洲。當年建馬路，為教堂改道。


倫敦鬧區有鳥，歐洲大都市都有鳥，因為公園，因為高聳的路樹；倫敦綠地占市區面積四分之一，平均每人有兩坪綠地；砍了樹，鳥就走了。

早上到King’s College的 Courtauld Institute Gallery（收藏一流印象派精品）。....."
【聯合報╱林懷民2007.07.23 】


About the Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art is one of the world’s leading institutes for teaching and research in the history of art and conservation and was awarded a 5* grade in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. Uniquely it houses world famous collections of paintings, prints and drawings in its Gallery, and also manages the Hermitage Rooms.

簡·奧斯丁（Jane Austen，1775年12月16日—1817年7月18日），又譯珍·奧斯汀，英國小說家。她的作品主要關注鄉紳家庭的女性的婚姻和生活，以細緻入微的觀察和活潑風趣的文字著稱。

[編輯] 生平

生於英國漢普郡，有6個兄弟和一個姐姐，家境尚可。她的父親喬治·奧斯丁（George Austen，1731年—1805年）是一名牧師，母親名卡桑德拉（1739年—1827年）。奧斯丁兄弟中詹姆斯和亨利後來也從事神職，弗朗西斯和查爾斯則成供職英國海軍。簡與她的姐姐卡桑德拉關係密切，她們之間的信件為後世奧斯丁研究提供了很多素材。卡桑德拉為簡所作的畫像目前保存在倫敦的國家肖像館內。

奧斯丁一生未嫁。1796年，她與一位名叫湯姆·勒佛伊（Tom Lefroy）的青年有過短暫的羅曼史，據傳他就是《傲慢與偏見》中達西先生的原型。1802年，一名比奧斯丁小六歲的富有男子哈里斯·彼格威瑟（Harris Bigg-Wither）向她求婚。奧斯丁最初接受了，次日又改變主意拒絕了他。

1801年，奧斯丁的父親退休後，全家遷居到療養勝地巴斯。就像筆下的女主人公安妮·艾略特一樣，奧斯丁並不喜歡巴斯，這也許與她家庭經濟狀況日趨拮据有關。

1805年父親去世後，奧斯丁跟隨母親和姐姐到南安普敦與兄長弗蘭克住了幾年。1809年又移居查頓（Chawton）投奔兄長愛德華。那裡的小屋現在是奧斯丁紀念館，成為了著名的旅遊景點。奧斯丁後期的作品就是在那裡寫作的。

1816年，奧斯丁的健康狀況惡化，她於1817年搬到溫徹斯特療養，並於同年7月病逝。葬在溫徹斯特大教堂。

[編輯] 作品及評價

1811年，在兄長亨利的資助下，奧斯丁的出版了第一本小說——《理智與情感》。而她最著名的作品是《傲慢與偏見》。

奧斯丁所處的年代正是浪漫主義方興未艾之際，但是奧斯丁的作品不屬於浪漫主義，而更接近新古典主義的風格。比起同時代的華茲華斯和拜倫，奧斯丁的精神也許接近休謨和洛克。

剛獲出版時，奧斯丁的作品並未獲得很高聲譽，然而沃爾特·司各特爵士對她評價很高：「這位年輕的女士很擅長描寫日常生活中的情感和人物，是我所見之中最高妙的。」奧斯丁對司各特也很欣賞。在奧斯丁的最後一部小說《勸導》中，小說人物對司各特的作品讚賞有加。而早在《理智與情感》中，女主人公瑪麗安已經將司各特視為最愛的作家之一了。

推崇奧斯丁的人還包括麥考萊（Macaulay），柯爾律治（Samuel Taylor Coleridge），Robert Southey，Sydney Smith，Edward Fitzgerald，納博科夫等。據說當時還是攝政王的喬治四世所有的住所都備有一套奧斯丁小說供他隨時閱讀，迫於他的要求，奧斯丁把自己最愛的小說《愛瑪》獻給了攝政王。吉布林（Rudyard Kipling）曾經寫過一個短篇《簡迷》（The Janeites）講述奧斯丁愛好者的故事，他還寫過兩首詩讚美奧斯丁。二十世紀以來，一些學者將奧斯丁視為英語文學最偉大的作者之一，甚至有人將她與莎士比亞相提並論。

另一方面，也有人對奧斯丁持批評意見。比奧斯丁稍晚的英國女作家夏洛蒂·勃朗特批評她的視角過於狹隘。馬克·吐溫則更為尖刻地說「一個圖書館只要沒有奧斯丁的書就是好圖書館」。

[編輯] 作品列表

• 《理智與情感》又名《理性與感性》（Sense and Sensibility，1811年）
• 《傲慢與偏見》（Pride and Prejudice，1813年）
• 《曼斯菲爾德莊園》（Mansfield Park，1814年）
• 《愛瑪》（Emma，1815）
• 《諾桑覺寺》（Northanger Abbey，1818年，死後出版）
• 《勸導》（Persuasion，1818年，死後出版）

