Socialist and presidential outsider Jack Lang has published a book (Changer), with his proposals for (among other things) political and constitutional reform in France, including 4 year terms for public office, renewable once, and the end of the cumul – the practice of multiple office-holding. Le Figaro discusses.
Month: September 2005
European constitution, RIP
And so, like a fairly distant relative who’s been ill for a long time, the European constitution project is dead. Has to go down as one of Europe’s many wasted opportunities, and it won’t be the last.
Link via Fistful of Euros.
Purcell and doggerel verse
I was listening to Henry Purcell’s Odes and Welcome Songs on the way home. They’re worth a listen if you haven’t – various songs for birthdays, arrivals or general celebrations of the monarchy, plus some for Saint Cecilia’s Day (22 November). As always with Purcell, the English is set beautifully, with accent and quantity always absolutely right. The thing that really strikes you, however, is the ghastly doggerel verse he had to work with – presumably provided by some grovelling royal acolyte.
The most tortured and implausible brown-nosing surely comes in the Ode The Summer’s Absence Unconcern’d We Bear, one chorus of which ends with the lines:
Then would we conclude that our Isle,
Which of old was “the Fortunate” call’d,
Had her name but foretold
By some learned bard, who in times past foreknew
How in ages to come, she’d be happy in you.
What can you do with that? But Purcell sets it absolutely beautifully – what an artist!
Amazon link: Purcell: The Complete Odes and Welcome Songs
