A Don’s Life

Guilty until proved innocent

We do not yet know whether Chris Jefferies is guilty of any crime. He has been arrested on suspicion of murder but, as I write, he has not been charged -- as the headmaster of his old school, Clifton College, has rightly stressed. Even if he had been charged, he would be guilty only when a court had found him so. That's the point of the old "innocent until proved guilty" adage.

But if he is innocent, the press coverage of the last day or so will, nonetheless, have more or less ruined his life; and if he is formally charged, heaven knows what it will have done to his chances of a fair trial. Everything about him has become a target for innuendo and prurient speculation and allegations -- from the colour of his hair to his sexuality, politics, teaching methods and alleged voyeurism. We have no idea which, if any, of these claims are true. But two things are certain: first, 99% of us have no good information on which to judge the reliability of what is being published about this man; second, even if they were true, such claims are not evidence of guilt or innocence  (and, if they were, they should in any case wait to be heard in court, not blazoned over the newspapers).

Maybe suspects often get this kind of press treatment; I dont honestly remember. But I have a feeling that this particular coverage has got something to do with the time of year.

What's wrong with government by petition?

There was huffing and puffing round the breakfast table this morning as we listened to the government's new gimmick -- that successful on-line petitions should get a parliamentary debate, and even made into a bill. The Labour MP (Paul Flynn) had some sensible things to say about the idea... but as the husband pointed out, it's a pity the Labour party hadnt neen more sensible when they started this whole e-petition idea. It was, after all, their gimmick in the first place.

So what IS the matter with the idea?

Well, for a start, it is a veneer of popular power, a substitute touted as the real thing. Mass e-petitioning looks as if it is putting power back into the people's court. But actually it is more likely to give an outlet to the computer-literate, with time on their hands and an axe to grind (which is decidedly skewed sub-category of 'the people'). Remember how the Today programme had to stop it's annual 'person of the year' competition because all kinds of maverick campaigns launched all kinds of very odd people into the top of the list.

Second, it is taking us in the wrong direction in terms of legislative activity. What we need is less legislation, fewer white papers -- not more. That is to say, we need a bit more sense that the solution to every problem is NOT a new law. This e-petition idea risks turning us all into amateur law-makers.

And finally, it turns the complexity of politics into a competition between single issue interest groups (and that in the long term has the effect of taking power away from 'the people' not giving it back). Of course we would all like to save the sparrows and the bees, stop rape, and have a better public transport system . . .  and no doubt you could get 100s of thousands of people to sign up for those causes. But the real politics is not about signing up to some obvious good causes, it's about balancing and prioritising a competing selection of good causes. That's what, for us, the parliamentary process is all about. And anyone who wants to see the fatuity of the petition mode could well study the fruitless Californian system of "propositions" which serve to paralyse more than enhance government.

So far, I guess, so obvious.

But a quick look at the Downing St "petition" site only makes one even gloomier -- if for rather different reasons.

A pig for a present

It is 8.00 in the morning Christmas day, and I havent yet opened my presents which still wait around the tree (above) until the turkey is safely in oven. (There was a minor hiccough last night when a fault in the electronic clock appeared to make it impossible to turn the oven ON... could you grill a turkey in pieces, we started to wonder...? but a bit of fiddling with the buttons sorted the problem.)

But one particular present has already made an impact.

Last Friday the husband texted me in Rome to say that there was a bit of a problem with an unexpected gift which had arrived at college. It was a suckling pig, which would not fit in the freezer.... Vegetarians, please dont read on.

The AA to the rescue

I have been a member of the AA (the motoring organisation, that is!) for goodness knows how many years, but have never made much use of it, and never really believed that it would actually help me out in a crisis. It was different in my childhood, when my Dad wore a metal AA badge on his Morris Minor ('traveller version"), and AA men in brown uniform and on motor bikes (a bit like the one in the picture) would salute as we drove past. I really did believe those guys would zoom to the rescue -- but not this new call-centre, business model version of the AA.

