10 am Monday October 1st 2012 I have just been watching the amazing highlights of the Ryder Cup in Chicago and the greatest team come back of all time. Fortunately switched back on last night for the closing holes and will report further in today’s piece.
As has been the situation over the past days I have gone to bed at midnight or later but stayed in bed getting the sleep I need so that on Sunday I decided to set the alarm to be up in time for the Andrew Marr show. At 8.55 I wrote “After staying up writing and playing chess until 1 am and managed right hours of sleep once more and came down in time for Andrew Marr.”
09.10 The main newsprint issues of the day at the start of the Andrew Marr show is the Labour Party conference and the position of its Leader Ed Miliband. An interview with Ed forms the main part of the programme. My conclusion at the end of the interview is that Ed is now seeking to create clear water between himself and the Tories, with the Lib Dems being treated as poodles rather than moderating what the Tories would have done. All three parties will fight their fight in public while working out what they will want or not want if another Coalition situation is the only way to create an ongoing government.
Ed and the Shadow Chancellor are announcing plans to separate the High Street and Casino Banking regardless of the impact on banking decision to use London which I anticipate will be popular. The next Labour Government will also unscramble the unpopular Health Changes keeping anything that works.
Not did he shirk on the issue of helping the private sector to create higher wages, or keep to the protection of public sector jobs than increasing wages however unpopular this made him with some public sector Trade Unions, after he had been attacked and warned this morning by one of the biggest. At the same time he vigorously defended the right of ordinary trade unionists to provide financial support through the levy arguing that the income came 40% this way 40% individual members and 20% from other sources compared to the Tories and their reliance on the City. He was for redistribution with putting back the 50% income tax although this was implicit and pointing out the failure of the government’s policy which was leading to highest welfare with the greater unemployment levels and stagnant economy. He definitely stole a march on the Lib Dems and should consolidate his position re the Tories but whether he will establish the clear water remains to be judged.
Another guest was the actor Philip Glennister who recently played in two four part plays about the adventures of group men in Spain Majorca and then Ibiza.
Now he is appearing in a political play about the Whips office in the 1970’s government of James Callaghan which is attracting political attention. Must keep an eye out when it goes on tour.
14.00 There was a great game of Rugby League yesterday night as Warrington beat St Helens to reach the Challenge Grand Challenge Final which takes place in Manchester on Sunday. St Helens has reached the grand final on a regular basis as have four of the other top teams. Warrington with their wins in three mid season Cup games at Wembley and ending the season at the top of the League has failed to reach Grand Challenge game.
For the first 15 minutes St Helens took command as they had two weeks ago sweeping aside the opposition. They scored first but did not convert which Warrington was able to do so went ahead 6 to 4 but then St Helens scored twice once converted to take a 14 to 6 lead as half time approach. Warrington then scored and converted so at half time it was 14 to 12 but whatever was said at half time Warrington came out determined that this time they would not fail at the last hurdle when last year a last seconds field goal put them out of the final which Leeds went on to win.
In this instance Warrington scored try after try with one disputed by the commentators who felt it should have been a penalty to St Helens to take a twenty point lead. St Helens did score again to reach 18 points but so did Warrington to take their tally to 36. This time the jubilation was with Warrington fans and despairs bordering on tears with the home crowd.
19.00 Enjoyed a good chicken dinner with vegetables with soup beforehand and then a carton of Grapes. For high tea two poached eggs on toast and then the apple crumble pie that had been stored for some time. The intention was half but eat the whole.
I have listened to Le Carré The Looking Glass War, having previously seen the excellent film with Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Richardson. The radio play as the film which I have on DVD lacks the emotional punch of the Spy who came Back from the Cold. It is also the story of how the individual may be sacrificed for the national advantage and sometimes for the national good, although at other times just to save face.
