Brussels Notebook

01 April 2009

It’s dawning on me that the Prime Minister can’t listen to criticism.

The Garrick Club has just celebrated the completion of a decade-long refurbishment, paid for with part of A.A. Milne’s legacy. Members spent a day gawping at the unparalleled collection of theatrical paintings, listening to classical musicians and sitting through lectures. Donald Sinden told anecdotes, Timothy West recited an ode composed specially for the occasion and Geoffrey Palmer read a series of passages about actors’ lives. As I listened, I thought about the way the status of the profession had changed. When Garrick began his career, actors were still legally classed as vagabonds, and could perform only through the dispensation of royal patents. Today, we fawn on them and make them UN ambassadors. Garrick’s great contemporary Dr Johnson regarded players as uniquely immoral: to deceive for a living was, he thought, worse than prostitution. I wonder what the great man would say if he were transported to our present age, to discover that actors are not merely deferred to but treated as experts on political questions.

For as long as I can remember, the Independent has been running stories about bullfighting being in decline — despite the stubborn evidence of rising ticket sales. Sometimes the paper cites opinion poll evidence, sometimes it quotes anti-taurine groups, sometimes it exults in growing abolitionism in Catalonia. This week, the Indie seized on the story that a small town near Madrid could no longer afford to stage its annual taurine spectacle. Deliciously, and presumably unwittingly, the piece was illustrated by a photograph of a pase de pecho from José Tomás, whose comeback in 2007 is one of the reasons that the plazas are heaving. The 37-year-old matador combines a spare, taut, austere style with almost suicidal courage, always remaining erect and motionless. In consequence, he is often gored. I am almost tempted to write, as the critics initially did of the great Juan Belmonte, ‘go and see him while you still can’. But Belmonte confounded the critics, outlived his greatest rival Joselito (who was killed by a half-blind bull in 1920) and survived to the age of 70, when he shot himself after being told by his doctor that he could no longer have sex.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3

More articles from: Daniel Hannan | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (1)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Roger Inkpen

April 4th, 2009 9:13pm Report this comment

It’s always worth checking out the Speccie for interesting and provocative comment. Having looked through Rod Liddle’s scathing piece about corruption in the so-called Mother of Parliaments, it’s refreshing to read something by a clear, conviction-led politician.

I’ve no idea of your views of our parliament, although I’m sure you would be the first to condemn corruption in the European parliament and all its other institutions. But let’s face it; you’re wasted in Brussel/Strasbourg, in a pointless institution.

I write as a LibDem – we do have some EU-sceptics – but I wish we could have senior Tory MPs who speak articulately with passion like you do. I’m sure you have an interesting and fulfilling life in Europe, also writing for the Telegraph and Speccie, but surely you must desire a seat in the Commons. Of course no one would wish tragedy on anyone, but when Hague stepped in as deputy after Cameron’s son died, we got a glimpse of what the official opposition could be.

Please don’t waste your life in Europe, Mr Hannan.

Post comment