James Robert Garrood

b. 00:45, 28.iv.2012, London, 8lb 15oz (4.05kg)

James for:
the I&VI, the II&VII, and the III&VIII
The Greater and I suppose the Less
Anna's grandfather, James Beale

Robert for:
Guiscard
Artois (as imagined by Druon)
Oppenheimer
And of course Zimmerman

Though Anna is claiming she just likes the sound of the names.

Bibliography, March 2012

Read: 5
BOTM: D.L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

A.C. Clarke, Tales of ten worlds
A. Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library
D. Meyer, Twenty thousand roads: the ballad of Gram Parsons
O. Pamuk, My name is Red*

I really feel like I have wasted my last free month. I certainly didn't read much, and so I have very little to say -  I'm not sure I was that impressed with  any of them. Pamuk in particular was disappointing - I'd forgotten how slow the beginning is, though it does pick up. BOTM was Gaudy Night, it's held to be her best, and that's deserved. It had some hugely fun writing in it, and even some insight. Plus, it's set in an Oxford college. I doubt it will contend for book of the year though.

We're keeping Easter

The Prime Minister has put out a short, bland, Easter message. It's here: it says some nice things about Jesus, and chooses to avoid some of the trickier elements of the gospel in favour of emphasising the being nice bits. I this that's fairly understandable, and it's quite nice, if a little dull.

Some people don't think it's dull though. On the contrary, they're very annoyed, because apparently he said 'we Christians' and because 'Easter is NOT historically a Christian festival'. There's more sniping on this, but I can't really be bothered to document it all. The Guardian is running a poll on whether Prime Ministers should do God in public, which broadly agrees he shouldn't - though it's not clear how many people have voted (presumably this is a minority interest topic).

This is just silly. It's Easter. Our Prime Minister is a Christian so he puts out a message. He's excited about some other things too, like the Olympics. He used 'we' last week about that too. Precisely no-one complained. He used 'we' in an Easter context because it refers to people who share his views - it's the first person plural. He's not limited to things that everyone believes in because then he couldn't use it for anything. By the way, he put out a passover message as well. He didn't use 'we' then, because - obviously - he's not Jewish. This is entirely unmerited opposition and it's the kind of pontificating that gets secularism a bad name. 

And this is because Easter is so obviously and unambiguously Christian. It's the big one; it's the point of the faith, the apex of the Christian year. I'm not even going to dignify the nonsense that Easter is not historically a Christian festival, which is just flat out wrong. There is no general cultural resonance of Easter; it's not Christmas, where most people worship at the branding triumph of Coca-Cola. You certainly wouldn't have the holiday then otherwise. It's a nightmare: movable, further crowding days off into one section of the year, and to state the obvious again, it's a double bank holiday where people don't have anything special to do unless they go to Church. We're keeping it.

So, if there is something to object to in the public realm, it's Easter bank holidays. Rail against them, and ask for them to be transferred to October. Don't sulk about a Christian marking the Christian festival. That's silly; it's not even worth the anathema.