長編小説

• 分別と多感（Sense and Sensibility、1811年）
• 高慢と偏見（Pride and Prejudice、1813年）
• マンスフィールド・パーク（Mansfield Park、1814年）
• エマ（Emma、1816年）
• ノーサンガー僧院（Northanger Abbey、1817年）
• 説得（Persuasion、1818年）

Austen scam exposes publishers' pride and prejudice

Thu Jul 19, 7:59 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - A string of publishers failed to spot blatant plagiarism of one of English literature's most famous authors, in a cheeky test to see if she would have secured a book deal today, a report said Thursday.

CHEEKY adj. - 厚顏的, 無恥的

David Lassman, head of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, sent manuscripts to 18 editors seeking a publishing contract, using only slightly disguised versions of chapters from the iconic novelist's most famous works.

But only one publisher spotted the fakes, which included perhaps the most famous line in all English literature, the opening sentence of her 1813 work "Pride and Prejudice".

"I was staggered. Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work," Lassman told The Guardian newspaper.

Making only minor changes, he sent off sample chapters from three of her best known books: "Northanger Abbey"; "Persuasion", and finally "Pride and Prejudice" which he renamed "First Impressions".

For the latter, he made no changes to the opening line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

But all he got was a series of rejection slips, including from major publishing houses.

"Thank you for your recent letter and chapters from your book 'First Impressions'. It seems like a really original and interesting read," wrote Penguin. Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling's agents Christopher Little said they were "not confident" of being able to place the work.

The only editor to spot the ruse was apparently Alex Bowler of Jonathan Cape.

"Thank-you for sending us the first two chapters of 'First Impressions'; my first impression on reading these were ones of disbelief and mild annoyance, along, of course, with a moment's laughter," he wrote back.

"I suggest you reach for your copy of 'Pride and Prejudice', which I'd guess lives in close proximity to your typewriter, and make sure that your opening pages don't too closely mimic that book's opening."

The publishing houses scrambled to explain their failure to spot what are some of the well-known passages in the English literary canon.

"Our letter was a polite note declining representation and provided a standard response," said a spokesman for Christopher Little cited by The Guardian.

"Our internal notes did recognise similarities with existing published works and indeed there were even discussions about possible plagiarism."

A spokeswoman for Penguin noted that its rejection letter had said only that it "seemed" original and interesting. "It would not have been read," she insisted.

7月26日的自由時報有篇:

《中英對照讀新聞》Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers…and receives a dozen rejections 珍奧斯汀迷匿名把她的作品交給出版商…結果被拒絕10多次

◎鄭寺音

It is a truth universally acknowledged that many of us who claim to have read a classic novel are telling porkies. Or have simply watched the film version instead.

這是普天承認的事實，我們許多宣稱曾讀過經典小說的人都在說謊，或只是看過電影版本。

This even applies, it seems, to literary agents and publishers. For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen’s novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters’ names, only one recognised her words.

顯然，這甚至也適用於文學經紀人與出版商，因為當一名新進作者把珍奧斯汀小說的一些篇章打字，只更改書名與人物名字，交給18名出版商，只有一個人認出是她的作品。

The rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.

郵寄這些文稿的男子拉斯曼說，其他人只是把它們退件，或是一直沒有回音。

"It was unbelievable," he said. "If the major publishers can’t recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net？

「真是令人難以想像，」他說。如果大出版社無法認出偉大的文學作品，誰知道漏網之魚會是什麼樣的作品。」

"Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen’s work."

「這是歷來最偉大作家的其中一人，她畢生的作品早已牢牢確立在英國作家原典中，但只有一名收信人認出它們是奧斯汀的作品。」

新聞辭典

porkie︰（英國幽默，俚語）謊言。

budding︰萌芽的、新進的。例句：While still at school she was clearly a budding genius.（她還在學校時，就很明顯地是個嶄露頭角的天才。）

slip through the net︰遺漏、漏網之魚。例句：Once again terrorists have slipped through the police net.（恐怖份子又再度逃過警方的法網。）

canon︰原指聖經的正經篇目集，在此指作家經公認的真作全集，或公認為可代表某種文學領域的作品。如︰the canon of American short fiction（美國短篇小說作品集）、the entire Shakespeare canon（莎士比亞真作全集）。

up 是舉起動物打上"頭家"的標記
現在還留下這風俗:

Swan Upping

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Swan Upping is an annual ceremonial and practical activity in England in which mute swans on the River Thames are rounded up, caught, marked, and then released.

