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www.ilkestonlife.com ILKESTON LIFE November 2021 14

As I see it, by Richard Shaw Letter From America Michael
What kind of debate allows The Forests of Fifth Avenue Rosenblum

us to be ‘kind’?

ollowing the death of Sir will come to argue, not to kiss and Murdered:
FDavid Amess, there has been make up. Whatever else, it has Sir David
a renewed plea for more kindness to be entertaining. And this often Amess
in political debate. But what kind means abrasive. We can lament A way forward
of debate is, by its very nature, footballers fighting on the pitch, but I propose that a debate which is kind
kind? we are also excited by it! and which features genuine listening
A bit of history On the other hand arrangements and the capacity to move between
where representatives sit in a circle
When he first became leader of the can also fail to ignite, perhaps also different perspectives towards a
Tory party, David Cameron said he because of the numbers. How many conclusion which arises out of the
wanted to see an end to ‘Punch and people can actually engage in a extent to which people have allowed
Judy politics’ especially at Prime conversation before it gets too big themselves to be moved would be
Minister’s Questions. He also talked for everyone to be truly heard and so much better than what we have Fith Avenue trees Dale Abbey trees
about ‘The Big Society’ just as Gor- where you need microphones to fa- at the moment. But it would also be e have left Dale Abbey, to be able to get my edition of the
don Brown before him had wanted cilitate this? It also then takes on a very different.
a ‘Big Conversation’ and a cabinet different character. So how doable Party persuasions would be much Wat least temporarily, and FT at the Hilton Hotel, which is
of all talents containing politicians is this? The devolved Assemblies less dominant even if they existed at come back to New York to close across the street from our home.
from all parties. in Scotland or Wales may provide all. For there can only be movement down our Manhattan apartment However, when I went in there a
But David Cameron was soon something of an answer but only the to the extent things are not already in preparation for our perma- few days ago, they told me that
enjoying the knockabout of PMQ’s beginnings of it. ‘fixed’. And this would need to be nent move to England. they no longer carried the FT. In
and proving himself to be rather Whatever the answer, one thing reflected therefore in how politics Due largely to Covid, we have not fact, they no longer carry ANY
good at it! Various people wrote seems clear - kindness requires its proceeds at ‘the grassroots’ as well been back here in New York for a newspapers. “Folks don’t read
articles, or even books, on ‘The Big own form and this is not the form as in the palace of Westminster. rather astonishing eleven months, ‘em,” I was told. The Sheraton
Society’ without ever quite captur- belonging to confrontation. Here too, and at every intermediate during which time we have been Hotel, just up 53rd street was no
ing the spirit of it - if a spirit can be stage, it would need to be more in- living in Dale. Friends in England better. “We don’t sell newspapers
‘captured’. It didn’t catch on and Mood as well as form clusive, more intimate and with that have asked if we miss living in anymore,” the young woman in
the practice seemed as elusive as the Geometry is only part of it however. more workmanlike. Because then New York, to which I have to the gift shop told me. They do still
concept. It is also the manner in which the you would end up with solutions sell candy, soda and an endless
It was much the same with Gordon participants listen to one another. that are closer to the actual needs of answer, no. They also ask if upon supply of I heart NY tourist crap,
Brown’s cabinet of all talents. It This generates a certain mood. It the situation as represented by the our return we will not suddenly however. I finally did find a paper
wasn’t long before it succumbed to also brings a certain intimacy and different perspectives brought. And realize all the reasons why we at the last surviving ‘newsstand’
normal expectations and these al- this is necessary if it is to be mean- this would lead to a response which would prefer to continue living on Sixth Avenue, though the
lowed little room for such diversity. ingful - and productive. Listening is not only closer to what is needed in Manhattan as opposed to Dale vendor told me that hardly any-
Such innovations seem as doomed of itself can generate all this. It but more fully owned by all con- Abbey. one buys newspapers anymore.
as they are desired beyond their is prepared to give ground; it is cerned. This surely would represent Having been here for a week now, He had exactly one copy of the
first faltering steps. They quickly open to new perspectives. This is a step forward. I can firmly say that I am delight- paper. Lucky me. He mostly sold
capitulate to the realities of political completely at odds, and beneficially It may also represent a step from the ed with our decision to move, to candy and soda. “It’s what people
discourse, which seem to be as en- so, with maintaining party political intellect to the mind. In some ways change our lives and to live in a want. No one wants a newspaper
trenched as they are established. differences. A system of whips in these two things are interchange- very different and in my opinion, anymore.” Britain, fortunately,
And yet what was being attempted particular is completely at odds with able; in some they are not. When much better way. Never-the-less, has a long tradition of the printed
here and why is the idea of it revis- this. you ‘mind’ about another’s situation for those who would ask, allow newspaper, and I don’t think it is