Anyway, the son is about to return to the UK (he is miraculously in the air from Cairo as I write) and the little car he drives turned out to be completely dead when I went to see if it would start (it was not just dead, it was apparently beyond resuscitation... the ignition light didnt even come on). The truth was it hadnt been driven for ages, and indeed had for several weeks been blocked in by the builders' skip, so it couldnt have been given a little run around, even if I had wanted to.

So there was no option but to try the AA (and to take advantage of my Complimentary Home Start).

Tracking down Roman emperors

Being at the American Academy has given my Washington lectures a huge kick start. I've still been spending most of the time in the library, but have been tempted out a few times on the trail of some Roman emperors. Not just ancient ones, I've particulary wanted to track down some of the vast varity of modern ones, and those wonderfully enticing part modern, part ancient ones. You know, those that have some kind of ancient core, but have been refitted, recarved, polished and otherwise titivated into something even better: first century AD by way of Bernini.

So I started Satuday morning with a visit to the Villa Borghese, which must have the most spectacular collection of modern (or partly modern) busts. The marvellous extravagant Augustus at the top (doesnt look like a primus inter pares to me) is seventeenth century, and part of a whole set in the Sala degli Imperatori. And there is another set in the next door room, originally ancient but reset and mounted in the sixteenth century.

After that, I hoofed it to a new display space on the Via del Corso (the site of last week's burning cars and riots) to see a show on eighteenth century classicism at Rome: Cavaceppi terracotta emperors apart, my favourite object, at least for monarchical extravagance, was a classical architecture 'dessert service' designed by Luigi Valdier.

Though I have to say that I'm not sure how it worked or what it was exactly FOR. Dessert service? Is it for the drink or what?

The St Peter's experience

As you know, I am in Rome searching out images of Roman emperors -- and the more unlikely places the better (thank you to those who have sent some great suggestions). One of my key targets are the fifteenth-century doors of St Peter's by Filarete, transferred to the new cathedral when Old St Peter's was demolished. Not only are there two scenes featuring Nero (the martyrdoms pf Peter and Paul at the lowest level), and a whole gallery of Roman imperial heads nestling in the floral borde (you can just see one if you click on the image just below).

So after a visit to the Capitoline Museum on Sunday morning (as the husband was here, I allowed myself a trip out of the library), we made our way over to the Vatican.

It must have been a couple of years since I was at St Peter's. And I hadnt caught up with the fact that security screening had been installed. Getting into the cathedral was like getting into an airport, and about as slow. Only two scanners were working and the queue looked about 90 minutes or more long.

Other people were prepared to suffer for their religion, but not us. So we went off and had lunch.

Pompeii on the television

My Pompeii programme is on BBC 2 on Tuesday at 9.00 pm (except in Scotland, when it is shown on Friday 17th at 9.00). I shall be in Rome, so I won't see it -- though, yes, I have had a preview, and am happy with it. I say what I think, in the way I usually say it; and I look like what I look like, which is above (though, if I am honest, I would say that's a bit too flattering).

So now I shall just have to get a hard skin. Of course, I hope that other people will like it too. But you are not going to please everyone, are you? And they will certainly let it be known.

The American Academy in Rome

When in Rome, I usually stay at the British School in Rome -- a wonderful institution. Please bear in mind, when you decide to knock this idea of "academies abroad", that British Academies are part of a much wider movement -- almost every European country has a foothold in Rome or Athens. There is a Dutch, a Belgian, a French, a German Academy here, and many others. And they do great jobs in working on the whole history of Europe.

Anyway, not this time. Currently, I have a short term placement at the American Academy (on the Janiculan, if you know the place; pictured above). I am here to prepare my lectures for Washington DC in the spring -- when I shall be talking about the '12 Caesars'. My line is going to be that the tradition of representing Roman emperors is worth thinking about beyond the ancient world itself. I am going to be exploring ancient images of emperors (any views on this, please comment) and later ones from the Renaissance, and later.