Traditionally, the Monarch of the United Kingdom owns all unmarked mute swans on the River Thames. This dates from the 12th century, during which swans were a common food source for royalty. Swan upping is a means of establishing a swan census. Under a Royal Charter of the 15th century, the Vintners' Company and the Dyers' Company, two Livery Companies of the City of London, are entitled to share in the Sovereign's ownership. They conduct the census through a process of ringing the swan's feet, but the swans are no longer eaten.

Swan upping occurs annually during the third week of July. During the ceremony, the Queen's, the Vintners', and the Dyers' Swan Uppers row up the river in skiffs. Swans caught by the Queen's Swan Uppers under the direction of the Swan Marker remain unmarked, those caught by the Dyers' are ringed on one leg, and those caught by the Vintners are ringed on both legs. Originally, rather than being ringed, the swans would be marked on the bill — a practice commemorated in the pub name The Swan with Two Necks, a corruption of the term "The Swan with Two Nicks".

王室的天鵝

倫敦泰晤士河上每年在7月第三個星期都舉行一次特別的儀式。開始時，一些小艇整齊排列，艇上的人都穿上制服，究竟他們在做什麼？
原來，按照幾百年的古老傳統，泰晤士河上的天鵝都屬於王室所有，一年一度的儀式就是為了統計天鵝的數目，以及瞭解它們的狀況。

在這個儀式之中，河上的天鵝都由專人撲住，方便量度工作。

參與“行動”的都是經王室特許的一些組織，因為這個緣故，它們的小艇上除了掛上自己的旗幟外也掛有女王伊莉莎白二世的旗幟。

這是最高負責人的帽子。除了王冠之外，更插上了天鵝的白羽毛。
負責人的制服是奪目的紅色的，就如不少其他王室雇員的制服一樣，而且也有王室徽號。一年一度的大行動的其中一個目的是瞭解天鵝的生長情況。這是量度小天鵝長大了多少。
工作人員也量度天鵝的體重。
量度工作完畢，工作人員會在天鵝的腿上以小金屬環登記資料，以作標記。
天鵝力氣很大，因此，有時候需要出動好幾個人來制服一隻天鵝。
有時候更需要出動幾艘小艇，一起把天鵝圍困，方便量度工作。
在所有登記工作完成後，工作人員會把天鵝放回河上。

	伦敦泰晤士河上每年在7月第三个星期都举行一次特别的仪式。开始时，一些小艇整齐排列，艇上的人都穿上制服，究竟他们在做什么？

	工作人员也量度天鹅的体重。

德記洋行（Old Tait & Co. Merchant House in Tainan, Taiwan)

德記洋行（Old Tait & Co. Merchant House.？ 目前找不到任何其他資料） 徳記洋行創立於1858年，為台灣五大洋行之一，屬於英屬東印度公司，當時洋行在台灣設立據點的目的，主要是從事海外貿易，以輸出台灣的砂糖、樟腦，並輸入鴉片為主，德記洋行主要是經營茶葉出口貿易，不過隨著安平港不斷淤淺，加上日本統治時期貿易全被日商壟斷，這些外商也紛紛倒閉遷移。

或許只剩下建築遺風（尚不清楚、確定）：

特色：
整 棟建築坐北朝南，樓高二層，主樓梯設於正向中央，一樓原為行員宿舍，走道居中，左右各有三間房間，東西南三面均繞以拱廊，二樓空間與一樓房間相似，但走廊 圍以綠釉瓶飾欄杆，加上白色粉牆，在風貌上與安平傳統之民宅完全不同。屋頂為桁架系統，上鋪瓦片，分成左右二個屋頂，均為四坡排水。一般而言，西方人在台 灣所建之房舍中，大抵會採拱廊模式，以避雨水及日曬，因而拱圈成為建築上之重要元素，德記洋行就是一個很好的範例。

現存外牆以白灰粉飾，左右空地種植草皮花樹，整體觀之，環境雅緻清爽，幽靜親切。

英國酗酒問題

英國酗酒問題是英國歷史上由來已久的難題。現在看一下21世紀資料（取材BBC）


2000年11月估計（英國每20人中就有1個酒鬼）：
英國一個慈善組織所做的調查發現，英國有5%的成年人酗酒，也就是說每20個成年人中就有一個是酒鬼。

慈善組織“酒精關注”表示，英國酗酒的人數比吸毒和濫用藥物者多一倍。 在英國每45個人當中，就有一個倚賴藥物或吸毒。

“酒精關注”星期三將會在倫敦一個研討會上公布以上的數字。
預料在研討會上關注酗酒的組織和社會工作者將會批評政府到現在還沒有定出策略遏止不斷增加的酗酒個案。

根據“酒精關注”的調查數字，酗酒與每年65%的企圖自殺案件、76,000起面部受傷事件和23%的兒童被忽略的個案有關。

在1986年到1997年的11年間，英格蘭和威爾士醫院有紀錄的數字顯示，與酗酒有關的死亡數字增加了66%。


關注組織表示，估計每年有33,000人的死亡與酗酒有關。 而英國業界每年因為員工喝酒生病不能夠上班、失業和早逝的損失達到28億英鎊。

雖然不斷有宣傳教育民眾，喝酒的年輕人和女性比起十年前仍然增加了許多。“酒精關注”負責人說，政府現在應該認真對付不節制喝酒的問題，而不單是只說話沒有行動。
*****