ited at moments such as the killing It can also be more productive you bring care and concern into it. me to offer Five Reasons Why Liv- going away any time soon. Ameri-
of Sir David? because the outcome is not so It’s a real human engagement not ing In Dale Abbey Is Better Than ca, not so much.
The forms of kindness predetermined by the government’s just an abstraction. It is more than Living in New York. Reason #3: Exercise.
just the intellect. It is more inwardly
Kindness can take many forms but majority and the procedural impera- engaged and interactive. This brings Reason #1: Cops and Guns This afternoon, taking a break
A few days after we got here,
needs, in the political context at tives which ensure that government us closer to one another and the we decided to go to the movies. from work, (work being sitting in
proposals, with or without amend-
least, to take its own form. It needs subject. front of a video screen all day), I
the right geometry for one thing. A ments, remain more or less intact. However, as already said, all this Movie theaters are just starting to thought I could use some exer-
debating chamber where the parties As things are, you can have your requires involvement down to the open in Manhattan, and the new cise. So, I got into the lift (how
sit opposite and ‘oppose’ each other say but it won’t amount to much, most local level. So this means Bond film was playing at Cinema British I have become in my vocab-
will always have some quality of in all probability, at the end of the you and me. Are we prepared to be 1-2-3 on Third Avenue and 60th, ulary) and went from the 33rd
division about it. And Westminster day. The Government’s intention involved in something that would be just across the street from Bloom- floor where we live to the 8th
traditions and practices emphasise will prevail whether or not it relates as intimate and productive as is here ingdales. The movie was pretty floor, where there is a large gym
this character of division; for exam- to a matter on which the public have envisaged? What is to be practised good, the seats in the theater for use by the residents. I got
ple, the division lobbies for voting previously, directly and knowingly, in Westminster needs first to be are those large reclining ones. Of onto the cross trainer put in my
purposes. voted. practised in each Constituency. Can course, we all wore masks. When earbuds, connected to my ‘books
For whatever reason, sitting across So a ‘debate’ which allowed all we be willing to be a part of this and the movie was over, we exited on tape’ (The Silk Road – highly
from somebody seems naturally to these things - all the things which bring to it all the qualities required, back on the Third Avenue and we recommended) and no sooner
lead to getting cross with them. It’s are otherwise missing or compro- ultimately if not immediately? It is were astonished to see about a had I started than some guy set
like they are opposing armies. On mised - would not be a ‘debate’ at on this that kindness all depends. dozen police cars and about 50 up with the weights, a few feet
suitable and sombre occasions this all. Nor even a discussion, although NYPD cops in front of the theater. away from me. He had brought
can take on a different form and that would be a step in the right A postscript “What’s up?” we asked. Armed his large iPad and propped it up
assume a different mood. But these direction. Rather, it would be a My comments about the Westmin- gunman in Theater #2. We had against the wall. Then, he con-
are the exceptions to the rule. After conversation (we are back with ster Hall Debate (see last issue) may been in #3. Just another day in nected online with his trainer,
that, normal business is readily Gordon Brown’s idea) and we have also have seemed unkind. But this Manhattan. We don’t have armed who was in LA, and began to do
resumed. to pause for a moment to consider was a sterile affair which needed to gunmen in movie theaters in Dale his weight lifting routine with the
Political discourse outside of parlia- the enormity of what this means. be called out as such. Its value was Abbey. trainer giving him (and everyone
ment can likewise only be concil- What it means is a complete trans- in pointing out the things that were Reason #2: Newspapers. else in the room) specific and very
iatory to some extent. Normally formation - actually a revolution missing - interaction, individual I like the FT Weekend edition. In loud instructions on what to lift
the expectation is that the parties but of the gentlest kind. Or of the authorship and authenticity, a real fact, it is my favorite newspaper. and how. We are also all required
represented on a TV or Radio show kindest kind you might say! listening and a relating to what is I am old, so I still like to read a to wear a mask. I did about a half
in the room. Most of all this means printed newspaper at breakfast. hour on the machine (the British
TRADERS... being present and if we are not pres- I have no interest in a digital edi- were just defeating the Spanish
ent in all respects as speakers and
Wish your loyal customers listeners and reflectors and actors tion. I already spend far too much Armada, so it was worth staying
time staring at a screen. In Dale
on for), but at last I could take
A Merry Christmas we may as well not be there at all. Abbey, I can drive or walk on a no more. Now, in Dale Abbey, if I
There is absolutely no point in just
nice day, over to the petrol station
want to exercise, all I have to do is
in next month’s Ilkeston Life going through the motions and being in Kirk Hallam (next to the Captain walk out the door – no waiting for
kind is not just about being cour-
teous. It’s about being genuinely Kirk Fish and Chips Shop) and get the lift. No one to share the space
Tel. 07539 808390 Email sales@ilkestonlife.com interested. my copy of the weekend FT. In with. No LA trainers. In Dale there
Manhattan, before we left, I used are miles and miles of walking