England

A new exhibition has opened at the British Library that looks at the art and effect of Propaganda as perpetuated by governments across the world. We all know what propaganda is though – don’t we? Obviously it’s the posters put up during WW2 compelling people to sign up to die in a distant land, or stop spreading secrets closer to home. Obviously, its the adverts on telly put out by politicians seeking re-election. Obviously it’s the grand paintings of the past designed to make Monarchs look more regal than they really were. How about postage stamps? Are they propaganda? Well, here in the UK they all carry the image of the head of state, and when affixed to an envelope turn your personal letter into Official Correspondence, to be delivered to the end address by authority of the State. We may be so used to the postage stamp that we don’t give it a second thought, but I lived in a lot of countries with various dictators and Presidents, and there, the image of the Head of State on a stamp was far more pervasive a tool of political control. Every day we transact with propaganda, as we hand over paper currency with all the emblems of State power emblazoned upon them. Currency is probably the most powerful tool of the State, and the iconography used on currency may be decorative, but it is also reminding us who is boss. The British Library exhibition touches on these aspects all too briefly, in a display given over to the larger demonstrations of power and propaganda — the posters. Something that we might not fully realise, is that while a lot of the images are familiar from repetitive use on t-shirts and in books, that belies the sheer impact of the original posters. They are huge. They dominate and breathe down on you as you walk past. Imagine a street full of warning messages instead of exhortations to shop. Then again, in recent years, exhortations to go shopping have themselves been a form of propaganda. Buy things and save the economy from recession! Propaganda can also be more subtle and private though. The theatre of power is a very powerful tool — if you look grand and imposing, people assume you are the sort of person who can make decisions. It’s not without good reason that the Foreign Office was refurbished and returned to their Victorian grandeur during the 1980s. Britain is a power again, and grand buildings humble the supplicants seeking an audience with Ministers. Even 10 Downing Street got a makeover, and while modest, the differences turned a rather shabby 1950s interior into an impressive Georgian House once more. Back to the exhibition, dotted around the place are a load of Antony Gormley-esque mannequins with messages printed on their chests. A number of video screens carry interviews with modern politicians talking about the propaganda power of the London 2012 Olympics. I live on the Isle of Dogs, and the “Back the Bid” campaign was unsettling in how it was emblazoned everywhere. Posters hanging from street lamps, DLR stations bedecked in massive adverts, and everywhere messages to send a text message supporting the bid. Support the bid — or else. Have you noticed how most posters from TfL carry the Mayor of London slogan on them? Never forget who is in charge. An exhibition that has largely focused on elements of propaganda that we might nod at and agree with, ends with health scares. Is John Hurt’s memorable voiceover on the AIDS adverts just a health message, or were there moral undertones — government seeking to influence morality though a scary advert?. Eat healthy food, keep fit, avoid consumption, obey, obey, obey. Most of the health messages are eminently sensible, but also they remind you that Government Knows Best. You shall obey the government. We may be more questioning today of government messages, but politicians will never fall out of love of reminding us how we rely on their largess for all the good things in our li

Arsenal had Laurent Koscielny to thank as the Frenchman's second half goal was enough to see the Gunners clinch fourth spot and a Champions League berth. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

Norwich City collected a superb away win at the Etihad Stadium to secure an 11th place finish in the table. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

A Gareth Bale stunner was not enough to help his side to a top four finish as Arsenal triumphed at St James' Park. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

Fernando Torres ended his Premier League goal drought as Chelsea edged past Everton. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

White Hart Lane wing wizard scores another cracker but it's not enough to secure a top four finish on the final day of the season. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final Tottenham 1 - 0 Sunderland # Super Goal Gareth Bale by Cataloni Upload

So close to scoring on an emotional day for the one-club man. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final Jamie Carragher Thunder Strike vs QPR by lfmostar

A Romelu Lukaku hat-trick saw West Brom battle back from the death to secure an amazing 5-5 draw. Check in to Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich - 2013 UEFA Champions League Final