--2007/7/19
《泰晤士報》報道，英國內政部公布的首份研究發現，去年一共有100萬人被喝醉了的酒鬼襲擊。

《每日電訊報》指出，政府曾經聲稱，允許人們24小時喝酒將可以減少醉酒鬧事的情況，但是上述報告卻打破了這個理論。

調查發現，與醉酒有關的罪案率在午夜後幾個小時劇增。自從去年施行24小時賣酒牌照後，清晨3點到6點之間的襲擊、刑事毀壞、滋擾等罪案劇增。

在過去，英國酒吧一般在晚上11點後不再賣酒，但是有不少酒吧在午夜後繼續賣酒。

RECORD NUMBERS WORK PAST PENSION AGE

首先要了解英國：
人口約6千萬（Population:60,441,457 (July 2005 est.) ）
Labor force:29.78 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 1.5%, industry 19.1%, services 79.5% (2004)
法定退休年齡：66歲（待確定）



RECORD NUMBERS WORK PAST PENSION AGE By Andrew Taylor, Employment Correspondent Friday, July 20, 2007 (FT)


取自Financial Times
7月18日（2007）公佈的官方數位顯示，在英國，超過法定領取養老金年齡但仍在工作的人口比例，已達到創紀錄水平。

英國國家統計局(Office of National Statistics)的資料顯示，在截至今年5月底的12個月中，英國就業人數增加了18萬，達到2907萬，在新增就業人口中，65歲以上男性和60歲以上女性的比例僅略低於50%。

自上世紀90年代中期以來，超過領取養老金年齡的就業人口比例已上升逾3個百分點，達到11%，因為人們愈加擔心，壽命在不斷延長，而私營行業養老金供應情況卻在不斷惡化。
自1992年以來，超過領取養老金年齡的在職人口數量，已增加40萬人，達到120萬，其中三分之二為女性。

年齡與就業網路(The Age and Employment Network)首席執行官克裏斯•鮑爾(Chris Ball)表示：“我們的感覺是，往往出於經濟需要，許多人都在接受低於他們資歷和能力的工作。這是對重要資源的浪費，而且是在公然貶低長者。”

“許 多人在超過法定退休年齡後仍繼續工作，因為來自養老金界定供款計畫(defined contribution scheme)的收入有所下降。另外，由於界定利益計畫(defined benefit scheme)遇到困難，在臨退休前提出自願提前退休以獲得‘豐厚遣散費'(golden handshake)的雇員減少了。”
【這golden handshake 是1960年首先出現的(n. Slang.)：A lucrative severance agreement offered to an employee typically as an inducement to retire.】
然而，經濟學家表示，老齡和移民工人人數的增加，幫助填補了職位空缺，並抑制了緊張勞動力市場上薪金的上漲。

在截至5月底的3個月中，扣除獎金的平均年收入增幅（被視為衡量薪資上漲的最佳指標）下降了0.1個百分點，至3.5%。引人注目的收入增幅下降更快，達到0.6個百分點，也為3.5%。
“……匯豐(HSBC)英國經濟學家卡倫•沃德(Karen Ward)表示，可用勞動力的增長“正是（英國央行(Bank of England)）行長所要求的”。她將當前的趨勢描述為“金髮勞動力市場”(Goldilocks labour market)——一切都“剛剛好”，年長者和移民數量的增加滿足了對工人需求的增長。……”

【She described current trends as a “Goldilocks labour market” where everything was “just right” with rising demand for workers being met by increasing numbers of older people and migrants. 這GOLDILOCKS 翻譯有問題(起碼要採用"金髮熊寶寶"說法，參考：
The Goldilocks phenomenon, something being just right, not too big or hot or small or cold, a concept used in astronomy and economics.】The "Goldilocks phenomenon" refers to the necessity that planetary conditions such as size or temperature be "just right" in order to sustain life. The term derives from the story of Goldilocks, who preferred porridge which was "not too hot, and not too cold".