So I am in the library finding out about how the emperor was portrayed in a range of different locations and times. 

At the same time, I am having a great time in Rome despite hardly having stepped over the threshold of the American Academy. Two good things: first the library (goes without saying); second the food. After what is euphemistically called a fallow period a few years ago, the Academy invested in a "sustainable food" project, masterminded by Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse fame, for those that know that wonderful Berkeley restaurant) . Sod the sustainability, it tastes good. So I am having a 12 hour day in the library, and then tucking in to a great dinner. (The puritans would probably say that I was over provided for.. but, if you want good research, you need decent food.)

Meanwhile, I am listening, from Rome, to gloomy news from the UK. There is not a shadow of doubt that the coalition programme for universities is wrong. What happened in the demonstrations, I dont know (though I suspect that some of my colleagues are in danger of reliving their days of 1960/70s protest... and are really enjoying having an enemy at last, while recounting their tales of 'the kettle'). But listening to Andy Burnham on Any Questions this evening makes me realise that you certainly cant trust the Labour party on this, any more than the rest.

So where are our political allies?

Can black kids get into Cambridge?

I confess, I have escaped to Rome (to the American Academy, on which more later). The idea was to do some of the research which is my job. The truth is that I have spent most of the last 24 hours answering emails and writing references.

Since I left Cambridge, the students has ended their occupation (well done, one and all for keeping our eyes on what will happen to arts and humanities if the con-dem proposals have their way). And then the Guardian had an exposé of how few black students get into Oxbridge.

Can I stick up for us, again. There can be no sensible person who thinks that it is ok that 21 Oxbridge colleges took no black student last year. But before we go down the "Oxbridge snobs arent interested in most of the ordinary kids of this country" route, can we stop to think. Oxbridge bashing is often a convenient alibi for not reflecting on what the bigger problem is... it's easier to dump on racist Oxbridge dons that to fix some of the big things that might be the matter with state education.

Let me put a few points:

1) The figures quoted by the Guardian were about black students; not about ethnic 'minorities' overall ... Asian, Middle Eastern etc. It is true that the number of black Afro-Caribbean students at Cambridge is woefully low, but that is not the case with other ethnic 'minorities'. Obviously it varies from subject to subject, but it is simply not true that Cambridge is a middle class white place. My college (Newnham) came out badly in the number of black students it took, measured by proportion of applicants to places .. but I defy anyone to come and say that it 'feels' white.

Student occupation: the dilemmas

OK -- as the editor and others have pointed out following my last post, having an awful lot of teaching to do is not much of an excuse for failing to get my hands dirty down at the occupation at the Old Schools. ("Where were you when the revolution needed you Beard...?" "Teaching, Sir...")

But that is just one of the paradoxes of this kind of political action.

I mean, if the students are protesting (in part) in order to save the study of Arts and Humanities from the forces of darkness, then there would have been something self destructive in giving up the teaching of said subjects, just to join in at the Senate House.

And especially this week, when I was seeing all the third years for whom I Direct Studies, one by one, as well as checking in with those whose undergraduate theses I am supervising, squeezing in the last essay supervision of the term with everyone else, and making sure that the MPhils got their first assessed essays in in time ... etc etc . (If you ever hear any Mum or Dad complain that their kid is not getting the hands-on treatment at Uni that they expected -- dont believe it; at least not for Classics in Cambridge.)

Anyway, this all coincided with the longlisting meeting for our college junior research fellowship competition -- which meant reading carefully through 218 applications to pick out fewer than 20 to go to the next stage (in the end we have only one position to give). You can do the calculations for yourself. Just imagine I took the bare minimum of 10 minutes per application (and that would have been a cracking pace) -- it would have taken 36 hours solid... Which indeed it did, and more.

But there are other strange anomalies. And the biggest of those is the very nature of the law breaking and transgression that the occupation implies.