It is also the story of those who having experienced the tensions and the challenges of wartrime or some other difficult, at times threatening experience, then find it difficult to impossible to cope with the everyday of normal times. In this instances it is those left from military intelligence during World War II who participated in dangerous and vital operations, risk their won lives or the lives of others asnd who are now restricted to making assessments and reporting information for others, the Circus, professional spying in Cold War peace time for the State.
When a former contact located in East Germany provides a photos of what appears to be Soviet rockets being moved into East Germany of a type similar to those which were attempted to be located in Cuba, instead of passing the information to the Circus the aging Director of the Department’s agency sees the opportunity to return to the old days of glory and arranges for the pilot of charter plane on its way to Scandinavia to fly over East Germany by mistake and take aerial photos of the alleged site area. Unfortunately his contact unable to get a taxi back to his hotel is knocked down and killed.
The decision is taken to send an office man to take responsibility for the body and personal effects in the hope of retrieving the film. The chosen individual is a young man who is already having difficulties with his wife because of his inability to share all the details of his work with her. She feels isolated at home caring for a young child and resentful oft his freedom which he husband appears to have, especially as he appears to enjoy and be satisfied by his work and role in life. It is not an uncommon situation and when he announces he is going off on a trip this only reinforces her feeling of being left out.
The trip is not success and no film is found although this only fuels the paranoia of the head of the department that their man was not killed in an accident and that the film was taken by the enemy. He therefore convinces the Minister that they should send in someone to check out the allegations but because this should be the responsibility of the Circus all that the Circus is official told is that the project is a training one just as the visit to Scandinavia had been, keeping their hand in so to speak in the event of being required to provide an operational service again. I am guessing that in reality the military retained their full operation role after the World War and if anything it remained as professional and more reliable than what happened to the British Circus, so named because of its location although apt given what was subsequently revealed.
The decision is taken to use someone who was sussful in the War but is long since retired with a liking for gin basd cocktails and women and for a training house to be established with the departmental the link which means he has to live in an and away from home, another divide which becomes unbridgeable.
Thus far there is close similarity between radio play and film although the operative is involved in a sexual adventure when he is contacted and if I rememebr correctly the location of the training house is on the coast and not Oxford as in the book,
The Circus with its Control are consulted and their passive help arranged with George Smiley the link pretending to know less than they do although they do not then know precisely what the Department is up to. When there is a request for the ltest radio communicatiosn device in the hope that direction finders can be avoided, Smiley explains that the technical boys will not pass out equipment over which they cannot maintain full control, but they let them have a war time radio one where the crystal has to be changed at regular intervals to enable some difficulties for the direction finders.
The operation is doomed of course and soon after crossing into East Germany the operative encounters a young border guard and instead of knocking him out kills him thus alerting the entire nation to be on the look out for the intruder. Worse is to come become because Smiley’s lot have analysed the photos and found them to be false. In the film the Operative goes to meet the contact who is also like the rest of Departmental team wanting to relive past times and be regarded as important and also well paid
The enemy becomes quickly aware of the travels of the agent via his use of the radio, forgetting to change the crystals and in order to mislead they arange for troops to enter the area so as to give the oeprative something to report and help them to identify his precise location. In the film he is given a lift and kills the driver adding to the deaths of the innocent of what is a wild goose chase. In both the novel and the film the agent meets up with a girl at bar in the town where the rocket (rockets) were reported as being seen.
While the net closes in the decision is taken back home to cut their loses so that when the operatuve is caught and put on a show trial it will be claimed this is a stunt and that a war time radio was found in possession illustrates the absurdity of the claims. This horrifies and angers the young man in the department having established a close relationship with the operative he cannot understand the betrayal, the abandonment, in the context of having managed a couple of days home between the training and preparing for the departure, his wife has announced she will not be there when he returns.
In the book the fate of the operative is uncertain as he hides out with the girl to make what is his final radio call adn in film there is a post script where some children playing in what is now a summer field by the roadside come across the roll of film which is opened and cast to the winds. There is also the implication in the film there was reality, albeit unknown to the contact, at the deployment of missiles.
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