年齡問題雇主論壇(The Employers Forum on Age)首席執行官薩姆•默瑟(Sam Mercer)表示，雇主願意雇用年長的員工，特別是在去年10月引入新的年齡歧視法之後更是如此，這反映了人們態度的可喜轉變。

她表示：“年齡問題雇主論壇的成員發現，許多人即使過了可以領取養老金的年紀，但如果可以選擇，他們確實會選擇繼續工作……隨著壽命的延長，人們意識到他們負擔不起30年的退休生活。”
譯者/梁鷗

本文章英文 RECORD NUMBERS WORK PAST PENSION AGE
By Andrew Taylor, Employment Correspondent Friday, July 20, 2007

The proportion of people working past the state pension age in UK is running at record levels, according to official figures published on the 18th July.
Men above 65 and women above 60 accounted for just under half of the 180,000 rise in employment to 29.07m during the 12 months to the end of May according to the Office for National Statistics in UK.

The proportion of people above pension age with jobs has risen by more than 3 percentage points to 11 per cent since the mid 1990s, as concerns over rising longevity and worsening private sector pension provision have mounted.
Since 1992, the number of people above pensionable age in work has risen by 400,000 to 1.2m – two thirds of them women.

Chris Ball, chief executive of The Age and Employment Network, said: “Our impression is that many people are accepting jobs below their qualifications and capacities, often out of economic necessity. This remains a waste of important resources and is frankly demeaning to older people.

“Many stay in work beyond state retirement age because of the decline in incomes from defined contributions pension schemes. Also, with defined benefits schemes hitting difficulty, fewer employers are offering voluntary early retirement as a ‘golden handshake' leading up to retirement.”

Increased availability of older people and migrant workers, however, has helped fill vacancies and restrain inflationary pay rises in a tight labour market, say economists.

Average annual earnings growth excluding bonuses – regarded as the best measure of pay inflation – dipped by 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.5 per cent during the three months to the end of May. The headline earnings figure fell even faster by 0.6 of a percentage point, also to 3.5 per cent.

Karen Ward, UK economist at HSBC, said the rise in labour availability was “just what the Governor [of the Bank of England] ordered”. She described current trends as a “Goldilocks labour market” where everything was “just right” with rising demand for workers being met by increasing numbers of older people and migrants.

Sam Mercer, chief executive of The Employers Forum on Age, said willingness by employers to take on older workers, particularly following the introduction of new age discrimination laws last October, reflected a welcome change in attitudes.
She said: “EFA members have found that many people who are given the choice do choose to remain in work even after they are eligible for their pension . . . as people live longer there is a realisation that they can't afford a 30-year retirement.”

牛津大學最小學院 ?

Rack and ruin

Meaning

Complete destruction.

Origin

It might be thought that the rack in this phrase refers to the mediaeval torture device, as in the phrase rack one's brains. This rack is however a variant of the now defunct word wrack, more usually known to us now as wreck. The rather tautological use of the two similar words 'rack' and 'ruin' is for the sake of emphasis. In that respect the phrase follows the pattern of beck and call, chop and change, fair and square etc.

The term 'going to wreck' was the forerunner of 'rack and ruin' and was used as early as 1548, in a sermon by Ephraim Udall:

"The flocke goeth to wrecke and vtterly perisheth."

Henry Bull moved the phrase on to 'wrack and ruin' in his translation of Luther's Commentarie upon the fiftene psalmes, 1577:

"Whiles all things seeme to fall to wracke and ruine."

rack and ruinWe finally get to the contemporary 'rack and ruin' in 1599, when the Oxford historian Thomas Fowler published The history of Corpus Christi College:

"In the mean season the College shall goe to rack and ruin."

Judging from the accompanying picture the college seems to have survived the following 400 years quite well, and Fowler need not have worried.


這篇文章取自
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BBC“名譽掃地”BBC gets a year to clean up

BBC“名譽掃地”

英國有近半數報章今天都以英國廣播公司BBC“造假”聲譽受損的消息放在頭版的位置。

《每日電訊報》頭版的三張照片是BBC三個“造假”節目的中心人物，標題是“BBC因為欺騙行為蒙羞”。

報道說，在BBC承認一系列接聽聽眾電話的兒童以及慈善節目蓄意欺騙觀眾後，BBC面對重大的公眾信任危機。BBC總裁湯普森已經下令，暫停播放所有電視和電台的電話問答競賽節目。

《金融時報》報道說，BBC要求公司16,500名參與廣播節目的雇員上職業操守的課程。

《每日郵報》的標題是“BBC的羞恥”。報道說，BBC承認“經常欺騙”公眾，這使BBC“信譽掃地”。事件將可能導致警方介入作欺詐調查以及前所未有的罰款。


《泰晤士報》報道說，“救助兒童”(Children In Need)以及“喜劇救助”(Comic Relief)的製作人將被停職。這兩個慈善節目的電話問答遊戲競賽的得獎者都是找人冒充的。

《每日鏡報》與《太陽報》的標題都用上了“作弊”(cheat)這個詞，來突顯出問題的中心所在。



BBC gets a year to clean up


Matt Wells
Thursday July 19, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, today gave the corporation a year to clean up its act after a week of revelations about faked TV scenes and rigged phone competitions.