Woolwich is a step closer to getting on the Crossrail map, as Greenwich Council and Berkeley Homes have now pencilled in a deal on how the station will be paid for. Transport for London’s board will consider the deal at a meeting this Thursday. Crossrail, due to begin service in 2018, will link Maidenhead and Heathrow Airport in the west with Paddington, the West End, the City, Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood. Berkeley Homes has already paid £25m for the station box – essentially, the hole in the ground – to be built. But even though the box was completed in February, a deal between Greenwich, Berkeley Homes, TfL and the Government to find the £100m needed to fit out the the station hadn’t been. Neither TfL nor the Government were willing to add to the costs of Crossrail, while Berkeley had been reluctant to pay any more towards the station, despite the huge profits it is likely to make out of its Royal Arsenal development. Now TfL board papers reveal: “Following extensive negotiations a package for the overall capital cost of the works has now been agreed in principle. “This sees significant contributions from the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Berkeley Homes, supplementing existing TfL and CRL budgets, to meet the overall capital cost of the works. “The detailed terms of funding agreements with these parties are currently being finalised and are expected to be concluded by the end of June 2013.” The outline deal follows Greenwich Council granting Berkeley planning permission for 21-storey tower blocks in the Royal Arsenal last month, while its chairman Tony Pidgeley recently joined Boris Johnson on a trip to the Middle East. The details are currently confidential, and it remains to be seen how Greenwich will raise the funds to pay for its contribution. With the four-year-old DLR extension to Woolwich nearly overwhelmed by demand, the council will rightly see the deal as a triumph – originally the Crossrail link was to pass under Woolwich without stopping, until lobbying from leader Chris Roberts and MP Nick Raynsford forced a rethink. But as always, the devil’s in the detail. While Greenwich is sitting on large cash reserves, it is believed the council is unwilling to use those to pay for the station, which could lead to other parts of the borough losing out so Woolwich can gain. Watch this space… (Thanks to the anonymous tipster who alerted me to this story.)

The photos above and below show the work of Thames 21 - the environmental charity that works to clean up the River Thames. They were working with the local Army Cadet unit to remove shopping trollies and other detritus from the mud at low tide this Sunday morning. There was a very good turn out of local volunteers to help in the clean up works.It seems that unexploded WWII bombs are a bit like buses – you wait ages without seeing any, then two turn up at once. Last week two dummy practice shells were unearthed by demolition contractors on the Larner Road Estate site, and this week two unexploded bombs were discovered on the Tarmac Construction site in Church Manor Way. These were real explosive devices, and they were made safe by the Army. As I mentioned last week, it is a constant source of amazement to me that not more ordnance is uncovered. The whole of the East and South East of London was utterly plastered in explosives by the Luftwaffe during World War 2, many of which failed to detonate. This failure to detonate was down to a number of reasons; earlier on in the war, most bomb fuses were electro mechanical, and quite often the vibration of being loaded and carried on a bomber would cause the mechanical part of the fuse to jam. Later, as the fuse designs improved and became more reliable, some bomb fuses were designed with a user set delay before they detonated; the Nazis correctly surmised that an unexploded bomb could cause even more disruption and diversion of resources than one that went off immediately, as proved to be the case. Later in the war, the reason for bomb failures changed again; as the Nazis retreated after the Normandy D-Day invasion, they drew much of their manufacturing East, and into the heart of Germany. Most of their established armament factories had been bombed by the Allies, and they resorted to constructing giant weapons factories in caves and old salt mines. These were mainly staffed by slave labour – prisoners from the Russian front and concentration camp inmates. The work regimes were brutal, and many died in the arms factories. Ironically the use of slave labour backfired, as there are many documented instances of sabotage caused by the slaves – things like tiny pieces of cardboard slipped into the electrical arming switch of the bomb fuse, making it unable to complete the circuit and detonate. The Imperial War Museum has a display of WWII German bomb fuses, including a couple of ones that were deliberately sabotaged at the point of manufacture. If you want to find out more about bomb disposal in and around London during WWII, you could do far worse than ordering a copy of the classic 1979 ITV drama series “Danger UXB”. The stories in the series were fictional, but the bombs, the fuse types and the techniques used to render them safe were 100% technically accurate, as the series advisor was a former Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) officer. The bombs “defused” in the series were not props, they were real German bombs from the war that had been made safe. The series really was superb. More on this further down this weeks’ post...One of my local sources attended the comedy evening at The Running Horses last Bank Holiday weekend. He said that the event was very good indeed, and better attended than he anticipated. A couple of people had come all the way from Greenwich to attend. Unfortunately I could not make it, but would like to go along to a future comedy evening at the pub. You can see their website by clicking here. The next comedy night is on Sunday the 2nd of June, which is also the day of the 2013 Erith Riverside Festival - do mark it on your calendar.Some good news is being reported by the News Shopper; amongst all the doom, gloom and conflict that the ongoing story of the Thames Crossing story is currently generating, another far more positive story has come to light. Frank’s Park, which joins Erith and Belvedere has had a new cycling trail opened. It is part of the Green Chain