We had been much looking forward to the sequel of The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical – actually, so far as we could tell, very accurately autobiographical – film about her fraught love affair with Anthony (aka Nick Coker), who in the film is depicted as devious and over-ripe and in some way, very ill-defined, involved with the Foreign Office, which indeed the real-life Nick Coker probably was, but we will now never know. It half conveyed how intensely glamorous Anthony/Nick was, so not surprising that his death lives on into her entrée into film-making, where reality merges with art in ways which are highly complex, layered in ways which are probably deliberately puzzling. In Part II, she makes her graduation film. She is having to come to terms with Anthony’s death (he was a heroin addict). She goes to visit his parents, who have lost their only son and is annoyed by Julien Temple’s cavalier attitude to the death of Anthony (Patrick in the film), who had been his closest friend. The film is beautiful, true to someone finding her identity as a film-maker in opposition to her unhelpful tutors, but also, to us at least, unresolved. Maybe that’s the point of the film. True to life.

The best comment in today’s newspapers comes from a Tory (unnamed) in the Independent: ‘It comes down to this – do you feel good about Britain today ? The answer is no. We are a laughing stock on the world stage, we cannot get our shit together in terms of moral leadership, we are looking like a stagnating economy. If you are in the Conservative Party that’s not realising the benefits of Brexit and everything else you’ve promised like a low-tax economy, what the f*** are you selling on the doorstep ?’

We went to the Noguchi exhibition at White Cube in Bermondsey thinking – quite wrongly – that there would not be so much more to learn about his work after the admirable, wide-ranging and informative exhibition at the Barbican. But the late work is wonderful – very free and inventive, particularly the room full of lightweight steel pieces, influenced by origami:-

There was an unexpected surprise in the shop as well:-

I was rung up yesterday and asked about the British Museum’s renovation plans which I know they have been drawing up, but which, I think, haven’t yet been published – the so-called Rosetta Project. It does need doing, not just in terms of the way the museum looks, but also the way the collection is displayed and presented. Under normal circumstances, raising £1 billion might seem unimaginable, but since the government has been happy to fritter away £37 billion on a malfunctioning track and trace system, which has still not been adequately investigated, and is it £8 billion wasted on unused PPE, then £1 billion spent renovating one of the greatest museums in the world feels quite good value. It wouldn’t be that difficult to set up a separate lottery fund to pay for it – or simply double the money allocated to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Something for the Secretary of State to leave as a legacy.

https://www.ft.com/content/c3df170e-b064-448c-8c4e-64977f6bb8cf

For anyone who doesn’t have convenient access to twitter, I recommend the attached tirade:-

So, while the Prime Minister takes a day trip to Blackpool in his private aircraft for a photo opportunity, four of his closest advisors and senior aides, including Munira Mirza, who has worked with him for over a decade, depart 10, Downing Street. Although a clear-out had been promised, it is worth reminding ourselves that these are not staff he inherited, but staff he himself hand-picked to run his Downing Street operation, summoning Martin Reynolds, a diplomat, back from Libya to work for him as his PPS. So although there is talk of ‘getting a grip’ and a reformed Downing Street operation, and much blaming of the civil service in private, the atmosphere of total chaos and dysfunctionality is recent and of this administration’s making: not so much about the structure and lines of command, as Sue Gray suggested, but about the people and how they have operated during the pandemic, no doubt an exceptionally stressful period, but it doesn’t look good if his closest allies have all walked the plank simultaneously, together with Munira Mirza’s carefully restrained, but still effective torpedo letter of resignation.

I feel more than a touch mournful that Rupert Thomas is stepping down from The World of Interiors after a mere 21 years. It seems so recent that he took on what seemed an impossible task – taking over from Min Hogg, the queen of the unknown country house, forgotten, but full of wonders. Rupert Thomas has been more eclectic – more interested in the modern, with a wider range of taste, but still perfectly capable of finding forgotten country house interiors, even if, as sometimes happens, he has to disguise their identity. He will in turn be a hard act to follow, so I can only wish his successor, Hamish Bowles, well in whatever minor modifications he makes, preferably as few as possible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/style/world-of-interiors.html

We were given an Amaryllis for Christmas and over the last month, it has given me the utmost pleasure watching it flower:-

And yesterday:-

As the Sue Gray report sinks in, it is perhaps more striking for what it doesn’t say than what it does. The fault was apparently a failure of leadership: not, note, a failure of management or of the team itself. It was the leadership. Well, who, one then asks, provides the leadership in 10, Downing Street ? It must surely be the leader himself, the man who has always wanted to be king and who Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks is President. It was the fault of the leader. She does not say so, but presumably that is what she thinks needs to be changed.

I have now read Sue Gray’s report (https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21193251/investigation_into_alleged_gatherings_on_government_premises_during_covid_restrictions_-_update.pdf)

What to make of it ? It seems to be the ultimately dry civil service report, doing what was required of it in as limited a way as possible, very severely constrained by the fact of the police investigation which does not allow her to comment in any detail on the gatherings which may or may not have been legal, which is a matter for Scotland Yard. She makes it clear that 10, Downing Street was pandemonium during the pandemic with no clear lines of responsibility and no leadership, but it is not clear whose responsibility this should have been, not apparently either the Prime Minister or the Cabinet Secretary, neither of whom are mentioned.

So, is everyone let off the hook ? Not exactly, because it is now up to the police to decide whether or not some of the gatherings were criminal.

Besides, it surely avoids the key issue. The key issue is whether or not the Prime Minister lied to the House of Commons when he said that there were no parties, when it now transpires there were at least sixteen, several of which he attended.

And did he lie to the House of Commons when he said that he was as shocked as they were when he discovered that parties had been held, when it now transpires that he had attended several of them ?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then, of course, he should resign for having knowingly misled the House. But he is obviously not going to, so it is the duty of MPs to remove him.

Will they ?

It will presumably depend on a calculation as to whether or not his apparently shameless dishonesty will influence the next election and whether or not they can hold up their heads in front of the electorate for having allowed a liar to remain in office.