Amid a welter of damaging newspaper headlines, Sir Michael backed the director general, Mark Thompson, for now but said the trust would "suspend judgment" until there were clear signs of improvement in editorial standards.

The Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, is to meet the BBC Trust soon to "urgently discuss" the next regulatory move following the corporation's decision to suspend all phone-ins and interactive competitions.

Mr Richards said he planned to "work with the BBC Trust" to discuss "appropriate solutions" to the problems of viewer trust in British television.

Sir Michael, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, denied the BBC Trust had been slower to react than Ofcom. He said there was no question of the trust being "asleep on the job".

Asked by presenter John Humphrys whether the trust had the power to sack people, he said: "We certainly have the power to appoint the chairman of the executive of the board, who is the director general. Other appointments are the responsibility of the director general and the executive board."

Pressed about whether heads would roll, he added: "Decisions about disciplinary action are for Mark Thompson. We will be watching very carefully to make sure appropriate sanctions are applied once the full facts are known."

Today's papers make grim reading for the BBC. The Sun calls the BBC "cheats" in its front-page headline, and the Daily Mail talks of the "shaming of the BBC".

Amid the welter of criticism, Sir Michael backed Mr Thompson. "Our judgment at the moment is that he has responded to these very serious issues with energy. He's the right person to lead change at the BBC."

Sir Michael - speaking from New Zealand - said he did not want to "create a sense of panic", but underlined the seriousness of the situation.

"Any question of deceit has to be ruled out as unacceptable. Our focus is on putting things right and we're backing the director general to do that. But we suspend judgment until we see improvements."

He wanted clear signs of improvement in a year. Expectations of the BBC are "much higher" than other broadcasters, he conceded.

Ofcom yesterday published a report into premium-rate telephone services that found "systemic failures" in how all broadcasters managed programmes.

Richard Ayre, the former BBC new deputy who compiled the report, said some broadcasters were "in denial" about the scale of the problem.

George Melly

George Melly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

他沒現身在 Oxford Companion to Popular Music
帶著豬腳啤酒去也....


George Melly

Jul 12th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Alan George Heywood Melly, jazzman and writer, died on July 5th, aged 80

Camera Press

AMONG his many unguilty pleasures—Marlboro Lights, Irish whiskey, bacon and eggs, blue jokes, smoke-filled dives where the music wandered on till four in the morning, voracious sex with good-looking men and women—George Melly especially liked to fish. The man famous for red, green and cream striped suits, red fedoras and a huge, rude, laughing mouth could often be found quite still, thigh-deep in the Usk or the Teifi, preparing to cast as soon as a bold trout tickled the surface of the water. And the singer whose party piece, when touring with John Chilton and the Feetwarmers, was to scamper round the stage and groom the clarinettist's head during his rendition of “Organ Grinder Blues”, would admit that his thoughts on the river bank were of poppies, midges, Magritte and clouds.

And sex. This had been his driving force since his first schoolboy fumbles at Stowe, first rampantly homosexual, then generously heterosexual, among anchor chains and on Hampstead Heath, in the backs of vans and in glorious pulsating piles on the floors of stately homes. And there was, he confessed (being the most shockingly confessional of writers), sheer orgiastic pleasure in the tug of a bloody great fish, the line screaming off the reel, the catch leaping from the water in a shower of diamonds, the net sliding under it and the fish laid, beautifully marked, on the grass. Phew! Time for a ciggie.

But Mr Melly liked fishing for another reason. As a lifelong Surrealist, he was sure that the bizarre and marvellous lay in wait for him everywhere, and carried in his head a Surrealist motto, “the certainty of chance”. Chance might give him a fish with the next cast; and chance shaped his drifting, exuberant, deep-drinking life, from Stowe to the wartime navy to art-dealing to journalism on the Observer, through a rich cast of queens, hoodlums, sailors, old trouts, whores and martinets, until in 1974 the career of a risqué jazz singer finally hooked him for good.

He sang for 30 years, stoutly and louchely fronting the Feetwarmers at Ronnie Scott's and round the country, until he had to growl his Hoagy Carmichael numbers from a wheelchair. Mr Melly was possibly the most popular jazzman in Britain, and certainly the most outrageous.

Like all the addictions of his life, jazz burst on him at school. A friend's study; a gramophone; an old 78, and the voice of Bessie Smith, straight out of Harlem.
Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer
Send me again. I don't care.

