What goes round

​+David Watkins (1925 to 2012) was the Labour MP for Consett (1966 - 1983) whose memoir Seventeen Years In Obscurity (The Book Guild, 1996) had this to say about the Zionist lobby in the 1960s: 'In referring to the fascist-like reaction of the Israeli lobby, I use the description deliberately, for their tactics were to destroy anyone who dared to question them. Another MP who was active in support of the Arab cause was Mrs Mary McKay. I saw examples of the obscene hate mail with which she was inundated and which included packets of excreta. A usual tactic was to create trouble between an MP and his or her Constituency Labour Party and there too, she was subjected to a scurrilous campaign.' (p.114)
 
To think that Jeremy Corbyn was only a teenager at the time. Plus ca change!
 
+A fleeting visit to Edinburgh yesterday gave me the chance to visit one or two exhibitions. The Fruitmarket had an impressive show by Ibrahim Mahama, 'Songs about Roses,' which offered the chance, in the words of the handout 'the lens of Ghana's now defunct colonial-era railway network to think through issues of nationhood, citizenship and global exchange.' The railway was built when the country was known as the Gold Coast, which I take to mean gold in whatever form of extraction was to be acquired for the benefit of Britain. So at last here was a show which combined an exposition on the subject of colonialism and something which would appeal to railway buffs! This must be a rare combination. There is something about derelict railway lines and their abandoned accoutrements which I find romantic, as romantic indeed as say the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. But here of course we see the remnants of colonialism, which must suggest a different kind of subservience than that experienced by monks. But I'm willing to bet that the railway generated some pride amongst its servants, railways can have that effect. In many ways this exhibition was a veneration of something that was lost, and possibly may have served a newly independent country if it had not fallen into disuse.
 
A somewhat disturbing part of the exhibition showed the tattooed arms of women, who in the words of the handout 'have worked as studio assistants for Mahama. The tattoos include the women's names, family names and places of origin, in a common practice that allows travelling workers to be identified in case of industrial accidents. Mahama is interested in the way that labour, and the economy it feeds into, can be traced through material means.' I assume that Mahama's female assistants voluntarily agreed to being tattooed, but it seems no men were included. And to talk of tracing things through 'material means' devalues women to the status of mere objects. Perhaps these reflections were intended.
 
Across the road at the City Art Centre the two top floors (which are nearly always closed when I visit) were given over to a show called 'Filo', organized by Karol Radziszewski, all about the queer experience in pre and post Cold War Poland. Filo was the name of a samizdat publication (or 'zine' if you must) circulated in defiance of the regime's distaste for acts of naughtiness (which I think included cross dressing). Naturally exotic erotic imagery featured prominently. All very steamy. But at the entrance was a poster revealing the artist's support for Palestine. Given that the City Art Centre is publicly funded I am surprised that the Zionist lobby hasn't challenged the gallery to remove this egregious mark of such nasty anti-Semitism.
 
After all that a short wander around Scottish landscapes in the new Scottish gallery in the National Gallery, followed by a cooling pint of 'Paolozzi' lager in the Guildford pub - always my last stop before catching the train.