As is inevitable, this reflects partly my speaking notes, partly what I think I said, and partly what I think I ought to have said.
Today is 6 December, the feast day of St Nicholas, so a very important day for children in this country and also an important day for those of us whose name is Nicholas.
St Nicholas, historically, was the bishop of Myra, which is now in Turkey; Myra is mentioned once in the New Testament, in Luke’s record of his landing there with Paul en route to Rome. In the previous verse, it is recorded that they had to sail around Cyprus because the winds were against them. Sometimes that happens.
The film we’ve just seen, Akamas, is set in the time written about by Lawrence Durrell in his famous book, Bitter Lemons: “The days passed in purposeless riots and the screaming of demagogues and commentators; and the nights were busy with the crash of broken glass and the spiteful detonation of small grenades.”
Durrell is of course not a completely honest witness. At the time he was playing a role in the British colonial administration not dissimilar to that played by certain present day officials.
Well doh! THey all look the same at normal zoom (in Ubuntu/Firefox), but when I zoom in, Planck’s one has the bar at an angle. Shame I didn’t think of that before voting.