Mr Melly sang Bessie, “Empress of the Blues”, more than anyone else. He would entreat her to possess him before a performance. But the Bessie that emerged from that quivering, beer-wet throat was partly a white, English, middle-class creature, drawn from music-hall turns and end-of-the-pier shows, dressed in bowlers and blazers, and with the plunk-plunk of a banjo never far away. Trad jazz, in the person of Mr Melly, Humphrey Lyttleton and a few others, limped through the 1960s and 1970s until out of sheer graft, longevity and good humour it came back into favour. He helped it survive.
Starfish in mousetrap

Classlessness and anarchism drew him to jazz also. Though his background was wealthy Liverpudlian, his inter-war fling with left-wing politics stayed with him for life. So, too, did other flirtations. On shore leave from the navy in “amusing” bell-bottoms in his roaring homosexual years, he admired a pimp encountered in Leeds in a mauve silk shirt and kipper tie, and the way Quentin Crisp's painted toenails accessorised his golden sandals. The gay fetishes faded, though as “an old tart” he could always have his head turned by pretty boys; but sharp tailoring in eye-watering colours became his stock in trade.

This aesthetic streak pointed to yet another side of his sprawling personality. He knew about art, and had an eye for it, ever since his inclusion as a wide-eyed petit marin in the Surrealist circle round E.L.T. Mesens in Soho in the 1950s. On impulse he made surreal objects himself (a dead starfish caught in a mousetrap, a nude with Carnation Milk tins as her breasts), but he also learned to buy cleverly in a difficult market. One train trip back to Liverpool from London was spent in silent adoration of two new acquisitions by Max Ernst, propped on the opposite seat.

As old age advanced, Surrealism became an increasing comfort to him. It gave an aesthetic purpose to his multicoloured lines of pills, and to the hours spent in limbo in the scanner. Deafness reminded him of Surrealist word-games in which question and answer were unrelated, or only incidentally and wonderfully so:
What is reason?
A cloud eaten by the moon.

Fishing, too, was still a comfort. He imagined his cancer—for which he refused all treatment so that he could go on performing—as a tiny fish dangling at the end of his lung, wrinkling its whiskers, ready perhaps to be caught. And he often said that his favourite end, other than collapsing in the wings of a theatre with wild applause still ringing in his ears, would be to be discovered smiling on a riverbank with a big beautifully marked trout beside him, death and sex together.

公共服務革新

《衛報》報道說，英國政府將公布公共服務的全面改革措施，包括減少影響學校、醫院與地方會堂的繁文縟節。在過去九年主導公營部門的110項重要工作中大部分也將會被廢除。
( 該報 專輯The future for public services


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Public sector targets to be scrapped


New approach gives more power to local councils and NHS trusts

John Carvel, social affairs editor
Wednesday July 18, 2007
The Guardian

Andy Burnham: 'This is the opening of a new chapter'

A bonfire of government targets to ease red tape affecting schools, hospitals and town halls will be ordered tomorrow as part of a sweeping reform of public services, the Guardian can reveal. Most of the 110 Whitehall-imposed priorities that have dominated the public sector for the past nine years will be abandoned .

Andy Burnham, the chief secretary to the Treasury, is coordinating a move to end one of the defining characteristics of the Blair years by scrapping all but 30 top-down targets used to vet performance.

The targets - from raising the GCSE pass rate to reducing the fear of crime - helped to drive through the big pledges in Labour's election manifestos. But they rankled with doctors, teachers and other public servants who felt their professional discretion had been curtailed.

In an interview with the Guardian today, Mr Burnham set out a new approach, making local service chiefs responsible for setting performance objectives and answering to local communities if they are not ambitious enough. He said: "This is the opening of a new chapter ... If we get this right, the style of government will feel different. We want to give out a message of more trust in public bodies."

Under the system, there will be no more than 30 public service agreements, committing Whitehall departments to use their budgets over the three years to 2010/11 to achieve the government's goals.

The agreements will be monitored using indicators of national and local performance. A few - such as progress towards meeting the pledge to cut maximum hospital waiting times to 18 weeks by the end of 2008 - will remain as nationally set priorities with clear measurable objectives. But most will depend on local decisions by councils, NHS primary care trusts and other service chiefs to set targets reflecting local needs and priorities.

Mr Burnham said: "We will avoid wherever possible the more crude approach of setting a one-size-fits-all target that is dropped down from on high ... The direction of travel is for public services to look and feel differently in different parts of the country. We want them to face downwards and outwards, having a dialogue with their local communities rather than with the centre."

The government will argue that the decision to stop micro-managing public services is an evolution of administrative style, not a U-turn. Mr Burnham said the targets were appropriate for the first 10 years when public services were being restored after decades of under-investment. But it was time to move on.

The era of top-down targets began in 1998 when Gordon Brown, as chancellor, started to expand public spending. The Treasury made about 600 public service agreements with Whitehall departments to ensure that the extra resources produced the necessary reforms and improvements in service.

The targets ranged from increasing the availability of childcare to reducing teenage pregnancies, improving the punctuality of rail services and improving the lives of vulnerable older people. Although the number of targets was reduced to 110 in 2004, they continued to cause concern in the public service professions.

Mr Burnham said the smaller number of targets due to be agreed at the cabinet's public services and public expenditure committee tomorrow would be "a radical break with the past". They would be written in plain English and the government would explore ways of making available real-time data so people could regularly monitor what progress was being made.

He added: "You won't have to know any jargon. It should be immediately apparent what the system is trying to do. It will set out a narrative that shows we have responded and evolved. We are not saying: 'That was Tony Blair's system and we are dumping all that.' Over the past two years, we have had a considered look at this, department by department."

Pass, friend: how a peer is able to smoothe the way for lobbyists

《泰晤士報》的頭版報道了英國議會上議院議員向游說組織與壓力團體發出議會的通行證，以換取數千英鎊的報酬。
報道說，這些上議院議員批出這些通行證，原本是給予資料收集員與防衛、運輸與法律界代表的秘書。這些人獲得通行證後將可以進出議會，使用圖書館、酒吧與餐廳。
報道說，這些通行證肯定有商業價值。那些就議案進行游說的人士，可以通過在酒吧、餐廳等地方流連與政府部長以及議員交往。


July 17, 2007
Pass, friend: how a peer is able to smoothe the way for lobbyists

Sam Coates, Political Correspondent

For most businesses, lobbyists and pressure groups, a visit to the Houses of Parliament means long queues and highly restricted access. Even a trip to the lavatory requires a chaperone.

(chaperon(e) 指跟隨的參觀職員A guide or companion whose purpose is to ensure propriety or restrict activity: “to see and feel the rough edges of the society . . . without the filter of official chaperones” (Philip Taubman).)

But for a small band of lobbyists and industry organisations lucky enough to have become acquainted with a member of the House of Lords, life is much easier. After a one-off background check, passholders can enter Parliament through one of several private entrances, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, can show guests and clients around and use the canteen and the gym.

(one-off (wŭn'ôf', -ŏf') Chiefly British.
adj. Happening, done, or made only once.)

Unlike MPs, peers are not bound by rules determining to whom they can give passes, and there is no register of their outside interests.

One lobbyist, who does not have a pass, said: “Having access to Parliament would make life so much easier. You could spend more time there, phone up people on behalf of the peer and show off to clients. It would be very useful.”
Related Links

* Profile: The Peers in the frame

* Labour peers named in Parliament access row

In particular, he said, it gives them access to Parliament’s taxpayer-funded resources, including its library, where academics and experts will carry out detailed reports if they think the request is on behalf of an MP or Lord. Parliamentary papers are available free of charge.

Lord McNally, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords, believes that the situation cannot continue. He said: “My own view is that the issuing of passes has to be tightened up considerably. There are far too many out there. This is not necessarily a sinister thing, but it needs reviewing. It’s become out of control.”

He is a member of the House of Lords privileges committee, which has taken the first steps to tighten up the system after MPs suggested that peers were allowing abuses of the pass system to take place. While MPs have had to declare the outside interests of their staff since 1985, peers escaped the requirement. They argued that less onerous transparency rules should apply because, unlike MPs, they do not get a salary.

But last month the privileges committee, chaired by Lord Brabazon of Tara, decided that a register of Lords’ researchers and secretaries should come into force early next year, listing outside interests. Rules governing who can receive a pass are also likely to be introduced, Lord McNally says. The delay in its introduction would have given Lords the chance to “clean up” the list, removing passes from those who may prove embarrassing. However, the requirement to fulfil a freedom of information request by The Times means that the “pre-vetted” list had to be released.

According to the report, released last month, MPs complained that “research assistants are using access to the Palace [of Westminster] to further other occupations that they hold or to promote interests not genuinely associated with research for Members”.

They suggest that it is an “abuse” if the holders of research passes primarily work in lobbying and public relations.

The sub-committee on Lords’ Interests does not detail the individual allegations or say who made them, concluding: “It is, at present, impossible to prove or disprove these allegations.”

Lord Brabazon intends to put the issue of a register before the House of Lords on the last day before it rises.

A voluntary code of practice for political consultancies bans lobbyists from holding parliamentary passes. The Association of Professional Political Consultants says: “Political consultants must not hold, or permit any staff member to hold, any pass conferring entitlement to access the Palace of Westminster . . . or any department or agency of government.”

The charity sector has long been able to obtain passes from MPs and peers. A source in the charity sector said: “Basically you have to befriend MPs, who have a quota – that’s why it’s difficult to get them. The Lords often have some left, so that’s where people tend to head. I’ve been told to recommend that you hang around in Bellamy’s Bar [within parliamentary offices at 1 Parliament Street].”

*